From the Wall Street Journal:

So the California teacher unions aren’t all powerful after all. Yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called in his political chits with fellow Democrats in the state legislature, where he had once served as Assembly Speaker, and secured a deal giving him substantial control over the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District, which covers not only Los Angeles but portions of 26 other cities.

The mayor would effectively gain veto power over the selection of a new superintendent to replace outgoing incumbent Roy Romer, a former Democratic governor of Colorado. That new official would be vested with new powers over $7.4 billion in spending along with new power to write contracts. Those powers are now handled by a local school board that has traditionally been nominated by union apparatchiks elected in low-turnout elections.

In a sort of pilot program for a full takeover of L.A. schools, the mayor would also take direct charge of three inner-city Los Angeles high schools and the middle and elementary schools that send them students. A report this week by a nonpartisan education group estimated that only 38% of L.A. Unified students graduate on time.

The mayor didn’t get all that he wanted in assuming control over the school district. Other cities, such as Chicago and New York, have gone much further in trying to foster public accountability by transferring authority over schools to a single elected official. But the change represents the first crack in the total domination of L.A. public schools by unions that are adamantly opposed to almost all reform.

Mayor Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, says time is running out for kids currently in the system. “I get a knot in my throat when I go to schools, some of the low-performing schools in the city,” he told reporters yesterday. “Because in the eyes of these kids, I see myself. I see a young kid that dropped out of high school, a kid that people gave up on. I believe that we can’t give up on these kids. I believe we have to have higher expectations.”

I am not sure this is going to do much good but it sounds promising and is worth keeping a close eye on. In the meantime, I think Mayor Villaraigosa deserves credit for standing up to the special interest groups and doing what he thinks is right…bravo Mayor Villaraigosa!