Fixing L.A. schools may be mayor's shot at a legacy

Antonio Villaraigosa's first three years of his four-year mayoral term have been fine.

[Concerned Citizen]

The Mayor may be just fine, but one of the reasons to criticize him is NOT taking his third trip in office, the first in exactly a year, abroad for a week, if you look at other Mayors. Even other Councilmembers (Smith and OTHER Councilmembers' staffers are abroad for a month in six countries, studying garbage), like tax-and-spend Hahn, LaBonge, travel to many countries every year -- and they've all been to Israel, incl. two of the Hispanic Councilmembers. It served to highlight the importance of international terrorism and water conservation/ solar and desalination to LA.

He has a good staff who handles things -- people choose to forget that no high official does much of the detail stuff. He's briefed on a lot and relies on a host of Deputy Mayors and Chief of Staff. He DOES have Energizer Bunny energy, which was a big deal after "lackluster Jimmy Hahn," and He's got the support of a broad spectrum of the city, from the "liberal elite," to various ethnic groups.
The schools he chose are so bad, less than 5& of students are proficient in English and only ONE percent in math. So any significant improvement will be something, plus just the fact that he's finally got UTLA on board to take a chance, however reluctantly. Of course, this doesn't make up for the fact that the middle and "wealthy" westside has lost all its schools save a handful of elem. ones to busing, so they're also 3/4 below the poverty line with gangs, etc., so that locals can't go there and must go to private schools.

When everyone has a local school that is safe and good enough to attract the local community back, THEN the schools will be an important marker. I see no movement in that direction from the PC LAUSD or UTLA, which only care about the poorest schools -- which, like the Mayor's cluster, are 90% Latino with many illegals. BUT you have to hand it to him, he didn't shy from the challenge.
Let's see him challenge himself to maintain quality of life for ALL the people, including the angry middle class, seniors and young couples who are educated citizens but can't afford a home - the people who've made L A what it is -- as well as the poor and illegal immigrants. If we lose these people, no amount of effort and money will "save" L A just by pulling up the uneducated poor and their kids. The middle class need the good public schools, parks, hospitals and services that they've paid for, and which other cities in America have.

His best shot at making a mark remains public safety, where with the very big exception of gangs (the illegal problem figures in here big again), Bratton has done a lot with a small force. They all have to stop being tone-deaf on the illegal issue -- every time he tells ICE to back off, he loses votes. Sure, maybe they "just come here to work," but there are strict laws governing LEGAL immigration, and the mass influx we've had of uneducated people who don't know or learn English have created the disastrous schools, healthcare and overburdened bus system he's now trying to fix.(The only thing in his behalf on this is that the Hahns were/ are worse, as is Gavin Newsom in San Fran.)

Antonio needs to give the lackluster Waxman a kick in the butt on the fed financing of mass transit issue, to help make up for working with Zev to put us so far behind. We need to get back some of the $2 billion in surplus gas taxes approved by voters for Transportation fixes, that Sacramento stole this year and last.(WHERE HAVE THE PAPERS BEEN ON THAT HUGE ISSUE? oh, yeah, playing paparazzi over Mirthala when last summer's theft occurred. What's the Daily News' excuse this year? At least, stop editorializing AGAINST mass trasnit like "subway to the sea" and Expo II, two decades overdue.)

No one on the horizon could beat the Mayor (including millionaire Caruso, whose claim to fame is building traffic-generating malls, a boon to Glendale but a bane to Brentwood or Sherman Oaks). But he's got his work cut out for him, and fast.

[fedUpinLA]

Puleeze!!! This mayor is not "fine"...he's a disaster! He has sent engraved invitations to the entire third world population of his beloved Mexico to 'come to LA'...the land of the
"free(bies)!!!!

He has allowed the gangs to flourish and multiply...along with millions of anchor babies. He has squandered the largest windfall revenues in the HISTORY of L.A.! He doesn't have a staff...he has a royal entourage. He has spent half of his time traveling with his royal entourage all over the country campaigning for a presidential candidate, while ignoring his duties to the CITIZENS of this city.

He threw our own LAPD under the bus after the MacArthur Park melee...soliciting every day on radio and tv for 'anyone injured by the LAPD...to PLEASE, PLEASE come forward and file a report against the city and the LAPD. And guess what...they came forward...300 of them! We now face a class action suit of 300 Mexicans, mostly illegal, who will be going for our wallets again!
(I haven't heard any recent reporting on this lawsuit...but the fact is...he BEGGED HIS PEOPLE to come forward!!!)

Gang crime is way up since he took office...way, way up! And the schools are a disaster...third from the bottom, nationally.

No one speaks English anymore, and the neighborhoods are now Mexican landfills.

Legacy...what legacy??? We can only hope and pray that he doesn't get 4 more years...it will translate into 4M more third world Mexican illegal peasants and their litters of anchor babies!

[Walter Moore]

Villaraigosa's three-year reign has been "OK?"
Wow!
If the past three years have been okay, I'd hate to see what it takes to qualify for "disaster!"
Talk about setting the bar low!

[surfwidow]

Concerned Citizen. The mayor is an illegal-lovin' idiot who values anti-american racist hate groups (La Raza & MEcHA) are you sleeping with him too??! Sounds like to me. He should run for office...in MEXICO!

[WestValGal]

The mayor had no business messing around with the schools.

His showmanship power grab will be about as successful as his not controlling the gang problem; not filling of potholes; not cleaning our toilets; planting 10,000 missing trees; his four failed attempts at passing the bar exam; his failure to put 10,000 cops on the street; not unsnarling traffic; keeping his own marriage in tact; not preparing for the economic crunch he was repeatedly warned was coming; and everything else he's not done.

He couldn't even back the right Democratic presidential candidate or keep an illicit affair a secret.

His only successes, from his point of view, have been getting his photo taken a zillion times; providing protection for illegal aliens; lining the pockets of his rich developer friends; making L.A. the number one sanctuary city in the country; and playing pat-a-cake with the big shots in Sacramento to pave the way for him becoming governor.

He also has the dubious distinction of being out of town more than any other mayor in L.A.'s history.

[la city]

The whole city is behind you, Antonio.

[X-DEM]

Fixing the schools! Give me a break! No mayor of Los Angeles has "fixed" the schools in many many generations. Why do you think that this Mexico loving mayor would be any different? He gets his PAC money from the unions who make the schools the worse in the nation. Tony Villar isn't going to upset the apple cart! Tony's legacy is his broken marriage and the many offsprings and abortions he has contributed to!