Los Angeles Teachers Union Is A Roadblock To Reform

Who says so? LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, himself a former teachers union member.

During the last five years, the mayor said, union leaders have stood as "one unwavering roadblock to reform." He called for change in contentious areas such as tenure, teacher evaluations and seniority — all volatile arenas in which teachers unions have balked at proposals for reform as eroding their rights.


"At every step of the way, when Los Angeles was coming together to effect real change in our public schools, UTLA was there to fight against the change and slow the pace of reform," Villaraigosa declared at a forum of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank.

I've written about Villaraigosa before, most notably here and here.