L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa's Attempted Coup d'Etat

Earlier, (here, here, and our first post, here) we had covered Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's stated objective of overthrowing the elected school board of Los Angeles in favor of a scheme whereby he would appoint the board.

Villaraigosa also wants to appoint the district superintendent.

Mayor Villaraigosa attempted to execute his coup d'etat, only to get a quick lesson in basic California constitutional law.

We thought that one rebuff would have been enough to discourage the Mayor, but edweek.org's In Other News is reporting that Villaraigosa still hasn't given up.

California has a strong tradition of democratically elected (and locally accountable) school boards. We would be saddened to see that democratic tradition eroded in favor of a system of political appointees that may be well-intentioned but would likely turn into a system of patronage for publicly-paid political cronies. ----------------------------See today's edition of The Carnival Of Education (guest-hosted by What It's Like on the Inside) right here. See our latest posts over there.