School Board Candidates Trade Digs at TV Taping

In a preview of the tactics that the West Valley school board candidates plan to pursue in the final days before the June 4 election, Elizabeth Ginsburg and David Armor on Wednesday hammered at each other over Armor’s residence changes, mandatory busing and how best to represent the area on the Los Angeles school board.

The candidates debated during the taping of “School Beat,” a public affairs program that will be aired at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on Channel 9.

Ginsburg, a government teacher at Chatsworth High School, put Armor on the defensive when she brought up his residency record in the West Valley.

“Mr. Armor has not lived in the West Valley very long,” Ginsburg said. “He has transferred his residency a few times in order to run for political office. His children did not go to Valley schools. He is not familiar with . . . conditions in the West Valley.”

Other Homes No Secret

Armor, a college professor who specializes in education, has never made it a secret that he owns a home in Malibu and a condominium in Tarzana, which he purchased before his unsuccessful bid to unseat Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Tarzana) in 1982.

Los Angeles County registrar-recorder files show that Armor first registered to vote in Tarzana in March, 1982. Armor said he had to move back to the Malibu residence after his November, 1982 defeat, however, because of the financial burden of maintaining both residences.

“I owned two homes and had to rent the condominium, “ he said in an interview after the debate.

Armor said he returned to the Tarzana condominium in late 1984. Voter registration records show he registered again in the Valley in November, 1984, about a month before the period during which candidates must declare their intention to run for political office.

‘Involved Since 1977’

“I’ve been involved with Valley parents since 1977 when we were asked to do a study on school busing . . . I have never lost touch with parents in the West Valley,” Armor said during the debate.

“While I may not have lived as long there as Mrs. Ginsburg, I was there when it counted, when they (West Valley parents) were being devastated by mandatory busing,” Armor said.

Parke Skelton, Ginsburg’s campaign manager, said that, as the election nears, Ginsburg will focus on Armor’s residency, his experience with the local school system and his stands on district policy.

Presses Busing Issue

As he has from the beginning of the campaign, Armor made an issue of mandatory busing even though there has been no forced busing in the district since 1981.

He said that a 1984 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that would allow retrial of part of the Crawford desegregation case could mean the return of mandatory busing. The school board has voted to appeal that decision.

“It’s really critical. The West Valley can’t take a chance with a representative that does not have a proven track record in opposition to mandatory busing,” Armor said. “The West Valley simply can’t afford another experiment with mandatory busing.”

Ginsburg countered that she also opposes mandatory busing, and said that Armor has tried to create the illusion that they are on opposite sides of the issue.

“I have often been accused of not having enough fervor against busing,” she said. “I don’t know, maybe I should go out and burn a school bus.”

More Anti-Busing Literature

Armor gave prominent display to his anti-busing stand in the campaign literature that he mailed to West Valley residents during the primary election. According to Arnold Steinberg, an adviser to the Armor campaign, Armor will mail similar literature during the waning days of the runoff campaign.

The debate began with both candidates giving differing descriptions of the kind of representative they believe the West Valley needs on the Los Angeles school board. They are running for the seat being vacated by Tom Bartman, the attorney for Bustop, the Valley-based anti-busing group.

“The West Valley needs an advocate. We have been sadly neglected over the last four years . . . I think we have sacrificed many of the things we should be having on the altar of giving the inner-city schools certain privileges,” Ginsburg said. “As a member of the school board, I would be voting in behalf of West Valley children.”

Armor used his description of the type of representative the West Valley needs to again bring up the possibility of a renewal of the mandatory-busing trial.

Good for All Children

Armor said that, although “it is terribly important to represent the West Valley,” an educational policy, “if it’s good, is good for all the children everywhere.

“As an expert who has worked on the school segregation issue and as a critic of mandatory busing throughout the country, I think I will be in a position to represent what the West Valley needs most, a strong advocate who will do the kind of things we have to do to defend ourselves against that lawsuit.”

School Board member Roberta Weintraub is usually the host of the School Beat program. Because Weintraub has endorsed Armor’s candidacy, however, she turned the moderating duties over to veteran news anchorman Ted Meyers.