Crunch time for L.A.'s Villaraigosa

Midway through his term, Mayor Villaraigosa struggles to fulfill campaign pledges, rebuild public approval.

from the December 14, 2007 edition

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Villaraigosa supporters hasten to add that additional schools could adopt the reform idea, in which control of participating campuses shifts from the Los Angeles Unified School District to a nonprofit organization committed to improving student achievement.

"By voting to join the partnership, parents and teachers said 'yes' to lower dropout rates, higher student achievement, and safer campuses," Villaraigosa said after the vote.

Villaraigosa's limited achievements, say other observers, are partly due to Los Angeles's weak-mayor system and fragmented power-sharing with county and state governments. Other big-city mayors who have improved schools have mayor-appointed school boards. Los Angeles still has a 15-district City Council-centric government and quasi-independent commissions.

Los Angeles voters "want better schools, but most mayors have little say over education. Poverty and joblessness are huge urban problems, but social policy is largely under control of state and federal agencies," says Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. "Villaraigosa has to grapple with a problem that most [previous L.A. mayors] faced: the gap between what voters want and what mayors can deliver."

That said, even Villaraigosa's detractors acknowledge that the mayor is a tireless, focused worker who attacks problems head on. "Energizer bunny" is how many describe him. And he has every chance of winning back voters in time for the 2009 mayoral election, many observers say, as well as the 2010 California gubernatorial election. There is also the prospect that if a Democrat wins the White House, he could be tapped for a cabinet post.

Villaraigosa is already known in Washington. He secured $4.5 billion in federal funds (a 29 percent increase) for L.A. transit, and is one of six national chairs for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential election campaign.

But back in Los Angeles, say experts, the mayor needs to become known for more than articulating appealing visions. It's crunch time.

"The bloom is off and the hard reality of the job is upon him," says Allan Hoffenbloom, a Los Angeles-based political analyst. "He is going through a phase of knowledge that the job takes more than publicity and charisma, and that if he doesn't deliver he is not likely to become the next governor of California."

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