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Interesting LA Times editorial on the LAUSD takeover wars:

ONE MAJOR OBSTACLE TO the Los Angeles mayor’s plan to take control of the Los Angeles schools is that they aren’t all Los Angeles schools. They’re also the schools of Carson, South Gate and a couple dozen other cities, whose residents are understandably worried about having their schools governed by a mayor they don’t elect. Paradoxically, the best way for them to retain power over the Los Angeles Unified School District may be to leave it.

(snip)

There might not be 50 ways to leave your district, but these cities have a range of options. The most obvious would be to secede formally but contract with the Los Angeles schools. If the L.A. district doesn’t do the job right, the cities could move to their other options: contracting with one or more charter operators; contracting with or joining another adjacent school district, or banding together to form a district of their own.

From the mayors’ standpoint, the best option would be to use the threat of secession to ensure that Villaraigosa takes care of their students. But first, secession has to be a viable threat.

Under current law, seceding from a school district is a long and uncertain process. But because the Legislature is already expected to consider a bill that would remake L.A. Unified, it could also consider a provision that would allow its component cities to secede if they wish. Villaraigosa may even be able to drum up more support for his takeover plan if he adds such an escape clause.

In other words, break up the district.  For whatever reason, the editorial staff chose to call it "secession" instead.  Which may actually be a bit more appropriate, seeing as how it looks like a civil war of sorts is well on its way. 

But as Villaraigosa makes the rounds to drum support for a takeover, Superintendent Roy Romer trots out a reform package of his own:

As the state announced Thursday that 14 percent of Los Angeles Unified School District’s Class of 2006 had failed the mandatory exit exam and will not graduate this month, Superintendent Roy Romer unveiled a $36 million program to overhaul some of the district’s lowest-performing high schools.

While Romer’s plan has been in the works since September, its release coincides with district efforts to fend off a takeover by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has blasted LAUSD for its high dropout rate and spotty test scores. It would include hiring teachers and counselors and renovating facilities at 17 Los Angeles high schools, none of them in the San Fernando Valley.

"There’s a myth out there that we’re not doing anything, (a myth) that the mayor sometimes contributes to. We’re doing a good deal and we’re going to do a good deal more, and that’s showing in our scores," Romer said in an interview. "It’s a program to jump-start the reform of these schools. … We have to improve the academic performance of these schools. We want them to graduate and to complete the A-G (mandatory college preparatory) curriculum."

And speaking of civil war, the city of Long Beach is suing LAUSD for records access.  The incredulous tone of this article is kinda funny…

The dispute within the dispute began in January, when Long Beach Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais asked for records related to the new school. He was thorough, seeking 40 types of documents — minutes of meetings, correspondence, e-mails, technical reports, environmental studies — that would fill several boxes if delivered.

Apparently unwilling to arm its adversary, LAUSD denied the request.

The rationale: that Long Beach is ineligible to ask for documents — even public ones — from another public agency. The one-page denial was drafted by Robert Baldridge, a paralegal in the LAUSD Office of General Counsel.

"We are unable to make those records available," he wrote, "because this request is coming from a government agency, as opposed to a member of the public, which is in contradiction to the California Public Records Act and is prohibited."

Maybe some enterprising Long Beach resident would be interested in requesting the records and then lending them to the city?