THE TIMES POLL : Valley Residents Give Low Grade to Public Schools

Nearly half of all San Fernando Valley residents believe their public schools are delivering an inadequate education, and a clear majority support a Valley breakaway from the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District as a means of achieving more local control.

Reflecting similar concerns across the city, Valley residents consider crime and lack of money to be the biggest problems facing a school district that has suffered the on-campus shooting deaths of two students this year and sharp declines in funding levels. And almost two-thirds of Valley public school parents say they would enroll their children in private or parochial institutions if they could afford it.

A Los Angeles Times poll of 966 Valley residents, conducted April 24-25 by Times Poll Director John Brennan, reveals a high level of dissatisfaction with the Los Angeles school system at a time when labor strife and unpopular policy decisions have prompted increasing criticism of school district management.

Only 31% of the poll respondents believe that Valley schools are doing at least an adequate job of educating youngsters, while 48% of those surveyed are split between rating school quality “inadequate” or “very poor.”

But in a finding that mirrors state and nationwide trends, parents of children on public campuses generally give higher marks to public education than residents as a whole. Fifty-six percent of Valley public school parents characterize local schools as adequate or excellent; 41% describe them as unsatisfactory or worse.

“If you get to know the schools and are involved, you realize the teachers are dedicated” and school quality seems good, said Carolyn Ellner, dean of the School of Education at Cal State Northridge. “When you get your information from the press and you get it secondhand, you form a different opinion.”

The mixed reviews given public schools in the Valley come against the backdrop of a revived movement to separate the Valley from the Los Angeles school system--the nation’s second largest. The drive began after an acrimonious reapportionment battle last year and has gained momentum, with state and local lawmakers striking up a cause that has failed in the past.

According to the Times Poll--which has a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points--60% of Valley residents favor the creation of their own school system. The rest were about evenly divided between those who oppose the move and those unsure about it.

Even public school parents who feel their children are now receiving a good education think that students would be better served if the Valley broke off from the giant Los Angeles system and formed its own district.

“There are too many students for the people downtown to be able to have control over. The downtown area is just basically concerned with themselves and not with any of the outlying schools,” said poll participant Audrey Kyber of Woodland Hills, echoing the complaints of many Valley parents.

If the district were sliced into several independent units, including one encompassing the Valley, “the children would be able to get more attention in the classroom instead of worrying about the bureaucracy,” said Kyber, 47, whose six children all attended local public schools. Her youngest son is a student at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills.

Opponents of a breakup, including minority groups and civil rights advocates, have charged that the Valley secession drive springs from the same racist motives that they say sparked the Valley antibusing movement of the 1970s. A breakup, opponents contend, would deny minority children equal educational opportunities by relegating them to inferior schools in poor neighborhoods.

But support for a Valleywide school system crosses some ethnic lines. A plurality of Latinos in the Valley back the move (45%), though in far fewer numbers than their Anglo counterparts (68%). The sampling of black and Asian poll respondents was too small to be analyzed separately.

But 29% of Latinos oppose dismantling the district, compared to 14% of Anglo residents.

To Yolanda Nieto, mother of two schoolchildren in Panorama City, a breakup could be the first step toward segregated school systems that would only prime the pump of racial hostility in the city.

“It’s like, ‘Everybody should stick to their own kind,’ ” said Nieto, 44, who has lived in the Valley for 20 years. “The Hispanics will stay in one group, blacks will stay in another. . . . It would be more isolating, and it would create more tensions.”

Interestingly, spinning off a Valley school district generates more support than opposition regardless of income level, although support is by far the strongest--more than three out of four--among respondents in middle-class households that make $40,000 to $60,000 annually.

Backing for a separate school system also cuts across political ideology, commanding majorities among self-identified liberals, moderates and conservatives. More conservatives (70%) like the idea of a Valley district than liberals (56%).

