A Timely Lesson in Giving . . .

A major yardstick used to judge the value and attraction of a community is the quality of its schools. The Santa Ana City Council last Monday gave that sound concept its official recognition when it unanimously voted to give the overcrowded Santa Ana Unified School District $8 million in city redevelopment funds to help build needed new classrooms.

The action brought the city and school district together in an approach more communities ought to be taking.

The Santa Ana school district had been seeking some financial aid from the city, but school officials didn’t seem confident about how much help they would get. Relations between the school board and City Council have been strained. And the district wasn’t improving the climate by pushing its argument that the city’s aggressive redevelopment program was one reason why the school district was averaging an enrollment increase of more than 1,100 students over the last five years, while other districts in the county were losing attendance.

The city disputed that claim. It even produced statistics to show that housing units in Santa Ana decreased 9% between 1981 and 1984, while its population increased only 2.5%

Whatever impact the city’s redevelopment policies may have had, they weren’t the major cause of overcrowding in Santa Ana’s schools. Immigration and an increased birth rate would seem to be significantly greater reasons. The reasons, however, are not important. What is important is correcting the condition.

To its credit, the City Council, led by Mayor Daniel E. Griset, put the squabbling aside and seized the opportunity to make the point that providing good schools is a communitywide problem and responsibility. The city’s generosity in voting the $8 million stunned school officials. It was far more than any of them expected. It even surprised some members of the council, who seemed to be caught unaware by Griset’s $8-million proposal.

The need for new school buildings in many areas throughout California, and in some parts of the county, is outpacing the state’s ability to provide local districts with money for them. That fact was most evident in a special hearing of the Assembly Education Committee and Assembly Ways and Means education subcommittee held at the Orange County Department of Education headquarters last Tuesday morning.

Santa Ana school officials told the committee that the district would need up to five new elementary schools by 1990. The committee noted that the state will be at least $900 million short of the funds needed for new schools statewide in that period.

The state is considering several ways to raise money for new schools, including a bond issue or a constitutional amendment that would allow local districts to increase property taxes. It also is talking about incentives to encourage districts to go to year-round schooling to get greater use of existing buildings.

Some of Santa Ana’s schools are already on a year-round basis; the district in January is scheduled to vote on a proposal to extend it to six others. It has about 1,300 students in trailers and portable classrooms. That total will nearly triple next year unless new facilities are found. What’s needed now is money for more schools.

The $8 million the city voted the school district will help build at least one of the five new schools Santa Ana needs. More than that, it recognizes the importance of maintaining good schools in the community--and how much educational and economic good sense it makes for cities to use some of their redevelopment money toward that end.