Posted on 12/10/2010 9:21:18 PM PST by bruinbirdman
In a speech to state leaders, the mayor brands United Teachers Los Angeles as an obstacle to reform as the city stands at 'a critical crossroads.'
With a hard-hitting speech that branded the city's teachers union as an unyielding obstruction to education reforms, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa set the stage this week for a new battle over control of the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest.
In a Sacramento address to state leaders, Villaraigosa — himself a longtime teachers union employee before launching a career in public office — declared that education in Los Angeles stands at "a critical crossroads," and he assailed United Teachers Los Angeles for resisting change.
During the last five years, the mayor said, union leaders have stood as "one unwavering roadblock to reform." He called for change in contentious areas such as tenure, teacher evaluations and seniority — all volatile arenas in which teachers unions have balked at proposals for reform as eroding their rights.
"At every step of the way, when Los Angeles was coming together to effect real change in our public schools, UTLA was there to fight against the change and slow the pace of reform," Villaraigosa declared at a forum of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. . . .
The elected left will be forced to throw the unions under the bus.
Their core principals lean toward the poor and lazy...just one notch above the unions.
Looks like he’s been reading the Tea Party leaves on the wall...
When Aaaarrrrrnnnaaaallld tried to reign in the Unions in the 2005 propositions the voters turned it all down. This emboldened the Unions so here we are in 2010. Now the Dem leaders wish to do the same. Ratfight ahead.
Good luck with them taking on the unions and their huge warchests. That next re-election may be much tougher for them.
Unions...pure evil.
His girlfriend must have left him for a teacher so he’s out for revenge.
This man is just plain weird.
Huh?
As an inmate of Cali, this story stretches credulity on several levels.
Am extremely doubtful that Tony Villar (his name before he renamed himself “Antonio” to sound more ethnic - then adopted, wife-style again to sound more ethnic - the name of his wife whose maiden name was Raigosa. Who he then cheated on - to be oddly: “Villar-raigosa”) is in any way politically capable of taking on any union, for any reason, ever.
He’s as far left, as Obama. And as racist.
Unless perhaps, the union was anti-Mexican.
In which case, he would choose Aztlan.
CA voters knew of the coming budget issues and STILL voted the dems back in. What the hell tea leaves is this guy smokin’? What benefit could he gain from throwing the teachers union under the bus?
Weird. Even by CA standards.
There are no tea party leaves in Los Angeles. This guy is just performing a show so when the final swirl of the Los Angeles toilet makes that last loud gurgle, he has somebody to point a finger at. That's all this is. A preemptive strike in preparation for an excuse. A show.
"That hedging occurred even as he pursued multiple strategies for gaining control of Los Angeles schools. He sent his deputy mayor for education, Ramon Cortines, to help run the district in 2008. And he helped elect six of the board's seven members, spending $2.2 million alone in 2007 to elect school board candidate Tamar Galatzan, defeating the union's candidate, incumbent Jon Lauritzen."
yitbos
Yep. Remember when the PTA was run by parents? Now it is teachers.
Teachers/administrators elect their own superintendents and school boards.
This is where the conservative fight should be fought, not admitting defeat and home schooling. Home school and run for school board.
yitbos
On this issue of course, Republicans and conservatives are the genuine reformers. Unfortunately, the Bush and Rove strategy has had the GOP establishment pandering to Hispanics and cheap labor business interests on immigration instead of fighting hard for public education reform and making a determined assault on the teacher unions and touting those issues to Hispanics.
With the politics of the issue now changing for Hispanic Democrats, Republicans would be wise to recast their approach as well. The teacher unions and the public education political machine are far more vulnerable than they have ever been.
Things must be getting awful dicey for Tony Villar-liberal tool that he is-to bite one of the hands that feeds him. Unfortunately, that probably means this state is finished.
A superior post. Your comments should be distributed widely to all Tea Party organizations.
Thank you.
PLEASE READ POST #14! ( Yes, I am shouting.)
This is an excellent post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2641018/posts?page=16#14
A better term for “school board” is “The Peoples Committee for Community Collective Indoctrination”.
I agree the Tea Parties should run candidates for school board. Once there they should work in every way possible to SHUT DOWN government indoctrination ( oops! “schooling”), raze the buildings to the ground, and salt the earth.
However...The teachers union in my county (the reddest county of one of the reddest states) determine who will or will not be elected to school board. They have tons of money and armies of young idealistic parents ( mostly moms) who are still too young to have felt the full consequences of liberalism.
A Man bites Dog event for a liberal Dem Chicano activist to attack a school union.
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