Can School Board Hopefuls Handle a Pop Quiz?
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.
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