Mayoral Candidate Tom Hayden Addresses Education, Crime Prevention and the Minimum Wage
A teen discusses Tom Hayden’s political views.
“”Hello? Who’s this?” a voice over the phone screams.
“Tom Hayden here at Channel 2. How can I help you?”
“Tom what?” the voice asks.
It is Friday, February 28, a Friday of mayhem. A Hollywood bank has just been robbed and Hayden and a group of journalists are answering calls at the Channel 2 HelpLine center to help fellow residents or victims affected by the robbery.
“Tom Hayden,” he says. “Senator Tom Hayden. I’m running for mayor.”
Hayden is not an extremely prominent candidate for the office of mayor, probably because his campaign has not been as well funded as his opponent’s. While Mayor Riordan has raised just over $2.4 million, Hayden has raised $22,016, according to campaign statements released in early February, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.
Standing before numerous cameras, Hayden had previously called the average $25,000 Riordan donation “a blatant violation of campaign finance laws” and demanded that the city’s Ethics Commision investigate his allegations.
The scandal has far from thwarted Riordan’s hold on voters. A recent poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times shows that the city’s likely voters favor Riordan over Hayden by a 2-1 margin.
You might have heard of Hayden because he used to be married to Jane Fonda, though they divorced in 1990. He was an activist against Vietnam and has served 15 years in the California Legislature. A longtime Catholic, he recently authored a book, The Lost Gospel of the Earth, about the spiritual roots of his efforts to protect the environment.
Another thing Hayden wants to protect is education.
“The problem with the system is that there are so many levels and departments that it’s hard for a mayor to directly change something,” the 57-year-old candidate said. “The mayor only has the control of the budget.”
“The schools I see now are modeled after 19th century industrial factories, the blinds, the seats, everything,” he said. “I think that technology is going in the right direction though. I’d like to see all schools hooked up to the Information Superhighway.”
Hayden would also like to see teacher and student relationships improve. “I want students to take more initiative, and teachers to be more like guides than bosses,” Hayden said.
More after-school programs
The mayoral candidate also wants to enforce “full-service programs” at schools, which would keep school open for tutoring and other activities from three in the afternoon until midnight. He would like to incorporate adult education and community service into afterschool programs as well.
“Most teen violence occurs after 3. The idea is that if kids could stay on campus at school they will be less likely to commit crimes. That would make the school an all-day community.”
However, Hayden opposes curfews.
“I am completely against curfews. I think it antagonizes kids and leads to other abuses on behalf of the police department. I don’t think that a cop should stop a kid just because they’re out past 10:15 at night. There should be a cause for any stop. I do understand that that is not the popular opinion, but I’m not going to go along with it just because others do.”
Earlier in his campaign, Hayden attacked Riordan for breaking his promise of putting 3,000 new police officers on the street.
“Riordan talks about all those things but he hasn’t done them,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s typical of him to disconnect himself from the things that are his responsibillity. It’s his Police Commission. If he wants these things of the Police Department, then get them.”
The senator said the focus should be on creating a better police force, rather than simply increasing the number of officers. Our society must not only be tough on crime, but tough on the causes of crime, by addressing such issues as education and poverty, the senator argued in a Times opinion article in February. He wants to mobilize 3,000 college students as afterschool tutors at Los Angeles schools, a program he said would dramatically reduce the number of school drop-outs. These students would tutor inner city students for free and have their own college tuition reduced. “These people would be trained. I don’t want the program or any program that I launch to be perceived as a missionary trip to the ghetto,” he noted.
The millionaire and Brent-wood resident supports increasing salaries to a minimum $7.50 an hour including health benefits and $9.50 without, with exemptions for small businesses. “The living wage promotes justice and a better economy. In a way it gives a worker more respect. It gives a chance for families to afford a movie or the neighborhood shop.””