Mayor Lays Out Plan for Schools

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In his first State of the City speech Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called on the city’s business community to lend support to his plan for taking control over the Los Angeles Unified School District.


Speaking at the Accelerated Charter School in South L.A., Villaraigosa said he would restructure the school district by giving the mayors of L.A. and other cities in the district more say in running the schools and to hire a superintendent who in turn would have the power to hire and fire top administrators. He also called for lengthening the school day and year and for more vocational education.


To convince the state Legislature, teachers and other cities to give him more control over the school district, Villaraigosa said he needed support from the business community, saying that the region’s future workforce was on the line.


“I can’t say it any plainer,” he said. “We can’t be a great global city if we lose half of our workforce before they graduate from high school.”


In his 30-minute speech, Villaraigosa also said he plans to create a rapid response unit of traffic officers to help untangle gridlocked streets and to reduce air pollution at the Port of Los Angeles. “We’re committed to growing our port, the engine of our economy, but growing it green,” he said.


Villaraigosa also called upon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature to pass an infrastructure bond. Last month, negotiations over a multibillion dollar bond package broke down amidst partisan squabbling and concerns from fiscal conservative legislators.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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