Korenstein for School Board

The Los Angeles Board of Education sets policy for the second-largest school district in the nation. Board members must address academic challenges, overcrowding and budget shortfalls, all monumental tasks with the future of 590,000 youngsters depending on whether they meet the challenges well.

One open seat will be filled in the runoff election Tuesday, June 2. We recommend Julie Korenstein, the coordinator of an innovative community service program at Chatsworth High School that allows students to learn about the real world.

The west San Fernando Valley district differs greatly from the rest of the city. The schools have room to spare, so the focus is on how to keep neighborhood schools open rather than on how to relieve overcrowding. West Valley schools also have lots of white students in a system that has few, so a change in the integration formula translates to an influx of outsiders. Korenstein would represent the prevailing views in the district, including opposition to year-round schooling--a view we oppose--but she is neither abrasive nor inflexible.

To a school system with the highest dropout rate in the state, Korenstein would bring experience in running a program for dropouts. In a city with large numbers of children who don’t speak English, her understanding of the importance and the imperfections of bilingual education would be an asset. In a nation that has an exploding teen-age birth rate, Korenstein’s unrestrained support for school-based clinics would protect the potential of thousands of would-be mothers.

Korenstein is more in tune with the needs of students in Los Angeles than her opponent, Barbara Romey, a businesswoman with a narrower view of what is best for the public schools.

Korenstein has the confidence of classroom teachers, as indicated by support from the union, United Teachers-Los Angeles. She also deserves the confidence of voters next Tuesday.