By Megan Cardiff
March 19, 2012

Conference of Mayors President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa joined New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at American University in Washington (DC) March 2 for a forum entitled “Education Now: Cities at the Forefront of Reform.”

At the forum, hosted by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, the mayors engaged in a dialogue with Duncan regarding their successes and challenges in the education system in their respective cities. The leaders touched on important national education issues including school management, accountability, strengthening the teaching profession, and ways to expand access to a high-quality education and improve student outcomes – not only in cities, but across the nation.

“The three school districts represented here are bigger than most states,” said Villaraigosa. “In fact, if you took our collective students, I think they’re bigger than the number of students of some 44 states.” Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago – America’s three largest cities – are home to a combined 2.5 million schoolchildren, 77 percent of whom are poor and 88 percent of whom are minority.

Duncan announced that large school districts are now eligible to compete with states for Race to the Top grant funds, a decision supported by Villaraigosa, who also pushed for the ability of individual school districts to be freed from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act during the forum.

“Education, fundamentally, is an investment, it’s not an expense,” Duncan said. “We can’t just invest in the status quo, we have to invest in reform. But anyone who thinks education is expensive, I would say: ‘Try ignorance.’”

During the second half of the event, the Superintendent from each city joined the mayors and the Secretary, and all forum participants stressed the importance of accountability and evaluation systems for teachers, principals, students and national and local leaders.

“In the end we really need accountability data for the parents. The arrogance of the bureaucracies that say parents shouldn’t have data to know what to do with their kids is just astounding. We’re fighting through that. Everybody talks about accountability and evaluation systems across this country. It’s getting the data to those who need it to make decisions,” stated Bloomberg.

Emanuel highlighted Chicago’s policy of publicizing the district principals’ report cards, pointing out that since this procedure was initiated the city has seen an increase in enrollment by principals in training programs. He announced that Chicago plans to pay a $25,000 signing bonus for up to 50 new principals to serve in low-performing schools. The city also plans to conduct a nationwide search for principals and provide a $5,000 bonus to any current Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Administration leader who recruits a high-performing principal. The money to support Emanuel’s effort will be raised privately.

“The system was set up for adults – kids were never in mind,” Emanuel said. “We need to have a truly accountable principal, a motivated teacher, and a parent who believes and is involved in their child’s education in and out of school.”

All three mayors are at the forefront of education reform in the United States and have pursued similar avenues to improve student learning, reducing bureaucracy, and providing parents with increased information to make better informed decisions when it comes to their child’s education.