What’s a Mayor to Do?

My father lives in Los Angeles. On a recent trip to visit him he asked me if I had heard about the Mayor of LA wanting to take over the public school system. I hadn’t heard about it.

It seems the mayor isn’t happy about the school system (one of the largest in the US). It appears the Mayor tried to take over and that got some people upset (OK – more then upset). In a compromise proposal the Mayor suggested he take over the budget for the school system and leave the curriculum and instruction part in the hands of educators.

What is really going on here? What could the mayor do to help the school system? And what would having control of the purse strings do to help?

Maybe the Mayor wanted to get in there before something like this happened:

California’s Low-Income Schools to Get High-Tech Windfall
More than $400 million from a 2004 settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft will be used for technology education.
By Arin Gencer, Times Staff Writer
July 27, 2006

Maybe the Mayor wanted to get his hands on the money from the Microsoft settlement?

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Seriously, the education system is in trouble. But what makes things worse in my mind is people that can actually make a difference seem to find ways to become even more adversarial then they already are. What if the Mayor went to the school system and the teachers union and tried to find a way to work with them to overcome the challenges they all face?

Maybe the mayor’s recent appointment of a ‘deputy mayor for education’ will help?

Mayor set to appoint new schools aide to ease takeover bid
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – In his bid for more power over public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to appoint a veteran educator to a post designed to ease tensions between City Hall and public school officials opposed to the plan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Seems to me if the Mayor is going to be the leader he wants to be he needs to get everyone to work together as if they are on the same team.

There Really is NO One Right Answer