Beneath mayor’s fanfare lies a sound framework

The Mayor Who Wants to Save the Children pranced onto the stage with Chuck Berry blasting: “Up in the mornin’ and out to school / the teacher is teachin’ the Golden Rule.”

Fireworks exploded. Fog machines pumped ersatz clouds. Well, not really. But such touches wouldn’t have surprised me. And the rock was real as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strolled across a projected map of the world and began reading his polished spiel from a teleprompter, trying not to trip over the props -- a dozen schoolchildren.

A few rows from the stage, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David Brewer listened quietly as the mayor trotted out “The Schoolhouse: A Framework to Give Every Child in LAUSD An Excellent Education.”

Later, the new supe was diplomatic about the mayor’s plan. As was school board President Marlene Canter.

But if you think the tug-of-war for control of the schools will simply fade away as the mayor’s takeover law founders in court, you weren’t paying attention to Schoolhouse-apalooza’s secret signs.

As it happens, I had plopped down in that Little Tokyo theater between Steve Barr, the founder of Green Dot public charter schools, and Caprice Young, the former board member who now heads the California Charter Schools Assn.

They seemed very comfortable. For good reason.

Marshall Tuck, who’d been Barr’s right-hand revolutionary at Green Dot, is now part of the mayor’s education reform team. He helped write the “framework.” And, as Young pointed out, most of those dozen kids on stage were charter school students.

I’m a slow learner, though. It wasn’t until I talked to school board candidate Johnathan Williams that I put 2 and 2 together and said, “Doh! It’s the charters, stupid.”

Williams, who founded a charter school in central Los Angeles, is now running against status quo stalwart Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte for one of the four open board seats. He’s likely to get at least a tacit endorsement from the mayor for his campaign. And if he and the mayor’s other candidates join sympathizer Monica Garcia on the board, Brewer will be all but reporting to City Hall anyway.

One of the most contentious proposals in the school takeover law would give the mayor the chance to run three troubled high schools and all the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. But if the formal takeover fails, as seems increasingly likely, the district could still voluntarily hand the mayor some schools.

Would Williams do that if elected?

“Absolutely.”

But that wouldn’t really be necessary, he added. Because even if the board continues to reject the mayor’s advances, his team could simply work from the outside in and start trying to convert district schools to charters, which, by definition, are free to bend the rules.

I have no doubt that Brewer means it when he says: “The mayor and I are philosophically aligned.” And when he says: “That framework was fine with me.”

I have no doubt that Canter means it when she says: “I’m absolutely willing to accommodate the mayor’s strong interest in running some schools.” And when she says (over and over and over): “I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and work with the mayor and anyone else who wants to help us reform.... “

She and Brewer are clearly committed to steadily improving education for the district’s 700,000 or so students. They may even be ready to share power with the mayor to make that happen -- though I couldn’t get Canter to pull the trigger on that.

Me: “Under the right circumstances, would you be willing to let the mayor’s team take over one or more clusters of schools for a demonstration project of sorts?”

Canter: “Yes. I’m absolutely willing to consider ways...”

Me: “If we get crunched for space in this column, can I just say you said ‘Yes’?”

Canter: “No.”

I understand. The board at present would have a right to think of the mayor as that nuisance kid in the Chuck Berry song: “Workin’ my fingers right down to the bone / and the guy behind you won’t leave you alone.”

Still, I think it’s good that the impatient mayor continues to poke Canter, nudge Brewer.

Some of us half suspected Villaraigosa would heave a subconscious sigh of relief and move on to fixing traffic lights after that judge smacked down his convoluted takeover measure. Who could have blamed him for wanting to move toward his next election campaign without being thigh-deep in the swamp of urban education?

Even as I listened to his grandiose presentation of “The Schoolhouse,” I half suspected it was pro forma, a final piece of showmanship to bring closure to the ugly takeover brawl.

Then I sat in a City Hall conference room with Ray Cortines, the mayor’s 74-year-old education czar, and Tuck, 33, the former Green Dotter.

As conceived and shepherded by Cortines the Wise and spruced to slickness by Tuck the Brash, the mayor’s “Schoolhouse” is a solid piece of work.

Yes, there’s so much blue sky schmaltz in this “framework” that reading it aloud -- “The school house is four walls with tomorrow inside” -- would be enough to make peppy Rachael Ray lose her lunch.

Sure, its “six pillars” of reform -- “high expectations,” “empowered leadership,” etc. -- are far from original.

Besides, in education, ideas are easy; it’s the execution that’s daunting -- as Canter well knows and Brewer is learning.

But after a thorough double-teaming by Cortines and Tuck, I stumbled out of City Hall convinced that the mayor’s serious about tackling the challenge. That’s why, they say, they’re eager to start experimenting with schools by July 1, regardless of what happens to the takeover bill, regardless of how the school board elections turn out.

They, too, were diplomatic as all get out. But they’re also taking the mayor’s “Schoolhouse” rock ‘n’ steamroller on the road to neighborhoods where the schools may not be all that parents and students think they should be. And that suggests that the mayor is not likely to take the district’s “maybe” for an answer.

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To discuss this column or the question “Should the district give the mayor some schools to play with?” visit latimes.com/schoolme. Bob Sipchen can be reached at bob.sipchen@la times.com