The mayor’s choice

ONE ASPECT OF Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s otherwise muddled plan to take partial control of the Los Angeles Unified School District has real merit: his oversight of three of the city’s worst-performing high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.

Though running a few dozen schools doesn’t necessarily prove anything about a mayor’s ability to govern a giant bureaucracy with more than 700,000 students, Villaraigosa’s demonstration project could show how mayoral control of schools might work. And the mayor’s proven ability to raise money and awaken community spirit could bring funds, attention and optimism to teachers and students who need all three.

The process of picking the schools, however, is rife with complications and politics. All the schools -- the high schools and the feeder schools -- must lie within city boundaries. But nothing is ever straightforward about the L.A. school district; its feeder system resembles a rabbit’s warren. Many middle schools send their students to three different high schools, only one of which might be run by the mayor. The Valley, though it doesn’t have any of the real bottom-dwellers among its schools, understandably wants the mayor to perform some of his magic there, while other groups want their own sprinkling of mayoral goodies.

Villaraigosa cannot ignore these concerns entirely. But he must resist the temptation to place specific constituencies over children with the greatest needs, or to pick the low-hanging fruit -- the schools that would be easier to improve or are doing so without his help.

Under the law, 19 of the city’s high schools qualify as troubled enough to merit mayoral takeover. But some of those schools are already doing a relatively good job of sending students to college or improving their scores. Roosevelt High School, the mayor’s alma mater, has been steadily if slowly improving over the last few years. Its scores are fairly close to that of other schools statewide with similar student populations.

Villaraigosa should commit to choosing at least one of his high schools from among the three lowest performers, based on their scores, lack of consistent improvement and how they rank relative to similar schools. The most recent state and district data indicate those schools are Locke, Jefferson and Jordan.

All these schools face intractable problems both on campus and in the neighborhoods that surround them. They sorely need resources and attention. One of the most attractive aspects of mayoral school governance is that a mayor can meld social services, policing and community refurbishment with an educational mission. Nothing less will turn these schools around.