Task Force Outlines Benefits of Dividing L.A. School District

Dividing the Los Angeles Unified School District into at least eight and as many as 49 smaller districts will improve academic performance and reduce the number of dropouts, according to a report issued Wednesday by a task force formed to study ways to break up the district.

The report shows that the present 610,000-student district is “incapable of addressing the legitimate education needs of Los Angeles-area students,” said Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge), a longtime advocate of breaking up the district, who formed the task force.

But two of the seven members appointed to serve on the Los Angeles Task Force for Better Education said that despite the report’s conclusions, they have not seen enough evidence to show that dividing the district would cure the many ills plaguing the schools.

“No one can isolate the size of the district and say that is causing all the problems,” said task force member Richard C. Williams, a professor of education at UCLA and director of the Corrine A. Seeds University Elementary School. “Gangs, poverty and immigration are issues that have to be taken into account.”

Williams said that although the testimony presented during the four hearings held by the La Follette task force was compelling, it was largely the opinions of parents and teachers unhappy with the way they have been treated by district officials. No school district personnel testified during the hearings held over the past eight months.

“Much of what we heard was anecdotal evidence,” Williams said. “This is not a study. This is an invitation to dance.”

Both Williams and task force member Leo Krzywkowski, associate dean of education at Cal State Northridge, said they heard enough testimony to support a detailed study of the effects of breaking up the Los Angeles school district.

“It presents a strong argument for looking at the issue,” Krzywkowski said. “But this is not a research paper.”

The state Board of Education today begins hearings in Sacramento to decide whether a $250,000 study by the Los Angeles County Commission on School District Organization is warranted. Gov. George Deukmejian has included money for the study in his proposed budget.

Dauna Packer, a parent and former school board candidate for the west San Fernando Valley, said a group known as United Parents of Los Angeles has sent the state board more than 4,000 letters during the past week supporting the study.

If money for the county study is included in the final state budget and a study is completed, then voters living within the boundaries of the 708-square-mile school district would decide the issue, probably in three years, La Follette said.

La Follette said questions of how to divide students, property and debt of the Los Angeles district would have to be answered by consultants hired by the county Commission on School District Organization. La Follette, who is leaving office after her term expires in December, said she did not know how much it would cost taxpayers to split up the district.

La Follette said student performance would improve in smaller districts because locally elected board members would be more likely to listen to suggestions by parents.

Los Angeles school district officials have said attempts to break up the district probably would face a legal challenge on the grounds that such a plan would create more segregated school districts.

Los Angeles school board President Jackie Goldberg criticized La Follette for the task force report and said more state money is needed for education.

“It’s a crime that California ranks 30th among the states in spending on education,” Goldberg said. “There is nothing to be gained by dividing up the district. It isn’t going to change any of our problems.”

United Teachers-Los Angeles President-elect Helen Bernstein said the district’s current efforts at school-based management are a better way to give parents and teachers more say in running neighborhood schools than breaking up the district. UTLA has a membership of 26,000 teachers in the Los Angeles district.

La Follette, who has served five terms in the Assembly, has made several unsuccessful attempts in past years to interest colleagues in legislation to break up the Los Angeles school district.

The other members of the task force were Bernard James of Pepperdine University School of Law; Ray Johnson, Inglewood chief of police; Edward W. Lee of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Los Angeles, and Ronald D. Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center in Encino. Jane Boeckmann, president of World Communications Inc., was also a member but did not attend any hearings, La Follette staff members said.

Former President Ronald Reagan, while governor in 1970, vetoed a bill aimed at breaking up the Los Angeles school district, saying the measure would hamper efforts at the time to divide the district into administrative regions.

NEXT STEP Hearings begin today in Sacramento to decide whether a $250,000 study of a school district breakup is warranted. If money is included in the state budget and a study is completed, then voters living within the boundaries of the 708-square-mile school district would decide the issue, probably in three years after consultants submit recommendations on how to divide students, property and debt.

Times staff writer Jack Cheevers contributed to this story.