Judge reaffirms LAUSD’s authority

The trial court judge who last month rejected the state law that would have given Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a powerful say over local public schools in and around the city issued a new ruling Jan. 11 to make clear that the Los Angeles Unified School District retains its full governing authority under the state constitution.

Assembly Bill 1381, the so-called “mayoral takeover bill,” was to take effect Jan. 1, but concerned parents joined the district, CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance and other education advocates in a lawsuit against the mayor and his allies soon after the bill was approved last summer. They successfully argued that the state did not have the authority to transfer power from the seven-member elected school board to the mayor, as the legislation provided. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs sided squarely with those challenging the law in her Dec. 21 ruling, writing that Villaraigosa was seeking “a role that is unprecedented in California.”

The mayor and others on the losing side filed an appeal asserting that the trial judge’s ruling was deferred—or stayed, in legal terms—until the appeal was decided, but Janavs’ ruling this week clarified that her prior order stands and is not stayed. The judge also specifically rejected a counterproposal by the mayor that a demonstration project giving him control of three low-performing high schools and their feeder schools be allowed to move forward while his appeal proceeded.

“Villaraigosa’s attorneys argued that the trial court’s ruling was of no effect pending appeal, but the judge soundly rejected that notion Thursday,” explained Richard Hamilton, executive director of CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance.

The mayor’s request for an expedited appeal has been granted, and oral argument is scheduled April 2 in the 2nd District Court of Appeal. In the meantime, the mayor and his allies seek to bypass that court and take the case straight to the California Supreme Court.