In L.A. Unified, the Mayor Is Watching

Los Angeles schools superintendent Ruben Zacarias wasn’t alone behind the podium when he delivered his state of the district speech.

A specter stood beside him, visible only to those who understand the tangled web of politics that governs the Los Angeles Unified School District. That specter was Richard Riordan.

Of course, Riordan-in-the-flesh was somewhere else, being mayor. But I found it impossible not to imagine his presence at the Board of Education headquarters Thursday afternoon, weighing every Zacarias word, wondering whether the superintendent is truly committed to the blood, sweat and tears regime Riordan wants for L.A. Unified.

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Zacarias appeared energetic, every bit the man in charge as he gave a report on his first seven months in office. His voice was vigorous, although hoarse from a cold. He spoke from notes, but without hesitation.

Yet while he wore the stern face of a man ready for battle, his speech was full of sunshine and positive thinking. Absent was Riordan’s tone of grim determination.

Although Zacarias steadfastly maintained he and Riordan were conducting from the same score, there was an important difference when the superintendent brought up the subject of “accountability.”

This is a fashionable phrase in today’s public education. All it means is that principals and teachers should be held accountable for failures and successes in their schools. If the school is a mess, get a new principal. If the class is a mess, get a new teacher. If teachers or principals are doing great work, give them an extra raise or promotion.

This idea is common in most other areas of life. But it is a new and controversial concept in public education, viewed suspiciously by the politically powerful teachers and principals unions.

Figuring he’ll need union support to put in an accountability system, Zacarias said, “I have the highest regard for our bargaining units. They care. We’ll work it out.”

“Work it out” is a phrase certain to make Riordan mad, for it implies delay and compromise. Moreover, Riordan sees unions as necessary evils. In his heart, he really doesn’t understand why we need them. Most important, he believes the teachers and principals unions are major obstacles to school reform.

Nor would Riordan have liked it when Zacarias said “accountability means different things to different people” and that defining it “is not going to be an easy task.”

The mayor hates hearing that something is “not an easy task.” His motto is: “If you can’t do it, I’ll find someone who can.”

Finally, there was Zacarias’ remark about the Chicago school district. The superintendent said he will end “social promotions” of kids with bad grades, but do it better than Chicago. Chicago, he said, is “having nightmares” ending such promotions.

That was like saying, “Take that, mayor.” For Riordan both admires and envies Chicago’s system and Mayor Richard Daley’s power to run the city’s schools.

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Many in the audience of school officials, teachers, parents and community leaders must have been having the same thoughts I was. They all knew Riordan’s opinions.

They knew what he said about the Los Angeles school system, that “we need a revolution and sometimes revolutions have to be bloody.”

School board members in the room certainly recalled the time Riordan described them as lacking “the mental equipment, the experience equipment, to run it right.”

Board members and Zacarias were also aware of the presence in the front row of Mike Roos, a former state assemblyman who heads LEARN, an educational reform organization backed by some of the area’s leading businesses. The business bosses, strongly allied with Riordan, believe the school district can’t produce the skilled workers needed for an economy based on technology.

Roos shouted out a loud “yes” at one of Zacarias’ reform proposals. But if Zacarias and the school board can’t do the job, expect Riordan, Roos and corporate L.A. to move on their own.

One possibility would be for them to try to persuade the Legislature and governor to give the Los Angeles mayor power over the school district. A second would be to ask voters to approve a charter reform making the school board more representative of the city. The most drastic would be a new law breaking up the giant district.

These are the specters that will follow him as he goes about his difficult job.