Mayor Hahn on Education

By James Kenneth Hahn

Highlights of Mayor Hahn's record

Although the Los Angeles School Board runs the public schools, Mayor Hahn is working to improve educational opportunities for Los Angeles students by expanding after school programs, making schools safer, promoting literacy and working with the school district to build schools more quickly to relieve overcrowding.

Mayor Hahn dramatically expanded the city's LA's BEST after school program to serve over 5,500 additional students at more than 45 additional schools. His successful Cash for College program has helped over 20,000 students apply for the financial aid they need to go to college.

Mayor Hahn has received awards from the National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions, the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, and the California Association of Student Aid Administrators in recognition of his efforts.

Below are highlights of Mayor Hahn's record on education.

EXPANDING AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

• Expanded the city's nationally-recognized LA's BEST after school program to serve over 5,500 additional students at more than 45 additional schools. The program now provides free of charge a safe, educational, and fun place for more than 20,000 Los Angeles students at over 120 elementary schools.

• Supports the L.A. Bridges program, which works to keep middle school students out of gangs.

• Worked with Sony Pictures Entertainment and California Institute of the Arts Community Arts Partnership to offer after school animation and art classes to students ages 10 to 14.

• Created the Cash for College program, which has helped over 20,000 Los Angeles students and their families gain access to financial aid and cash grant opportunities. The program trains thousands of volunteers to assist families with filling out complicated financial aid forms. In 2003, Mayor Hahn received the Distinguished Service Award from the California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in recognition of his commitment to helping students go to college.

• Strongly supported LAPD's efforts to establish plans for protecting critical locations, such as schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, movie studios, office buildings, the Port of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles International Airport. Known as Operation Archangel, the program has been designated as a national model.

• Worked with the city's Department of Transportation and LAUSD to plan and fund improvements to streets, sidewalks, and lighting around schools to help make them safer for children, parents, caregivers, bus drivers, and school employees.

• Worked with the Los Angeles Police Department and LA Department of Transportation to create the Safety Valet Program that trains volunteers to monitor traffic safety when children are being dropped off or picked up from school.

• As City Attorney, worked with the University of Southern California to establish the city's Kid Watch program, which trains neighborhood volunteers to protect children going to and from school in areas of the city most heavily impacted by violent gang activity and drug trafficking.

• Established a School Facilities Division in the Mayor's Office to work with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on building new schools and promote agreements that allow greater community use of school facilities. These agreements now allow for the shared use of facilities such as city parks, pools, and tennis courts and school fields, gyms, and auditoriums.

• Worked to develop an agreement that is helping to bring a new elementary school and affordable housing to the Westlake neighborhood. The community became concerned about competing needs for more housing and schools when the school district identified property that had already been acquired by a non-profit housing developer as a potential site for a new school. Mayor Hahn worked with Councilman Ed Reyes, the school district, and community organizations to find additional properties so that both projects could move forward.

• Working with LAUSD and the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing to develop plans that integrate schools, housing and early childhood centers.

• Created Literacy@Work: The Los Angeles Workforce Literacy Project to provide services to under-educated adults. Mayor Hahn's efforts were recognized by the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, which awarded him the 2003 Outstanding Literacy Champion Award, and the National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions, which presented him an award for his dedication, support and commitment to increasing literacy in Los Angeles.

• Worked with the Los Angeles Public Library to open or renovate over 25 branch libraries, which are equipped with computers to provide access to the Internet, adult literacy services, and activities to encourage children to read. The library construction program was managed so successfully that two additional libraries are being built with the savings.

• Worked with the library department to successfully advocate for a $5.7 million state grant for the construction of the Harbor Gateway-Harbor City Branch Library, which will work with the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide a homework center for students, including those at Nathaniel Narbonne Senior High School.

• Created the One Book, One City L.A. program to encourage Los Angeles residents to read the same book and participate in local discussion groups and activities. Books selected for the program include Fahrenheit 451 in 2002, The House on Mango Street in 2003, and Seabiscuit in 2004.