Goldberg Criticizes School Board’s Ethnic Ratios Vote

Los Angeles school board member Jackie Goldberg harshly criticized her colleagues Tuesday for voting to uphold existing ethnic ratios at 28 magnet programs in the district, calling the action the latest example of the board’s inability to find equitable solutions to overcrowding.

The seven-member school board considered a proposal at a meeting Monday that would have allowed minority enrollment at 41 magnet schools to increase to 70% from 60% beginning in the fall. On a 4-3 vote, it approved the change for only 13 schools, however, most of which are located in minority communities or already had a predominantly minority enrollment. Most of the remaining 28 schools are in white areas, mainly in the San Fernando Valley, on the Westside and in the Harbor area.

By refusing to revise the ratio at a majority of the 41 schools under consideration, the board denied students from overcrowded schools a chance to have “new space opened up for them” and ensured that many minority students would continue to face long waits to get into the specialized schools, Goldberg said.

“That is very disheartening, to say the least. . . . The board does not seem to be interested in taking any political heat from anybody to solve overcrowding. The message it gives is if your area is affluent enough, you don’t have to be bothered with the problems of the district. That is a terrible message.”

Goldberg had proposed the change last November because she said it would be more equitable to minorities, who make up 83% of the district’s 587,000-student enrollment, and would also offer a partial solution to the crowding at many predominantly minority schools.

Priority for admission to magnet schools is given to students from overcrowded campuses, which are predominantly minority. But more than two-thirds of the 10,000 students on waiting lists for magnet schools this year were members of minority groups.

The magnet programs enroll 26,000 students, of whom 30% are white. Districtwide, white students make up only 17% of enrollment.

Court Desegregation Order

The ratios were originally the result of a court desegregation order. In order to change the ratios, the district must first conduct a study to show that altering them would not result in racial segregation in the schools.

Warren Furutani, one of the four board members to approve the ratio change at a reduced number of schools, disagreed with Goldberg.

“For me, more seats for minorities is not the issue,” he said. “We took a step in that direction. But I don’t see magnet schools as being a solution to overcrowding. The ultimate solution, as I see it, is (creating) more magnets.”

Altering the ethnic formula at 41 of the district’s 86 magnet schools could have made room for an additional 300 to 500 minority students, according to Theodore Alexander, assistant superintendent in charge of integration programs.

Four Against

The four board members who voted against the ratio change were Furutani, Julie Korenstein, Roberta Weintraub and Alan Gershman--the same four members who succeeded in stalling indefinitely a plan introduced last year that called for placing all of the district’s more than 600 schools on year-round operation to ease severe crowding occurring chiefly in the most heavily minority communities of the sprawling school system.

The 13 magnet programs where the new ethnic ratio will be implemented are Amestoy Elementary Multilingual, Loyola Village Elementary Performing and Visual Arts, Baldwin Hills Elementary Gifted/High Ability, Bancroft Junior High Television and Performing Arts, Westside Alternative, Porter Junior High Gifted, Eagle Rock Elementary Gifted, Eagle Rock Elementary High Gifted, Fairfax High Visual Arts, Narbonne High Math/Science, North Hollywood High/Los Angeles Zoo Animal and Biological Science, San Pedro High Marine Science and Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies.