Villaraigosa's plans to take over L.A. schools

While doing some reading on education for my new website for my upcoming book, BECOMING AMERICANA, I came across an article on how the mayor of L.A. Antonio Villaraigosa plans on taking over the schools. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools16jun16,0,5418816.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines

I'm a product of the L.A. Unified School District, and though I can say that for the most part they did an okay job, this is an over inflated district that is way too large to function properly. But should the city/mayor take it over? What is Villaraigosa going to do differently? Does he even realize what a mess the educational system is in? California schools do not allow teachers to teach. They want teachers to follow prescribed lessons in textbooks and instruct students on how to take tests. And with @ 40 kids in their classroom, it's amazing they can even accomplish that. These students who are graduating from the L.A. schools are not prepared to enter the workforce and do much more than follow rules, obey orders, and accept that they are a number in a pack of ignored citizens.

Students are not taught to think. Students are not taught not to creatively solve problems. Students are not free to participate in their education.

So, what will Villaraigosa do to bring the district into the modern era? How is the city going to improve the system? Usually when the government takes over something, it doesn't make things better. At the same time, Bill Gates is working to create schools that are different from the current models, where students want to learn and actually apply for the opportunity to attend his school, and hope they get accepted. They WANT to go to school. Interesting. He doesn't test them, or force them to sit behind a desk all day, or make them memorize useless facts. Students decide what they want to learn. Interesting.

So if anyone is going to take over the LA schools, how about we allow someone who has proven that he can be successful? The way I see it, unless Villaraigosa is planning to completely overhaul the entire school system and start fresh, why bother?