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Mayor Wants More Education from Greuel & Garcetti

Samantha Oltman | April 9, 2013



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Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to deliver his final State of the City address at UCLA tonight, and he plans to use the speech to criticize mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel on their education plans. Villaraigosa spokesperson Peter Sanders told the LA Times that the mayor will “take to task” Greuel and Garcetti for not placing Los Angeles schools higher on their campaign priorities lists.

According to the prepared version of the speech released by the mayor’s office this afternoon, Villaraigosa will express why he thinks “it has been so disheartening to see our mayoral candidates devote so little time to a serious discussion of how to deliver a quality education for all our children.”

In the prepared speech, Villaraigosa goes on to say, “Education reform can’t be a footnote on a campaign mailer or fodder for an attack ad. Improving our schools must be front and center of a real debate and discussion. It is time for our candidates to demonstrate the ‘fierce urgency of now’ when it comes to ensuring that all, not some, not many, but all of our children have access to great schools.”

Click here to read the full prepared text of Villaraigosa’s speech. Or, starting at 5 p.m., go here to watch a livestream of the speech. And check back later at LA School Report for any reactions from the candidates to being chided for their perceived lack of focus on this issue.

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