Assemblywoman Pushes Fight to Split Up Schools : Task Force Gets Mixed Reaction at Hearing

Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette continued her longtime campaign to sever the San Fernando Valley from the Los Angeles Unified School District during a hearing Tuesday in Van Nuys before an advisory committee that she created.

La Follette (R-Northridge), whose attempts in past years to break up the massive school district have died in legislative committees, is hoping that the state Board of Education will put the issue before voters in 1991, said Robert Wilcox, an aide.

To that end, La Follette earlier this year created the Los Angeles Task Force for Better Education, a 10-member advisory committee she leads. After completing a series of public hearings, the committee will issue its recommendations to the state board, probably by early next year, said Wilcox, the committee’s executive director.

If the committee recommends a proposal to break up the Los Angeles district--the nation’s second largest--the idea could be put before voters with the endorsement of the state board and the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization.

Although committee members say they are undecided on the issue, La Follette for several years has said that breaking the Los Angeles district into smaller districts would improve education by making schools more responsive to demands by parents. Los Angeles school board members seldom pay much attention to parents who address them at board meetings because of the size of the district, La Follette said.

Black, Latino Support

Unlike past attempts, which were supported mainly by white San Fernando Valley parents, La Follette this time has support from black and Latino parents outside the Valley who are also unhappy about low test scores, high dropout rates and overcrowded classrooms, Wilcox said.

“I’ve traveled all around this district and minorities are saying, ‘Give us the money, give us the authority,’ ” Wilcox said.

But breaking the district into 10 or 15 smaller districts, each governed by its own school board, would likely run into several obstacles, probably including constitutional challenges that the plan would promote segregation, attorney and former Los Angeles school board member Tom Bartman said at Tuesday’s hearing.

Other opposition will come from Los Angeles school board members, as well as the 22,000-member Los Angeles teachers union. United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson was highly critical of the committee when it was created earlier this year and declined to appear before it.

School board President Jackie Goldberg said the plan would deliver none of its promises of improved education but would instead prompt costly lawsuits.

Mixed Reaction

Reaction to the idea was mixed among the 40 or so people at Tuesday’s hearing in the Van Nuys State Building.

Northridge resident Charles Najbergier called the idea “a subtle and sophisticated form of segregation” and “a shamefully racist plan.”

La Follette denied the accusation and asked Najbergier to cut short his comments because “you don’t know the true facts.”

Others who testified, such as Granada Hills parent Howard Goldsmith, agreed with La Follette that the district should be broken into smaller districts. But he added that families must also share some of the blame for the poor showing by Los Angeles schools in measures such as state assessment tests.

“We’re talking about grades, drugs, AIDS; we can’t expect teachers to do everything for us,” Goldsmith said.

At least two more hearings are planned by the committee later this fall.