Mr. Mayor's LAUSD Powergrab is Tossed

Judge tosses out mayor's takeover of L.A. schools
A law giving Villaraigosa control over some campuses violates state Constitution, jurist says.
By Howard Blume and Joel Rubin
Times Staff Writers

December 22, 2006

A Superior Court judge Thursday struck down legislation that gave Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District, a stunning setback to his plans for assuming direct control of dozens of Los Angeles schools.

Judge Dzintra Janavs said the law, which would have taken effect Jan. 1, violated multiple provisions of the state Constitution and the Los Angeles City Charter. She ordered public officials "to refrain from enforcing or implementing" any part of Assembly Bill 1381, which codified Villaraigosa's powers.

The full story is here.

The best thing to do at this point would be to break up the LAUSD using a mechanism like AB 2071 proposed by Assemblyman Keith Richman last year. If the Mayor is sincere about wanting to affect schools or implement reforms in a high profile way, he could work with the district to establish charter schools – taking a high school and all of its feeder schools. Such a proposal would not have to mean that unions are “out of luck” because a charter could include a provision to honor the UTLA union contract within all of the charters; having said that, if I were Mayor Villaraigosa I would want my charter to be non-union. Such a plan, however, would not allow the Mayor to control the hiring of the Superintendent and therefore would reduce his influence over $19 billion dollars in school construction contracts.