Today on Take Two, we're all about election results! Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel joins us to talk about the race for L.A. mayor. Plus, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy joins us to talk about the school board race, we take a look at the life and legacy of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and much more.
LA Election Results: The outcome of the Mayor race, Measure A and more
Yesterday's election brought no big surprises, at least in the mayor's race. City councilman Eric Garcetti and city controller Wendy Greuel took the lead in competition, and the two will now face off against each other in the runoff election, scheduled for May 21.
There were also a few other races on the ballot yesterday. KPCC's politics reporter Alice Walton joins the show to fill us in on the outcome of Measure A and more.
LA Unified School Board election results
Out of all of last night's races, the ones for school board may have created the most buzz outside of L.A. Wealthy donors and advocates from around the country weighed in on L.A. Unified's School Board election.
KPCC's Education Reporter Vanessa Romo fills us in on the results of those elections and what they mean for the nation's second largest school district.
LAUSD elections: Superintendent John Deasy on board winners, future of schools
As we heard earlier on the program, the races for L.A. School Board seats have been watched closely around the country. That's because the results will have a huge influence on the policies of the nation's second-largest school district.
RELATED: View KPCC's election results and full coverage
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy is the man charged with running L.A. Unified, and he joins us to discuss election results and the future of the city's schools.
Interview Highlights:
On how he's feeling about the school board election results:
"School Board races are like elections and they take up a certain amount of oxygen and energy. Administration has been laser-like focused on teaching and learning and raising student outcomes. We're watching the highest level of student achievement in our history in LAUSD. We just saw the school district post the single greatest gain in the country in the number of students taking AP courses and passing those courses. So the agenda about the improvement of opportunity and outcome for youth is what we have been and continue to be focused on. We look forward to the board whenever that is decided. I guess there is one more race still to be decided in the valley I think it will be a runoff. All board members uh. My goal is to work with them as a team so that all students rights are honored."
On the results of District 4. Kate Anderson lost to incumbent Steve Zimmer:
"So I did not pay a great deal of attention to the campaign literature. So I am probably less informed on that issue. It seems to me of what I read and heard was that both were very supportive of the policies that we're trying to do. So to me It looks to me like a continuation of the support that I saw from and with continued respect for BM Z for supporting students and improving conditions in schools, and so I don't actually see a huge change in that."
On the big money that poured into the school board race:
"So a couple of things. One is I don't have that kind of money, but if I did our country allows us to invest that money wherever they see fit. So for years, unions have invested money in races. I mean, take a look at the last mayoral race in DC. And a lot of that money came from outside of Washington, DC. It seems that it's a slightly off-balance. If Ms. Ravitch finds it repugnant to democracy, then where has been the criticism for the millions and millions and millions of dollars that have been poured through labor unions, which I'm a huge supporter of and their right to do that? So I don't quite get the controversy in this case."
On whether we can expect future school board elections to pull big donations:
"I think people are very excited and energized about what's happening in Los Angeles. I mean, Los Angeles, as I've always said, is America, only sooner. The reforms that are taking place in our schools have been getting attention because they are getting results. And I think people are interested in making sure that continues to happen. I think people are wanting to invest so that LA continues to serve students well is a very good thing for our country."
On the support of including test results in teacher evaluations:
"So first of all I am overwhelmed by the number of teachers who want and continue to reach out to me. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds who reach out and say they want this evaluation to take place. They helped construct this evaluations and they want a path to know how to get better and affirm good work. I think that in many ways there is detracting noise from our obligation to both follow the law and to support our teachers."
On what he's learned from past superintendents' struggle with reform:
"Great question. What I've done from the very beginning to try to anchor every single solitary thing I and my team do to support the students. That is our number-one responsibility. Students' rights, that they get a vastly better opportunity than they've had historically, and that anchor is very clear to me that that becomes the litmus test of everything we do. Will everybody be supportive or will some people be concerned? Of course they will be. It's to listen to that and to be a responsible leader for the number-one reason we open the doors everyday, and that is the students. So they can have what we've had, that's you and I. Which is able to participate in this American Dream. Have a roof over our head. That is what we try to think going forward. Try to lower the focus on adult issues and raise the focus on youth issues.
UTLA's Warren Fletcher on Steve Zimmer, teacher evaluations, and more
Teacher's Union President Warren Fletcher joins the show for his take on last night's elections.
Interview Highlights:
On supporting incumbent Steve Zimmer:
"Because the lion share of out of town money, the lion share of money that was coming in to recharacterize this something not about Los Angeles, but about some abstract issues. Because the lion share of money went outside of LA into Kate Anderson's race, we felt that we needed to respond. We were outspent by a factor of many times.
