Katz Now Backs Breakup of L.A. School District

State Assemblyman Richard Katz, once the San Fernando Valley’s most influential opponent of breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District, announced Friday that he is switching sides and now supports the breakup.

Katz (D-Sylmar) said he was motivated largely by his need to faithfully represent the views of his constituents, denying that he had changed his stand because he fears the Valley’s pro-breakup forces are becoming too strong for a politician in the region to resist and remain in office.

“Clearly the sentiment is that change is necessary,” Katz said in a statement issued Friday. “It is necessary for those who oppose change to reconsider the way they think, as I have.”

“It took me a long time to see that we have to break up the school district to save public education, but that’s the conclusion I’ve reached,” Katz said later in a phone interview.

Katz’s conversion came on the eve of today’s “parents summit” conference, called by state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) to map out strategies for dissolving the school district. Roberti, the powerful president pro tem of the Senate who is facing a 1994 term-limit deadline, had been regarded as the leader of pro-breakup forces in Sacramento.

Katz will be present at today’s meeting, as will 18 other elected officials from the Valley.

Roberti press aide Steve Glazer called Katz’s support a boost for the breakup movement, which suffered a setback last month when Roberti was unable to get an Assembly committee to support legislation to put the breakup issue before Los Angeles voters.

Katz’s decision “sends a strong message” to the educational establishment--as Roberti’s support for the breakup does--that even its longtime loyalists are dissatisfied with the status quo, Glazer said. Roberti and Katz are typical of “people who have been education’s biggest supporters,” he said.

Robert Scott, chairman of VALUE, the parent group pressing for the breakup, welcomed Katz’s decision, saying it could prove particularly valuable if, as expected, Roberti again tries to get the state Legislature to authorize an election to settle the breakup issue.

“Katz’s previous position made it harder for us to sell Roberti’s bill in Sacramento because of the legislative courtesy factor,” Scott said.

In effect, legislators from other parts of the state looked to their Los Angeles-area colleagues for guidance on how to vote on the school issue. Thus, with Katz among the opponents, it made the Roberti bill a tougher sell, Scott said.

Now, if Roberti revives his legislative effort, “Katz could be the hero of the day, doing for us in the Assembly what Roberti did in the Senate,” Scott predicted.

School activist and breakup supporter Diana Dixon-Davis said she was very encouraged by Katz’s decision. “He is so full of good ideas,” she said. “He’ll have a lot of constructive contributions he can make to this debate.”

Bobbi Fiedler, a former school board member who helped state Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) on her own school district breakup initiatives, said she was delighted to see Katz change his position.

But Fiedler and others speculated that Katz’s move was dictated in part by stark political realities as well.

Katz is widely reported to be preparing to run for Roberti’s seat next year, when Roberti, as reports also speculate, runs for county supervisor, state treasurer or state controller.

Katz, however, would not have a free ride running for Roberti’s seat. Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood) also has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Roberti post.

“Supporting the breakup certainly does not hurt Richard, and it may help him,” Fiedler said. “In a competitive political environment, not being for breakup in the Valley would hand your opponent a bullet for their political gun.”

“Not supporting this would probably mean his political death,” Scott added.

Political consultant Harvey Englander, who ran Councilman Joel Wachs’ campaign for mayor, said polls have showed that Valley residents support the breakup idea by a margin of 2 to 1.

During the mayor’s race, in which he finished a distant fourth, Katz argued eloquently against a breakup, saying it would lead to a segregated and Balkanized city.

In a phone interview, Katz said he changed his position for a number of reasons. In part, it had to do with his duty to accurately represent the will of his constituents, he said. “Clearly, the sentiment is very strong in the Valley for it,” he said.

Moreover, Katz said he has become increasingly concerned with the slow pace of school reform. During the mayor’s race, Katz urged voters to support the reform agenda espoused by LEARN, the nonprofit educational group that has proposed decentralizing the Los Angeles school district instead of breaking it up.

“There was no specific event that’s occurred to change my mind, but just a sense of frustration with the lack of progress in reforming the schools,” he said.

Katz denied that politics played a role in his decision. “If that was it, I would’ve made this move earlier during the mayor’s race,” he said. Katz said he has made no decision about his future political plans.

In his prepared statement, Katz said he supported the breakup because “it is not possible for a behemoth (school district) bureaucracy to be all things to all people. Rather, it can only cater to a common denominator--a concept which is inconsistent with the pressing needs of our city in a global economy.”