Debate Over Carson School District Raises Funding Issues : Education: Adding another bureaucracy isn’t the answer, an L.A. district official says in a TV forum. Proponents want more local control over the budget.

While acknowledging that the Los Angeles school district needs reform, a district official has disputed whether a separate Carson district could do better.

“I think education reform is more than just a word,” said Daniel Lawson, the Los Angeles Unified School District administrator of the region that covers Carson. “I think all districts recognize that there has to be continuous reforms. Los Angeles recognizes that there has to be reform.

“Accountability needs to be shifted to the local school. If the (Carson) plan is to create another bureaucracy, then you have another centralized, top-down situation.”

The question of Carson splitting off from the Los Angeles Unified School District was the topic last week of a forum televised by Continental Cablevision Channel 26. Representatives from the school district, the teachers union, a parents group advocating a Carson district and the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) school reform group weighed the pros and cons of the idea.

It was the only forum planned before Carson voters are asked in a June 8 special election if they want the city to pursue seceding from the Los Angeles school system.

Mayor Michael I. Mitoma, who prompted the City Council to place the non-binding question on the ballot, said a breakaway Carson district would allow parents a greater say in their children’s education. He said the 640,000-student district is too big to serve all of its students adequately and is prone to financial problems.

The secession movement in Carson, other South Bay communities and the San Fernando Valley gained momentum after state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said he would push for a breakup of the district.

The state Senate Education Committee on Wednesday approved a bill sponsored by Roberti that would establish a commission to carve up Los Angeles Unified into seven districts of about 100,000 students. The bill now must pass the Senate Appropriations Committee before the full Senate considers it. A tough fight is expected.

Carolyn Harris, who represented Carson parents advocating a breakup on the Continental cable show, argued that a Carson district would provide residents with their own board of trustees to steer spending and curriculum.

Harris related parent concerns that some schools lack not only books but also incidental supplies such as toilet paper. Parent complaints to the administration and board of trustees have not been answered adequately, she said.

“The Los Angeles board of trustees has abdicated its responsibility,” said Harris, adding that the teachers union, United Teachers-Los Angeles, has too much sway with the board.

Harris said a Carson school board could better manage a smaller district. About 16,000 Carson students attend Los Angeles and Compton schools. Advocates also want to break with the Compton district, which operates one elementary school in north Carson.

But Lawson, Anthony Thompson, a LEARN trustee, and Edward Zschoche, chairman of the teachers union southern district, all said the LEARN plan would be the best way to achieve reform in the schools.

The Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, as LEARN is formally known, calls for shifting control of hiring and curriculum to the local schools under the guidance of the principal, teachers and parents.

The Los Angeles school board adopted the recommendations last month, but it will take five years and $60 million in government and private funds to implement them in the district’s 650 schools. LEARN has vowed to raise the $3 million needed to begin the program in 30 schools this summer and has expressed optimism that the rest of the money will come when the schools show they have improved.

Lawson also raised concerns over how a Carson district would be funded, something advocates have yet to fully explain.

Typically, a breakaway district inherits the school buildings and students and qualifies for state funding and federal grants. But Lawson said the Carson district would lack the pull in Sacramento and Washington that the huge Los Angeles district enjoys.

“I simply challenge Carson to do better than we are doing now, with more limited resources,” Lawson said, adding that Carson students fare better than most Los Angeles Unified students on state test scores.

“What I am not hearing is what the children will get out of this,” Lawson said. “I am concerned about what difference it is going to make for Carson children in the district, and that has not been answered.”

Addressing Harris, Thompson said: “All the things you are asking for--authority, independence, control--are in the LEARN proposal.”

He countered Harris’ skepticism over whether Los Angeles would go through with LEARN, saying no previous reform attempt has been as ambitious and has enjoyed as much broad support.

The Carson City Council originally planned several forums around the city on the school breakup, but backed off when it learned of the cable TV program.