Three for Community College

The Los Angeles community colleges are among the nation’s most accessible institutions of higher education. Today they face big challenges and changing roles as two-year institutions. Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed tripling student fees and cutting state funding about 11%.

The budget squeeze comes at a time when the community colleges might play an increasingly important educational role in light of President Clinton’s emphasis on apprentice and other training programs.

Three seats on the Los Angeles Community College District’s seven-member policy-making board of trustees are up for election. Trustees are elected at large from throughout the nine-college district. Among the problems they will face is resolving a long-running squabble over whether the board should operate out of rented quarters or a district-owned building.

Office No. 2: We prefer Elizabeth Garfield, a labor lawyer who teaches at Trade-Technical College and at UCLA, over incumbent Patrick Owens, who won his seat four years ago in a surprise victory over an aide of Mayor Tom Bradley. Garfield offers doable proposals, such as a bond measure for capital improvements, and a pragmatic attitude, working toward more partnerships with business.

She is married to Wallace Knox, the board’s president. Detractors use the marriage against her, but Garfield has substantial credentials of her own.

Office No. 4: Lindsay Conner, an attorney, was first elected to the board 12 years ago. In his case, long tenure becomes a recommendation, given the common complaint that candidates take school and college board jobs merely as steppingstones to higher office. Conner is thoroughly familiar with the district’s financial problems and is respected by colleagues: He recently was elected president of the statewide California Community College Trustees--a position from which he might be able to do the district some extra good.

Office No. 6: Incumbent Althea Baker, an attorney specializing in family issues, deserves a second term on the board, to which she was first elected in 1989. She is proudest of her contributions to the district’s fiscal management and to the current peace with labor.