Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: "Dollars and Cents, & Common Sense"
by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 20, 2011 at 9:09 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareL.A.'s straight-talking mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, a former teacher union organizer, one of the nation's most influential Hispanic officials, and very likely a future governor of California, visited AEI yesterday to discuss the challenges of urban school reform. I thought it to be exceptionally good stuff; he was vague on key particulars, but I thought he gave admirably honest answers and did a terrific job of modeling how state and local leaders can push past the ideological slogans that soak up most of the oxygen in DC. You can see his remarks here.
What most impressed me was the way Villaraigosa made the case for new school spending. He said, "Schools are starved for dollars and cents, and schools are starved for common sense." He added, "Democrats, and I like to consider myself a progressive, with a labor background, have to be willing to challenge teachers; just as
