Cortines trying to save UTLA 'from itself'

LAUSD Supt. Ramon Cortines spoke to friends of Los Angeles Magazine at breakfast this morning and called out the teachers union, which had plans to demonstrate at his home this week. "The union has to be a part of the solution…I won't let them abdicate from the system,” he said, talking apparently about both reforms and the current budget situation. “They’ll be camping out at my house protesting and I don’t enjoy that....I’m trying to save the union from itself.” He said the school system needs "a benevolent dictator for 3 to 5 years. Then you can turn it back to the community.”

Noted: The breakfast was Kit Rachlis' last event as editor. He stepped down after nine years and is being replaced this month by Mary Melton.

Image: cropped from photo by Forest Casey / Los Angeles