COLUMN LEFT/ HARRY BERNSTEIN : Toward School Democracy, Top to Bottom : In the dispute over LEARN, teachers are fighting to retain a major voice in management.

The fight over sharing power in the workplace can clearly be seen in microcosm in the current battle in Los Angeles public schools.

The idea of sharing power between those who have it and those who don’t is an old and worthy idea that should, by now, be widespread, not just in government but in the workplace, one of the last bastions of totalitarianism in this country.

President Clinton and his Cabinet are enthusiastically encouraging power-sharing and cooperation between managers and workers in both the public and private sectors. However, as always, the major obstacle is that those with power rarely want to share it.

Salaries are important to everyone, but power is a highly valued, ego-building perk. Asking school managers to share power with teachers and others diminishes that value dramatically. The result: strong resistance to the idea by managers.

Besides, those with power figure that they really do know what is best for the schools, and while they say they welcome some advice or collaboration with teachers, they want to make the final decisions, with as few limitations as possible.

Despite opposition, more progress is being made in public schools than in the private sector, but even in schools, the sharing of power isn’t coming easily.

True, today almost every major school district in the United States has now started at least some form of workplace democracy. But it comes only with a lot of struggle and bitterness, even among educated, democracy-oriented principals, teachers and school board members. The issue arose in Los Angeles in 1989 when the teachers’ union (United Teachers / Los Angeles) said it wanted power-sharing as part of its contract. After a bitter nine-day strike, the final contract included power-sharing, not just for teachers, but for parents, principals and other school employees as well.

Teachers won a major voice in the way the schools are operated. Teachers want, and many are getting, power to help make relatively minor decisions such as scheduling of school activities, student discipline and the best use of school equipment.

They also want, and should have, a major voice in decisions including design of curriculum, the way students are taught and graded, textbook selection and how money should be spent.

This brings us to LEARN (Los Angeles Education Alliance for Restructuring Now), the reform plan drafted by a coalition of civic, business and education leaders and adopted by the school board. Two weeks ago, leaders of the teachers’ union voted to oppose LEARN unless it incorporated a teachers’ bill of rights.

LEARN makes many suggestions; one is to modify the union’s contract by giving principals substantial authority over virtually every aspect of school management. That would weaken one of the union’s most important contract gains.

The LEARN plan does require “collaboration” with teachers, and principals who refuse can be removed after two years by a majority of all parents and teachers in a school, not just those voting--a hard way to eliminate an authoritarian principal.

Meanwhile, fast gaining speed on the outside, but still far behind, are the new “charter schools,” whose creation was provided for in a state law passed last year. Charter schools, while publicly financed, will operate free of most state and local controls and can be started by parents, teachers, community organizations and others. The law allows 100 charter schools statewide, but only 10 in any one district; so far, there have been seven proposals for charter status within the LAUSD.

While charter schools might provide for democratic procedures--each charter school defines its own operations--busy teachers, not eager for more work, and strong-minded principals could well decide to keep the old, authoritarian system.

In schools, shared decision-making is more important that ever, because America has dramatically centralized school districts instead of letting those who do the actual hands-on teaching help decide much of what should be done.

In the 1940s, there were about 140,000 school districts in the United States. Today, there are fewer than 16,000--which puts more and more power in fewer and fewer hands. One good way to defuse that power is cooperation and decision-sharing. That way, we can promote democracy in the workplace--a laudable goal in itself--and increase efficiency by using the intelligence of everyone involved, not just the few at the top.