Villaraigosa parts ways with Brown on education issues in CALmatters interview
LA School Report | April 22, 2016
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Antonio Villaraigosa
By Judy Lin | CALmatters
As he eyes a run for governor, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is spotlighting the lagging academic performance of Latino and African American students and saying the state should do more to hold schools accountable.
The 63-year-old Democrat says parents have a right to know how their schools are doing, and he doesn’t see a contradiction between supporting teachers and holding schools to higher standards.
Villaraigosa, who got into politics as a union organizer for teachers in Los Angeles, did not want to criticize the governor, but his comments differed sharply from Gov. Jerry Brown’s view that the academic performance gap between African Americans and Latinos to other student groups is likely to persist despite government interventions. Brown told CALmatters recently that he doesn’t want his key education policy, the Local Control Funding Formula, to be judged on whether it closes that gap.
“I hear all the time, ‘Well, that’s just the way it is and that’s the way it’s always been,’” said Villaraigosa, who was kicked out of a Catholic high school and credits public schools for a second chance.
Click here for the full CALmatters story.
Read LA School Report‘s interview with Villaraigosa here.