A Valley breakaway, however, garners much less support from residents outside the area. Based on the findings of a citywide Los Angeles Times Poll in February, 1993, only 44% of residents who do not live in the Valley favor the idea of a separate school district.

About two of every three Valley residents rate private and parochial schools as adequate or better, a sentiment shared by a majority of respondents in all major demographic groups, whether defined by political leaning, household income, religion, sex or ethnicity.

In fact, while most Valley parents of school-age children enroll at least one of their youngsters in public school, 64% of public school parents would put their children in parochial or private institutions if finances were not an issue--including Dale Craghead of Sherman Oaks, whose two daughters are in public schools.

“It’s been feeling more like an uphill battle day by day,” said Craghead, 39. “The teachers’ morale is low” in the Los Angeles school district, which finally ratified the teachers’ contract last week and barely averted a crippling strike.

“It would be nice for the children to be in an environment where the teacher feels really good about what she’s doing and is free to teach,” Craghead said.

Poll participants also express concern about campus safety. An equal number of those surveyed (21%) ranked crime and underfunding as the biggest problems facing public schools, as urban ills once thought confined to the inner city have crept into the Valley.

But four out of five public school parents think their children feel safe at school, and only 9% reported crimes of any kind--including theft and verbal abuse--against their children.

But the fear is still there among parents, said CSUN’s Ellner.

“More and more violence is coming to the Valley, and that’s going to change public perceptions of public schools. The fear of children getting hurt is terrible,” Ellner said. She said these issues are at the forefront of parents’ concerns.

Poll respondent Mary Baskin, 32, a warehouse coordinator who lives in Northridge, worries that her second-grader will be thrust onto increasingly violent campuses.

“At this age I can live with it,” she said. “But when he gets older, we want to move out of state. It’s not safe here. It’s horrible. I don’t want my son to be exposed to what’s going on.”

Assistant Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus contributed to this story.

Education Choices

Most Valley residents with children in public schools would prefer to see their children in private schools.

Generally speaking, if cost were not an issue, do you prefer that your children be in private or public schools? Prefer Private: 64% Prefer public: 31% Don’t know: 5% Source: Los Angeles Times Poll

HOW THE POLL WAS CONDUCTED

The Times Poll interviewed 966 San Fernando Valley adults from the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando, by telephone, April 24 and 25. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the area. Random-digit dialing techniques were used to ensure that both listed and non-listed numbers had an opportunity to be contacted. The sample was weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and household size. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points. For certain subgroups, the error margin is somewhat higher. Poll results can also be affected by other factors such as question wording and the order in which questions are presented.

Making the Grade

Valley residents are divided when it comes to grading the adequacy of its public schools, but most support San Fernando Valley schools separating from the L.A.U.S.D. to form an independent district.

Rating Your Schools

In general, how would you rate the quality of the education provided for children by your local public schools? Excellent: 6% Adequate: 25% Inadequate: 24% Very poor: 24% Don’t know: 21% *

Breaking Away

Do you support the idea of the San Fernando Valley schools breaking away from the L.A.U.S.D. to form an independent Valley school district? Support: 60% Oppose: 19% Don’t know: 21% *

School Problems?

What do you think is the most important problem facing your local public schools today?+ Problem Underfunding: 21% Crime/gang violence: 21% Not enough money for books: 12% Too many students: 12% Poor teachers: 9% Teachers not paid enough: 8% Quality of education: 7% Parents: 6% Bureaucracy: 5% Discipline: 5% No teacher enthusiasm: 4% Non-interest: 4% Non-English speaking students: 3% No respect: 3% Waste: 3% Not enough teachers: 3% Guns: 2% No attention to students: 2% Old buildings: 2% Not learning: 2% Morality: 2% Drugs: 2% Poor security: 2% Racism: 1% Too many minorities: 1% Bilingual education: 1% Busing: 1% School board: 1% Other: 6% No problems: 1% Don’t know: 9% Source: Los Angeles Times Poll

+ Note: Does not add to 100% because respondents were allowed up to two responses.