"What brought this forward, what actually made this a victory was that teachers were walking the precincts, teachers were on the phone, telling the people, telling the parents and community in 4th District, this is what the schools need. And when it comes to money versus credibility, we're happy that we have that credibility, because it means that even when giant amounts of cash come into this district, giants amount of cash come into these campaigns, we can still be heard and we are proud of that."
On Deasy's memo that test scores will count up to 30-percent of teacher evaluations:
"I believe is that what the memo said is that it was up to 30 percent, and UTLA's position is that when you use cookie-cutter numbers, what you're doing is that you're undercutting the judgment of both teachers and principals who have the best idea about how to weigh things, how to factor things issues like student testing. We wanted to negotiate an agreement that integrated student test data, because that is required in the state education code, but we wanted to do it in a smart way in a way that it allowed for the judgment of teachers and the judgment of principals at each school and in each setting to be the controlling factor.
"We're continuing to fight this out on the specifics, but the overall goal, which is to make sure that as test score data is used, it is used to help improve instruction as opposed to use it in a cookie cutter, reductive way. That continues to be what UTLA is fighting for, and we're working with the district. One of our biggest fears is when you use cookie cutter numbers, 30 percent, 20 percent, you create incentives to narrow the curriculum and we never want to do that.
On why it's wrong to have student test scores count "up to 30 percent" of a teacher evaluation:
"It's a huge difference because if you use a cookie-cutter number like 30 percent what you're doing is you're copying what's been done in Illinois and New York, Massachusetts where the state legislator mandated this exact percent. We find is that our colleagues, those teachers in those states, they keep telling us that when you do that kind of cookie-cutter approach, you end up shoe-horning into that evaluation process things that really aren't natural parts of evaluating the teacher and it ends up having the effect of it creates incentives for the teachers to narrow the curriculum.
"I'm an English teacher. And the heart and soul of teaching high school English is teaching writing and teaching literature. If I am told specific test percentages that it's going to be that kind of cookie-cutter approach, it's going to create an incentive for me as an English teacher, for me, to teach a little bit less writing, a little bit less literature, and a lot more giving my student a five-paragraph essay and asking them the topic sentence of the third paragraph. It starts to mechanize teaching and we don't want that."
Sports Roundup: LA NFL team update, Lakers drama, and more
It's time to get a get a little exercise and take a run through the world of sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky. They've covered the Los Angeles sports scene for over a decade for the Times and ESPN.
Eric Garcetti on campaigning, LA's biggest issues and his break dancing past (Video)
Come May 21st, there will be two names on the ballot to become the next mayor of Los Angeles: City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Neither candidate captured a majority of the vote.
RELATED: View KPCC's election results and full coverage
Garcetti won 33 percent of the vote last night and Greuel won 29 percent.
Interview Highlights:
On how he feels about the election results:
“Quite frankly, I was surprised by the first-place showing. We won by four points in the midst of about $2 million in independent expenditures being spent on Ms. Greuel's campaign led by the DWP union. I think that people really stood up and said they wanted somebody independent, they didn’t want this election to be bought and paid for, and our message of traveling around the city and talking to people of the future of L.A. really resonated, but there’s a lot of work to be done in the next 77 days.”
On how his campaign differs from his opponent Wendy Greuel:
"I think for us it was really important to point out differences on issues...like pension reform. I've acted on that, Ms. Greuel hasn't. I'm very proud of my union support, but I brought that up not because it was an individual beef or something, but you look at one union coming in and being able to spend $1.7 million in the last few days of the campaign. I don't think that sat right with people and I hope we'll be able to elevate up and talk about the issues that are important and continue to focus on the average LA resident, the person who's looking at reducing traffic, who wants a better school in their neighborhood. I last night congratulated Ms. Greuel and said I hope we can elevate things up, unfortunately what we heard out of her mouth were things about trust and very personal attacks. I think that's what turns voters off, so we're going to continue to focus on who's backing us and what the issues are, because that I think really makes a clear choice in this race."
On the low voter turnout this election:
"I think people have to remember how important the mayor is in their daily lives. When fewer than half of the voters who came out to vote for the Presidential election come to vote for mayor, it is more important to you each day who the Mayor of Los Angeles is than even who the President of the United States is. Don't be surprised if I show up at your door or call you on the phone...making sure we have a great neighborhood and transportation for everybody."
On how he would work to fix the city's budget issues:
"What I see as the most important route forward is that we don’t have this shrinking pie, where businesses are fleeing L.A., where jobs aren’t available, and I come to this with that track record of having done that. Hollywood has had a turn around economically, to be number-one in job growth in the midst of a recession speaks volumes. The cuts, if we need to make them, if times don't come back, I've been able to do that, to sit down at the table, to sit down with the unions in a very respectful way but in a tenacious way...If we don't cut costs, we're going to have to cut services, and I don't want to do that. People here pay their taxes and deserve to have those services."
