Schools and the Mayor Can Mix

It’s true. The mayor of Los Angeles has no direct control over city schools. Yet voters consistently list education among their top concerns and vote for the candidate who they think can help. Sometimes, a reason is not an excuse.

Richard Riordan, in office from 1993 to 2001, gave us a clue as to what an energized mayor committed to education reform could accomplish, sans official portfolio. We’d like Mayor James K. Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa to spell out what they would do -- what they believe they could do.

Beefing up city-sponsored after-school programs -- Hahn’s sole first-term education claim -- isn’t enough. His predecessor, Riordan, did the same without the fanfare, as part of a much bigger agenda.

The mayor ought to have more than a passing acquaintance with Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer.

He should use his bully pulpit to prod businesses, churches, community groups and city agencies to critique and sponsor schools and mentor kids. He ought to have enough social savvy to tap the wealth of this city’s entertainment, philanthropic and corporate sectors on behalf of education. He should creatively link schools with neighborhoods and work on ways to keep more campuses open after-hours as community resources.

In short, the mayor needs to be a visionary advocate, willing to press for radical change and engage a cynical populace on behalf of the struggling school system.

That would require fearlessness, maneuvering beyond the rules and some flexing of muscle.

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Woo, Shame, Fight

It won’t be easy. Mayors in Chicago, New York and other big cities have power over schools built into their jobs; they can force wholesale change almost by fiat.

Riordan at least thought big and tapped his business cronies to fund campaigns that gave the school board a progressive majority, which hired Romer and adopted reforms that led to test-score gains. Romer muscled through a building boom that created thousands of new classroom seats.

That progressive majority no longer exists, and Los Angeles’ mayor ought to be hectoring a school board -- with its union lackeys and political climbers -- that can dither for hours over how long meetings should last, but can’t make a decision about helping high schools that are so bad only one in 10 students is proficient in math.

A mayor should campaign to get teachers, and particularly their union, to stop blocking change and lead the charge. Woo them, shame them, fight them when necessary.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offers another model of outsider power. He is pushing for constitutional reforms that would dilute union seniority rules and give school districts broader powers to assign teachers where they are most needed and boost pay for merit and for willingness to serve in the toughest schools.

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Allies and Work-Arounds

The mayor who lifts L.A.’s sagging schools will be one who sees the big picture and is willing to go it alone. School district leaders like to talk about buy-in. And stakeholders. And endlessly waiting for consensus. What they don’t like to talk about is schools where half the kids drop out and eight of 10 can barely read.

The mayor needs to force that conversation, to make clear that students come first and obstacles to their success will be moved. He can ally with the governor, legislative leaders and other mayors to push for change. And funding.

After all, some of the most successful recent school reforms came into being over the objection of education leaders.

State-mandated class-size reductions that limit lower grades to 20 students were bemoaned because they were implemented without years of planning. The structured, successful Open Court reading instruction program pushed through by Romer and approved by the Riordan-backed school board was criticized by the teachers union as stifling creativity. The voter-mandated switch from bilingual to English-language instruction for immigrant kids is still being fought by the bilingual lobby and its beholden politicians. Yet these three changes have combined to produce dramatic achievement gains for elementary students.

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Crank Up the Spotlight

Now, the district’s failing middle and high schools need triage. Dozens are at a crossroads; under tough new federal accountability provisions, they must restructure, be turned into charter schools or be taken over by the state or private companies. Their teachers and principals are pleading for help, but board members, reluctant to shake things up, drone on about respecting the union, the teachers and the superintendent. The next mayor ought to model a boldness that makes them ashamed of that kind of timid buck-passing.

The school board and the district’s unions have been happy to operate out of the public glare. A mayor has a spotlight and should keep it turned on schools, even when he’s told it’s not his business.

There is no magic bullet to fix Los Angeles’ ailing schools, still suffering from years of underfunding, overcrowding, low expectations and neglect. But the mayor can get out in front to lobby for private, state and federal money. He can help loosen strictures that hobble schools and promote innovations that help them.

He can be the chief advocate for a constituency that can’t vote -- Los Angeles Unified’s 750,000 students -- knowing that many of their parents can, and are desperate for a powerful ally.