Early last summer, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) proposed the Public School Choice plan which will relinquish LAUSD administrative and financial control of over 200 schools. Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines released a statement on Jan. 15 in which he stressed that LAUSD is "encouraging input from all community members who support [their] public schools including parents, guardians, students, teachers and other LAUSD employees."