1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
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Registration
1:00 PM
Introduction:
Remarks:
MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA, City of Los Angeles
1:40 PM
Question and Answer
2:10 PM
Presentation of Champion for Charters 2011 Award:
URSULA WRIGHT, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
2:15 PM
Adjournment
The path to success for any community begins in the local school yard," declared Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a speech today at AEI. He added that it is our "duty to guide our children to the best possible future" and outlined ways he has used his office to promote the change that he believes his city's public schools need to see. He encouraged school district leaders, education reformers, teachers' unions and legislators on both sides of the aisle to find common ground to move forward and improve public education. Villaraigosa, who is also president of the US Conference of Mayors, said when pressed about the proposed federal budget cuts that, "if there's a difference between the mayors and the members of Congress, it's that [mayors] have a real job," meaning that mayors must tend to the practical needs of their cities and thus cannot be "doctrinaire." He then outlined some desired solutions for his city's public schools, including increasing teacher salaries. "If you want the best talent, you have to pay for it. That's how markets work," he said. He also called for empowering parents and giving them choice, attracting great teachers to LA public schools and welcoming "fresh ideas to the table." After his speech, Villaraigosa was presented the Champion for Charters award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools by Ursula Wright, the interim president and CEO, because of his "steadfast commitment to education reform and leadership on critical charter schools issues.
Antonio Villaraigosa is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. As a labor leader, civic leader and elected official, he’s led the fight to improve schools, protect the rights of working people, improve mobility and public transit, and make neighborhoods safer, better places to live. Before being elected mayor in 2005, he won the 14th District Los Angeles City Council seat. In 1998, Mr. Villaraigosa was elected Speaker of the California State Assembly. As mayor, he has led the fight to establish Los Angeles one of the nation’s safest big cities by keeping the police force strong and crime at historic lows. He also spearheaded the effort to pass Measure R, a $40 billion investment in creating a first-class public transit system in Los Angeles. He has supported a better variety of options for students and families and founded the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, one of the largest school turnaround projects in the country. Under Mr. Villaraigosa, Los Angeles has reached critical environmental milestones such as implementing the Clean Truck Program and sourcing 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources. He currently serves as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
Frederick M. Hess is resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of influential books on education including The Same Thing Over and Over, Education Unbound, Common Sense School Reform and Spinning Wheels, and pens the Education Week blog “Rick Hess Straight Up.” His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post and National Review. He serves as executive editor of Education Next
, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, and on the Review Board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government, as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum, from Harvard University.
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