A Forum on Crime, Safety; Aid for Beleaguered Schools : Mayor’s race: Taxes on video games, guns, smoking could raise $59.7 million for education.

Two principles describe the leadership I intend to provide. First, Los Angeles needs an activist, energetic steward of the public trust. Not just a new face, but new vitality, willing to break the conventional rules to get things done.

I grew up in Watts, attended public schools and Whittier College, became a football All-American, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and earned my law degree at Yale. I came home to Los Angeles.

Within the first 30 days of my administration, I will convene a forum on the future of Los Angeles. Its specific charge will be crime and public safety. I will insist that we establish strict deadlines for achieving the goals identified by that democratic convocation.

I intend to be held accountable for every decision I make. I will also insist that all Angelenos take greater responsibility for themselves, their kids, their families and their neighborhoods. Regularly scheduled town meetings, “open-phone” citizen teleconferencing, issues forums, everyday citizens invited weekly for unpaid “sabbaticals” to participate directly in the highest levels of City Hall’s decision-making--these initiatives will mark the kind of leadership I will provide.

Every decision I make as mayor will bring together market-driven management strategies with socially responsible public-policy goals. Take education. If you believe the conventional wisdom, the only choice we have is either to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District or to carry on with business as usual. That’s a false choice. Consider what’s really at stake. Too many parents feel left out of decisions on their children’s schooling options. Teachers and administrators too often view each other as adversaries. Our kids have to worry more about guns in the hallways than grades in their classrooms.

Over the past 20 years, the ratio between teachers and administrators has narrowed to absurd proportions. All the while, scarce resources are drained from the schools’ primary mission, to teach our kids to think for themselves and to prepare them for productive lives.

While the mayor has no authority for education, a mayor’s vision, tenacity and persuasive leadership can make a difference. In exchange for a firm commitment from LAUSD to cut administrative costs by 15% annually, I would raise $59.7 million annually from three innovative, market-driven but socially responsible initiatives:

* A 5-cent-per-use video game surcharge, with proceeds designated specifically for literacy and library programs, including books and classroom computers.

* A $5 surtax on every legal firearm purchase in the city of Los Angeles--either over-the-counter or by mail--with the proceeds designated for school safety. This would free up Police Department resources to fund at least 650 non-uniformed security personnelon our junior and senior high school campuses, including mentored former gang members.

* A 10% tax on anyone using smoking-only sections of restaurants, with proceeds going for school health and sex-education programs.

Added to the administrative savings, these new revenues will allow us to reduce class sizes and begin to pay teachers what they are worth. This kind of problem-solving can be applied across the full range of the mayor’s responsibilities.