Can School Board Hopefuls Handle a Pop Quiz?

By Steve Hymon

Feb. 27, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

On a recent morning in council chambers, Jose Huizar was sitting at his desk and flipping through reports when a reporter handed him a sheet of paper with an algebra problem on it:

x + 9 = 18 -- 2x

“What’s this?” asked Huizar, the former president of the Los Angeles Unified School Board and an Ivy Leaguer.

After it was explained that it was an algebra problem, Huizar grabbed a pen and over the next 15.3 seconds scribbled:

3x + 9 = 18

3x = 9

x = 3

As a school board member, Huizar backed toughening math standards at the LAUSD. A recent Times series found that many students drop out of school because of their inability to pass algebra.

Which raises the question....

Q: Can the four candidates running to replace Huizar on the school board to oversee a $7-billion bureaucracy solve a simple algebra problem?

A: Christopher Arellano, a former social worker and deputy to the council president, declined and preferred instead to talk about his platform.

Monica Garcia, Huizar’s former chief of staff and the recipient of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s endorsement, said “I might get it wrong, but I’ll try.”

It took Garcia 15.8 seconds to correctly solve 2x -- 14 = 7 -- x. The answer is x = 7.

Enrique Gasca owns a public relations firm and has worked as an intern for Rep. Xavier Becerra and a district director to former Assemblyman Tom Calderon.

He said that precinct walking has helped him lose 15 pounds during the campaign -- and that his wife is urging him to campaign harder.

Asked to solve 13x + 3 = 2x -- 30, Gasca required 33 seconds to come up with an answer: “it’s 11 over 5,” he said.

The correct answer is negative 3.

At 23, Ana Teresa Fernandez is the youngest of the candidates. A former aide to LAUSD board member Mike Lansing, she administers a grant program at the California Charter School Assn.

Fernandez said she would take the test but wanted The Times to know “I got Ds in math in high school and still graduated -- the system can be manipulated.”

Asked to solve 9x - 9 = x + 7, Fernandez took two minutes, 45 seconds to come up with the correct answer: x = 2.

“That was like the most stressful moment of my life,” she said afterward.

Memo to voters: The name of another candidate, Maria Calanche, will appear on the ballot. But she has stopped campaigning due to lack of support.

Q: So what did Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa think about the algebra experiment?

A: “I’m not an engineer and I’m responsible for building public transit,” said the mayor, who made it clear that he thought it was a bit of a cheap shot.

The mayor is in the midst of trying to take over the schools and wants to appoint his own board members to improve accountability.

Villaraigosa has been careful to avoid saying that the right to elect school board members should be stripped from the public. But implicit in his goal is a belief that he can find a better slate of school board members.

Q: Does county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky support Villaraigosa’s wish to extend the subway to the sea -- and why does it matter?

A: “I have always supported the subway extension in the Wilshire corridor,” said Yaroslavsky, who also points out his Westside district has only one freeway and no rail projects.

In 1998 Yaroslavsky wrote a ballot measure, overwhelmingly passed by voters, that stopped local sales taxes -- about $1 billion to $1.4 billion a year -- from being used for subway tunneling.

“The people have sent an unmistakably clear signal to the MTA board and the political powers of Los Angeles to change course,” Yaroslavsky said at the time. “They don’t want continued pursuit of a $300-million-a-mile subway.”

Yaroslavsky said he believes that the measure saved the subway-obsessed MTA and elected officials from financial ruin and helped fund a slew of other transit projects -- such as the Orange Line busway -- recently finished or under construction.

But he doesn’t believe his ballot measure should be repealed because the sales taxes have been committed for years to come. In fact, it may be a moot point because no one is talking about repealing it.

“I’ve talked to the mayor about this, and at least to my face he’s in agreement,” said Yaroslavsky. “To have a fight about that measure countywide is a diversion of our energies because if we win, [the money] isn’t there.”

The subway extension is estimated to cost $4.8 billion. Rep. Henry Waxman has introduced legislation that would lift a federal ban on tunneling in some areas because of safety concerns. Still, with local funds out of the mix, the project would likely be paid for by federal funds or the multibillion-dollar infrastructure bond proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And how does Yaroslavsky’s ballot measure sit with elected officials today?

“What I will say today is that gridlock on the Westside is intolerable and all of us are fed up,” said Westside Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who didn’t vote for the ballot measure. “We can’t continue to be the frog in the boiling water.”

The subway serving the city cost $4.5 billion, by far the mostly costly MTA project. It is also among the fastest and has the largest ridership. Here’s the number of riders per weekday:

Red Line: 124,304

Blue Line: 76,766

Green Line: 35,697

Gold Line: 16,318

Orange Line: 16,100

Q: How goes Tom LaBonge’s effort to save the elephants at the L.A. Zoo?

A: Not well.

You may recall that last year, to fulfill a campaign promise to animal activists, Villaraigosa ordered a study of the elephants and their cramped quarters.

It concluded that the zoo’s exhibit -- already slated to be expanded -- should probably be expanded further, but it would cost $40 million to $50 million.

Most council members are lukewarm to the idea of spending that much money, and Villaraigosa has been noncommittal.

“We have to have the council review the matter,” said the mayor after a recent news conference at the zoo with LaBonge.

The activists, meanwhile, want the zoo’s trio of elephants shipped to a roomier sanctuary somewhere else.

LaBonge believes deeply that the zoo affords most Angelenos their only chance to see a real elephant. He dearly wants them to stay. “The problem with the activists is they don’t believe in zoos,” he says. “I do.”

After his meeting with the mayor, LaBonge and zoo chief John Lewis visited Ruby the elephant, who is being kept in a yard away from public viewing because the old elephant yard has been torn up. Until city officials choose an expansion plan, it will stay that way.

LaBonge being LaBonge, he started climbing the fence to take Ruby’s photo. Ruby gave him the once-over and seemed to contemplate eating his camera.

The great beast then retreated, declining to comment on whether she believed that LaBonge was her likely savior.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Do the math

Pencils up ... and begin! The Times asked former Los Angeles Unified School District President Jose Huizar and each of the four candidates running to succeed him on the school board to solve an almost laughably easy algebra problem. And the participants were timed -- just to make it a little more fun. Here’s how they fared:

Jose Huizar

City Council member

Problem: x + 9 = 18 -- 2x

Time: 15.3 seconds

His answer: x = 3

Correct

The candidates:

Monica Garcia

Huizar’s former chief of staff

Problem: 2x -- 14 = 7 -- x

Time: 15.8 seconds

Her answer: x=7