McKeon Asks U.S. for Advice on Schools Breakup Plan : L.A. Unified: In a letter to new Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, the congressman seeks assistance in developing a proposal that would not violate civil rights laws.

Joining the movement to split up the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District, freshman Congressman Howard P. (Buck) McKeon has requested help from the new U.S. attorney general, Janet Reno, to ensure that any breakup plan will not violate school segregation laws.

In a letter dated Thursday--the same day Reno was confirmed in the nation’s top law enforcement post--McKeon expressed his support for dividing Los Angeles’ “overburdened school system” but told Reno that some critics contend a breakup would isolate and harm poor and minority students.

“I am convinced this will not be the case,” the Santa Clarita Republican wrote. “Nevertheless, I am asking for your assistance in determining what guidelines such a proposal must follow to comply with federal civil rights laws.”

If Reno agrees to McKeon’s request, that would be the first federal involvement in an issue that has dominated Los Angeles politics for weeks.

Last month, state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), the powerful Senate president pro tem, introduced a bill that would create a commission charged with producing a proposal to break up the Los Angeles school district into at least seven smaller systems.

A hearing on the proposed breakup is to be held today in Van Nuys by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), principal co-author of the Roberti legislation. McKeon--a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor--is scheduled to testify.

Armando Azarloza, a spokesman for McKeon, acknowledged that splitting the school district--the nation’s second largest--”is really a state and local issue more than anything else” but said there is a federal role because national civil rights and school integration laws could be involved in the breakup, which opponents have promised to challenge in court.

“No one really has approached anybody on the federal level to come up with a solution” to the racial problems posed by dividing the district, Azarloza said. “We’re trying to clear the deck of federal issues so that we can go ahead with the breakup.”

Although most of McKeon’s district lies in Santa Clarita--where McKeon formerly served as mayor--a third of the district encompasses areas served by the Los Angeles school system, including the San Fernando Valley communities of Chatsworth, Northridge, North Hills and Mission Hills, Azarloza said.

McKeon is also a former trustee of the William S. Hart Union High School District located in Santa Clarita.