Senate OKs Bill to Split Up L.A. School District

After a spirited hourlong debate, the Senate approved a measure Thursday to break up the massive Los Angeles school district, but not before extracting a promise from Sen. David A. Roberti to add safeguards ensuring equality among the smaller districts.

Three ethnic minority members of the Los Angeles delegation were among those opposing the bill, but Roberti (D-Van Nuys) hotly denied that the breakup movement is racist because it originated in the San Fernando Valley.

“Just because an idea originates in the Valley doesn’t mean it is per se wrong. That kind of attitude toward my ‘parochial’ Valley is something we’re not going to stand for any more,” Roberti told Senate members.

“We have as much right to start a brush fire as any other area of Los Angeles.”

The bill, which establishes a 26-member commission to devise a plan to split the mammoth 640,000-student district into at least seven smaller ones, now goes to the Assembly, where supporters are hoping the amendments agreed to by Roberti will help its chances for passage.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has said the bill will die in the lower chamber, largely because of fears that it would worsen segregation and racial inequality in Los Angeles schools.

Voicing a concern echoed by others, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) said he offered the amendments because the bill did not go far enough to guarantee equal opportunity and educational quality in the classroom.

“It’s kind of like cutting an earthworm into seven pieces,” Hayden said. “In the end, there are seven pieces wriggling around, but they are still all the same earthworm.”

One amendment would require adding to the commission representatives from the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, the NAACP or other civil rights groups, as well as a delegate from LEARN--a local reform effort that is attempting to give individual schools more power while keeping the school system intact.

Other amendments would seek to ensure that a breakup plan complies with court rulings on desegregation and equal funding, that magnet schools and charter schools are protected, and that bonds are used to pay for new construction and classroom air conditioning.

Still, even with the changes, Roberti’s bill did not gain support from three key Democrats from Los Angeles. Sens. Diane Watson, Art Torres and Teresa Hughes all voted against the measure, which passed 28 to 7.

“I want to commend the author for serving his district as his first and primary concern,” Watson said. “However, in serving one’s district comes a plan that is detrimental to the entirety of the city.”

Said Hughes: “This is the California of the year 2000, in which we have many ethnic groups. We can make the American democratic ideal a reality when people are not fearful of each other because they sit next to each other in the classroom.”

Asked after the vote about concerns that his bill is racially divisive, Roberti said: “People just think they can (raise the issue) because this comes out of the Valley. It’s like a mantra. Well, we’re not accepting it anymore.”

Stephanie Carter, president of United Parents of Los Angeles, a Valley-based group that supports Roberti’s bill, said members of her organization want to break from the Los Angeles school system because the district has been “completely unresponsive.”

Carter, of Tarzana, said: “It’s an education-based movement and it absolutely has nothing to do with racial politics. That’s a large misconception. We’re not opposed to busing at all. What we’re opposed to is having children in classrooms of 44 kids, teachers striking and no accountability.”

Local school officials said Roberti’s bill, which they oppose, would be no panacea for what ails public education in Los Angeles.

“I don’t think anyone is saying the district should stay like it is, not even us,” said Ron Prescott, the district’s representative in Sacramento. “But we’re not sure that breaking it up is going to make a lot of difference for the kids.”

Any dismantling plan would have to be approved by voters in the Los Angeles school district.

Meanwhile, in the Assembly, members adopted a separate bill aimed at reforming the Los Angeles school district. The measure, by Assemblywoman Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), limits to 5% the amount of state per-pupil funding that supports central administration costs. The remaining 95% would go directly to the student’s school.

“That way, the schools will decide how the money should be spent,” said Karnette, a former teacher who opposes breaking up the district. Presently, she said, the district spends 6.7% of per-pupil funds on central administration.