Let the healing begin

At today's victory performance in South Los Angeles for his school reform measure, Mayor Villaraigosa and his aides pretty much stuck to the script: enthusiastic cheerings kids, lots of talk and music about a new day, colorful confetti. During his speech, though, when Villaraigosa got to the part in the prepared remarks where he was supposed to call on Supt. Roy Romer and the Board of Education to give up the fight and embrace the future, the mayor edited Romer out. The line became:

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a message for Superintendent Romer and the Board of Education of L.A Unified.

I'm asking you to join our Los Angeles Partnership. I'm asking you to reconsider your opposition to change.

Romer was dropped from a later line as well, as if to separate him from the school board's reluctance to jump on the Villaraigosa bandwagon. Could it be a response to Romer's conciliatory comments in the Times after last night's vote? Romer said then, "I think you've got to put personality aside. You've got to put past competition aside and say, 'Hey look, our job is to work cooperatively and collaborative to improve the education of children in Los Angeles.' " I don't know the answer, but the mayor is clearly hoping that his remaining critics on the Board of Education give up talk of a court challenge — and of hiring a superintendent quickly before Villaraigosa's official role with the schools kicks in. Friendly LAUSD board member Monica Garcia was allowed to bask in the mayor's victory glow on the stage this morning and afterward praised AB 1381 to reporters: "My work is strengthened by this opportunity." The mayor credited her with "confidently and courageously...staking her future in the future of school reform."

Side chatter among the journos observed that the locale, the Animo Charter School, is the same spot where Villaraigosa announced his education agenda during the campaign in April a year ago. Fitting in that way, but it's a Green Dot school — and Green Dot head Steve Barr emceed today's celebration, with help from community leaders and Maria Elena Durazo of the County Federation of Labor. Some reporters wondered if the morning's carefully staged media theater would have packed more drama if the mayor had actually visited one of the low-performing schools he promises to fix.

Audio: Adolfo Guzman Lopez on KPCC News
Instant analysis