L.A.’s Mayor Gets Tutorial On New York’s School System
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The mayor of Los Angeles, who is trying to wrest control of his city’s schools in much the same way Mayor Bloomberg did here, got a tutorial on the New York City school system.
Antonio Villaraigosa met with key education officials, including Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, in the Big Apple yesterday.
The visit was an interesting political twist, given that Mr. Villaraigosa is a longtime friend of Mr. Bloomberg’s challenger from the last election, Fernando Ferrer.
After winning his election last year, however, Mr. Villaraigosa, the first Hispanic mayor elected in Los Angeles since the 19th century, did not, campaign with Mr. Ferrer, who was trying to become the first Hispanic mayor of New York.
Yesterday, he denied that he had urged the Reverend Al Sharpton to endorse Mr. Ferrer, as one paper had reported.
Messrs. Bloomberg and Villaraigosa appeared together at P.S. 282 in Park Slope and had only praise for each other. At a news conference, they took turns speaking Spanish, and at one point Mr. Villaraigosa jokingly referred to Mr. Bloomberg as “Miguel.”
Mr. Bloomberg said he believes Mr. Villaraigosa “will be an agent for change and stand up and fight the political establishment.”
Mr. Villaraigosa, who had breakfast yesterday with the head of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said change could not happen overnight, but that he wanted to learn from Mr. Bloomberg’s model.
“I did not come here looking for a silver bullet, a quick fix, or a magic wand,” he said. “I think Joel Klein could tell you, turning around a school district is no easy proposition, there’s a culture, a bureaucracy that needs to change.’
One challenge he faces is that the Los Angeles schools system extends beyond the geographical region that elected him.
When asked about giving up some of the control he won of the school system, Mr. Bloomberg said: “I think that if you want to destroy the progress that’s as good a prescription as any. Accountability has to be accountability.”
The two said they would also be working together on gun control issues. Mr. Bloomberg has for months been calling on the federal government to strengthen gun control regulations.
