Jeff Bergosh Blog: Democrat L.A. Mayor's Education Initiatives Look Pretty Conservative....

Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Democrat L.A. Mayor's Education Initiatives Look Pretty Conservative....

And this guy is a Democrat??

Rock-Star Popular Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is planning a series of vigorous reforms of the struggling LA Public School System, outlined in today's LA Times.

From the article:

"In his sixth State of the City address Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will turn his sights to education and call for throwing out the telephone-book sized teachers contract as a fundamental strategy for reforming the state's largest public school system....Villaraigosa's remarks offer his latest challenge to United Teachers Los Angeles, for which he once worked. In a December address he called UTLA 'one unwavering roadblock to reform'...The mayor believes the new contract should include a teacher evaluation system that is based, at least in part, on student test scores...Villaraigosa also reiterated his call for changing rules that grant virtually automatic tenure to teachers after two years. And he asserted the need to alter the quality-blind "last in, first out" seniority rules that govern who is laid off during budget-related cutbacks."

Some of these ideas sound familiar--a lot like our Governor and Legislators' proposals here in Florida. Maybe it's not just the evil Republicans that the NEA and AFT need to worry about....