Five for the School Board

The Los Angeles Board of Education election on Tuesday comes at a moment when the board faces unusually complex and numerous challenges. Enrollment is growing in the already massive, overcrowded Los Angeles unified district. State aid and lottery revenues earmarked for schools are declining. A labor dispute over pay raises for teachers is unresolved. A popular and respected superintendent is leaving. And the biggest challenge of all remains: How to make more effective the education of the 590,000 youngsters who attend Los Angeles public schools.

Although high-school seniors made modest gains this year on the standardized state test of basic skills, an improvement worth noting, the district still must address the low achievement of many students, the increasing number of students who don’t speak English and the high drop-out rate.

Because we believe that they are well suited to handle these difficulties, we are endorsing for the board two incumbents, Rita Walters and Jackie Goldberg, and three newcomers--Doug Wolf, Leticia Quezada and Warren Furutani.

In the 1st District--which covers most of South-Central Los Angeles--two-term incumbent Rita Walters faces three challengers. The best-known is Mark Ridley-Thomas, the local head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Walters deserves another term largely because of the strong effort that she made to persuade the school district to require all students who participate in athletics or other extracurricular activities to maintain a C average. We are troubled, however, by criticisms too consistent to be dismissed as campaign rhetoric that she has put distance between herself and some constituents. She should make herself more accessible.

In the 3rd District--which stretches from downtown to Hollywood--incumbent Jackie Goldberg faces a rematch with Tony Trias, the board member whom she unseated four years ago. Her record is splendid. Among many things, she was instrumental in revising grading procedures in primary schools and co-authored the school-based clinic proposal to address both general health concerns and the high pregnancy rate among high-school students. She led the fight to put a 1,000-student limit at elementary schools. She should continue to serve.

In the 4th District--which covers the West San Fernando Valley--the open seat has attracted seven candidates. Doug Wolf, a young attorney who specializes in cases involving abused or missing children, is pragmatic, informed on education problems and policies and the least ideological of the candidates. He understands the possible need for more year-round schooling, even in a community where schools are not crowded. He has experience in Sacramento, where so much education money originates. He belongs on the board.

In the 5th District--which stretches from Highland Park to Huntington Park--the open seat has attracted three candidates. Leticia Quezada, a member of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, has proved again and again her commitment to improving education opportunities in her community. A skilled politician, she should be able to use those skills to benefit the district. She, too, would help the board be more effective in addressing its massive problems.

In the 7th District--which stretches from Watts to San Pedro--the incumbent, John Greenwood, has been a moderate voice since his election in 1979; it proved especially valuable during the contentious anti-busing era. We conclude, however, that Warren Furutani would provide more energetic leadership for the increasingly diverse district. Furutani, an administrator at UCLA, has worked with youths as a county youth commissioner and in anti-gang and anti-drug programs. The board needs the kind of vigor that he would bring to the office.