A Vision for L.A. Schools

Supt. Ruben Zacarias, now seven months on the job, has outlined an ambitious vision for Los Angeles’ public schools. Whether he can turn that vision to reality depends on many factors, including his own level of determination, and whether the school unions give him substantial support.

His goals, expressed in what amounted to a State of the Schools speech last Thursday, include raising test scores by 25%, ensuring that every third grader reads at grade level, ending so-called social promotions (in which students are passed to the next grade without doing passing work), speeding up the transition from bilingual education to mainstream classes, helping the wave of new teachers learn their craft and increasing accountability throughout the system.

His agenda is impressive but short on details about how to accomplish these major improvements over the next four years. Without strong cooperation from the powerful unions--a sea change in the school district’s culture that would make children matter more than adults--his blueprint will become another unfulfilled wish list.

Zacarias lacks the authority of a chief executive officer who can get things done quickly by giving orders, setting priorities, handing out rewards or assigning punitive sanctions. For instance, although the superintendent can force reassignment of principals, the union protections are so onerous it is a step seldom attempted.

Zacarias should be able to send the strongest principals to the most troubled schools, the best teachers to the lowest-performing classrooms. He should be able to pull ineffective teachers out of the classroom and remove weak principals who don’t have the skills to lead a school to success. But in the Los Angeles Unified School District, no such reform can take place without the express consent of the unions that represent the teachers and the principals, the very same politically connected unions that helped many school board members get elected.

Are the unions willing to give the superintendent more flexibility? For example, Zacarias likes the concept of rewards for strong performance, such as merit pay and bonuses. Can the unions accept that? The unions’ leaders will have to respond.

Zacarias, with much prodding from reform leaders and public opinion, has shown that he understands what has to be done. The school board and the employees of the district have said they share his desire for reform. The words must be backed up with action.