On his youth passion of break dancing:
"They may not know that I used to break dance in 7th through 9th grade, but nobody wants to see a guy in a suit break dancing."
Just in case someone does, see the video below:
Wendy Greuel on the mayor race, labor support and education policy
Come May 21st, there will be two names on the ballot to become the next mayor of Los Angeles: City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Neither candidate captured a majority of the vote. Garcetti won 33 percent of the vote last night and Greuel won 29 percent.
RELATED: View KPCC's election results and full coverage
Greuel joins the show to tell us about how she's different from her opponent Eric Garcetti, her views on education policy and gaining the campaign support of labor groups.
Interview Highlights:
On what differentiates her from her opponent, Eric Garcetti:
"I have a broad base of support, business and labor, the major organizations in Los Angeles, and people in the communities that I've talked to...somebody who's been in the entertainment industry and now been the fiscal watchdog, I think there are some clear difference between me and my opponent, particularly in the ability to lead the city in a tough economic time."
On being only a handful of points behind Eric Garcetti:
"It was between three and four points, it was what I expected as we looked at the number of individuals in the race, many of which I know, their voters are excited about changing Los Angeles. We'll be reaching out to all of those voters to tell them that I'm going to be the next mayor that's going to focus on jobs and creating an education opportunity for all of our kids and be a mayor for all of Los Angeles. It's also about getting our fiscal house in order. As the city's top fiscal watchdog, that's what I've been saying to the mayor and council. We need to do better, we need to make sure we're using the dollars we have in a way that's going to provide the services to the residents of Los Angeles."
On whether large support from labor will make her not appear to be independent:
“I had more than 7,000 donors that supported me. And these were individuals that more than half of them gave me less than $250. What is unique about my candidacy is that I've been endorsed by the major business organizations in LA, the chamber of commerce, Bizfed and the Valley Industry Commerce Association, and, yes, labor groups. What they know is I'm going to be the person who stands up and says exactly what I mean. I'll be able to have those tough conversations and ultimately solve the problems that face Los Angeles. I have this broad base that really is a coalition on how we're going to get LA back on track."
On her views on education policy:
"I'm coming from a unique perspective as a parent of a child in LAUSD and a graduate of LA Unified. My son is in fourth grade, I live it every day. It's personal about making sure we have the dollars in our classrooms, that we have local control that's focused in our neighborhoods. I'm going to be the advocate that I have been for many years. I started a program with Mayor Tom Bradley, L.A.'s Best, in 1988. Recognizing the role of schools in our future, that a city like Los Angeles can't be a world-class city without a world-class education system. So I'm going to fight to make sure the money gets into those classrooms. That we have principals and teachers that are going to be able to make the best decisions for our children and not the bureaucracy."
On gaining endorsements from other mayoral candidates:
"My opponents sent out many mailers at the beginning, including Ms. Perry, and what I want to do is set the record straight. This is an important issue for L.A. about (getting) our fiscal house in order and let the voters decide about those issues. I'm going to go after every single candidate who ran for mayor and talk to them about why I'm going to be able to lead this city...as you may remember when I ran against Tony Cardenas in 2002 I won by 225 votes. Tony Cardenas endorsed me for mayor of Los Angeles. That's the kind of person I'm going to be is a coalition builder."
Cardinal Roger Mahony defends his record to Italian paper
At long last, Cardinal Roger Mahony speaks out. After months of refusing interviews here in the U.S., Cardinal Mahony has broken his silence and granted an interview to an Italian newspaper while in Rome to attend the conclave to elect the next pope.
In an interview published earlier this week, he defends his handling of the sexual abuse scandal that has tainted his legacy. Last month, Mahony was relieved of his public duties after newly released documents showed he may have protected priests charged with sexual abuse from the law.
Here with an update on what Mahony is saying is Barbie Latza Nadeau, Rome correspondent for the Daily Beast.
The life and legacy of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
The death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has left many wondering what will become of his country. Enriched by enormous oil revenues that allowed it to make great strides in health care and education, Venezuela is also marked by corruption, and a creaking, crumbling infrastructure.
All this will be part of the legacy of Hugo Chavez, who was — no matter what you think of him and his politics — a fascinating character.
Journalist Rory Carroll spent six years observing and writing about Chavez as Latin America correspondent for The Guardian. He's just published a book, "Comandante: Hugo Chavez Venezuela," about the late president.