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Los Angeles edunews highlights

The L.A. Times says LAUSD could face an audit:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and leaders of several neighboring cities will call today for a state audit of student achievement in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Villaraigosa and mayors from other cities served by the school system want a joint committee of the Assembly and state Senate to investigate why the district’s dropout rate is so high and its test scores so low, according to a letter outlining their request.

The move for a state audit comes as Villaraigosa seeks legislation that would effectively put him in charge of the nation’s second-largest school district and turn its elected board into a quasi-advisory body.

"We are deeply concerned about the failure of LAUSD’s schools to meet the basic educational needs of our children," the mayors wrote in their letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. "Why are these kids not learning and achieving at the levels they should be?"

The superintendent’s predictable reaction: 

In a letter to Villaraigosa Tuesday, Supt. Roy Romer urged the mayor "to not waste the taxpayers’ money to orchestrate this event."

Romer said in an interview that the district was preparing for a comprehensive performance audit called for in an agreement with the teachers union.

"It is frustrating, because if you really want to help us educate students better, you would not pile another audit on us," Romer said.

"I’d rather spend our money on students."

On that last line, cue hysterical laughter.  Meanwhile, back in Sacramento:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to retire a large chunk of the state’s debt and boost education funding with more than $5 billion in unexpected revenue from surging tax receipts, according to documents obtained by The Times.

The governor will offer details on the windfall, and the plan for spending it, in a revised budget proposal on Friday. The billions he will propose returning to schools promise to help him end a bruising political battle that has dogged his administration.

The revised plan builds upon the $125.6-billion spending blueprint Schwarzenegger presented to the Legislature in January. The earlier budget was criticized by fiscal conservatives for continuing to commit more spending than the state was projected to bring in and by Democrats for not doing enough to restore some of the programs that had been eroded through three years of budget cuts.

Since then, the strong stock market and business gains that were more robust than anticipated led to record April collections for the state. The $5 billion in extra cash goes a long way in the state budget, allowing the governor to increase debt repayment, meet the demands of school groups and still have some extra left over for his own pet programs.

According to this NPR report from December, California isn’t the only state finding itself with more money than planned.