Local, elected control of LAUSD prevails on appeal

In a clear victory for local, elected control of California’s schools, the Second District Court of Appeal has unanimously held that the Legislature violated the state constitution when it attempted to shift much of the authority of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s board of trustees to outside powers dominated by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The decision, announced April 17, upholds a December 2006 trial court ruling against Assembly Bill 1381, the measure that was narrowly approved by the Legislature last fall over the strenuous objections of advocates for representative school governance. District parents, joined by CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance and other allies, successfully sued to overturn the legislative action, contending that it violated the state constitution, the Los Angles city charter and the rights of the district’s voters.

The appeals court agreed in a strongly worded, 44-page decision laced with citations of the constitution and precedents in state law and court decisions, as well as extensive discussion of the “political maneuvering,” including an attempted “end-run around the constitution,” that led to AB 1381’s adoption.

The law sought to divide much of the elected school board’s power between a Council of Mayors representing the two dozen or so municipalities comprising the district, which would be dominated by the Los Angeles mayor, and the district superintendent—whose selection would have to be ratified by the mayor. In addition, an experimental “Mayor’s Partnership” would have had direct control over a cluster of schools serving as many as 80,000 students—making it, in effect, a separate district that would be among the five largest in the state.

“The critical question,” Associate Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote for the three-judge panel, “is whether the Council of Mayors and the Mayor’s Partnership can be deemed to be a part of the public school system for any reason other than the Legislature’s bald declaration that they are. The Council of Mayors is effectively directed by the mayor, as it can take no action without his agreement. Likewise, by its terms, the Mayor’s Partnership is ‘directed’ by the mayor. Yet the mayor is not part of the public school system” as clearly laid out in the constitution—and the court decision.

The court also analyzed the history of the public school system in general and of LAUSD in particular, finding that the reforms instituted by the district have generated some positive results and that the gains that LAUSD has made on student test scores “have outpaced statewide gains in several respects.”

CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin welcomed the court’s decision. “We’ve said all along that AB 1381 violated the state’s constitution and, today, we received affirmation of this stance once again. The mayor can ask the state Supreme Court to review this well-reasoned decision, but hopefully he will conclude that enough defeat is enough. It’s important for all the parties involved to get back to the business of California’s schools.”

Related link:
Read the 44-page court ruling @ www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B195835.PDF