Former Los Angeles schools chief runs against city's mayor

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(The Center Square) - Andrew Beutner, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, announced Monday he’s running against Mayor Karen Bass.

Beutner, 65, launched his campaign during a news conference at Harry Bridges Span School in Wilmington, a coastal neighborhood of Los Angeles. Beutner is the first candidate to announce a run against Bass. So far, real estate developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, has not announced his candidacy.

Beutner said he voted for Bass, who announced she's running for her second and final term next year under the city's term limits. He agrees with Bass that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shouldn't target people because of the color of their skin and signed an amicus brief in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals expansion.

But Beutner criticized the city's handling of the destructive Palisades Fire in January. 

“After 17 years in public life, I've learned how to get things done and how special LA is,” Beutner posted on X.  “But our city is adrift, and it’s time for us to work together to get LA back on track.

“It seems every day our city is becoming more expensive and less safe and a more difficult place to live,” Beutner said in a video attached to the post. Imagery referred to problems such as trash price hikes and business closures.

“The city spent billions to solve problems that have just become bigger problems: homelessness, the cost of housing, and the loss of jobs and opportunity,” Beutner said. “We’ll fight for what we need in Washington, but we need to solve our own problems.

“Fire hydrants that don’t work are a metaphor for the failure of leadership in City Hall,” Beutner said, referring to the problems with hydrants during the Palisades Fire.

Beutner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s in economics.

He went on to become an investment banker and philanthropist. He was the LAUSD superintendent in 2018-21 and has served as the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was also co-chair of the LA 2020 Commission and L.A. Unified Advisory Task Force. He started Vision to Learn, a Los Angeles nonprofit that gives students free eye exams and glasses.

This is Beutner's second run for mayor. He dropped out after a brief campaign in 2013.

Before that, as deputy mayor under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Beutner said he focused on job creation, led the effort to build Wilshire Grand Center, cut taxes for small businesses, oversaw record shipments to the Port of Los Angeles and saw tourism grow in Los Angeles.

“We cut in half the time needed to get a restaurant open,” Beutner said in his video on X.

When he was schools superintendent, Beutner said, Los Angeles Unified began a program putting a reading specialist in school classrooms, which led to gains in reading and math. 

Beutner also noted he authored Proposition 28 to put arts and music back into schools. The measure, which was designed to provide state funding for K-12 arts and music instruction, passed in 2022. 

The Center Square reached out to Bass' campaign, but did not receive an immediate response.