LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to speak to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., today on how mayors can influence public education.

The speech will be a call-to-action for leaders to get past partisan and political differences to help failing public school systems, aide Rachel Kruer said.

Villaraigosa will talk about the need for unions to be open to more flexible contracts than in years past, "but he is not going to focus on pointing fingers," Kruer said.

The mayor will discuss the achievement gap between various racial groups and the lack of funding for public education, she said.

Villaraigosa is also scheduled today to meet separately with the presidents of the nation's two largest teachers unions, Dennis Van Roekel of the National Education Association and Randi Weingarten of the American