Assemblywoman Target of Protest : Education: Delaine Eastin, chairwoman of the panel that killed the school district breakup bill, attends a meeting in Sherman Oaks.

Angered by her opposition to a bill that would have paved the way for dismantling the Los Angeles school system, about 20 protesters gathered in Sherman Oaks on Tuesday to demonstrate against a Northern California legislator who is preparing to run for state school superintendent.

Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont) was met with chants of “Free our children!” and “Let us vote!” as she arrived for a late-afternoon meeting with prominent Sherman Oaks attorneys Janice and Ben Reznik and a dozen other San Fernando Valley leaders.

“Let the voters choose,” said Stephanie Carter, a Tarzana parent who helped organize Tuesday’s protest. “We were denied that opportunity. That’s all we’re asking for, plain and simple.”

Eastin, who heads the Assembly Education Committee, opposed legislation by state Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) that would have put on the ballot a plan to divide the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District.

The rejection of the proposal by her panel killed the bill. Its defeat dealt a major blow to the year-old breakup movement and its champion Roberti, who won an important earlier victory when the bill passed the Senate.

The demonstrators accused Eastin of acting on behalf of the powerful teachers lobby, which opposes dividing the Los Angeles school district--the nation’s second-largest.

Supporters of the breakup movement, which is based in the Valley, contend that as the committee’s chairwoman, Eastin’s opposition was the key to the bill’s defeat.

But Eastin said Tuesday that her position had been misrepresented. She said she voted against the Roberti proposal, not because she opposed the idea of a breakup, but on the grounds that the bill did not allow for the exploration of other restructuring options.

“It’s fair to discuss breaking up (the) Los Angeles (school system),” said Eastin, who invited representatives of the protest in to her meeting at the Rezniks’ office. But “size . . . isn’t the magic. The magic is in the educational program.”

Smaller districts can also be poorly managed, she said. Also, the Roberti bill would not have ensured a plan for the equitable division of resources among offspring districts--a sure guarantee that a breakup would become entangled in a court battle lasting at least a decade, Eastin predicted.

“It’s a sticky wicket how you divide up the assets,” she said. “You’ve got to ensure that you don’t have Cadillacs in one area and jalopies in another.”

But some demonstrators--who hoisted signs depicting Eastin with horns and captions reading, “I sold my soul to the unions”--remained unmoved.

“I can’t see why the politicians in Sacramento won’t let Los Angeles decide for itself. . . . She’s not from here--she doesn’t know L. A.’s problems,” said Luke Walker, a Northridge real estate investor.

During the two-hour meeting, the participants talked about the school district’s problems in general, but Eastin remained opposed to the breakup bill, said Carter, president of the Reseda-based United Parents of Los Angeles.

Carter said she hopes to meet again with Eastin in the near future.

Over the past few months, the assemblywoman has traveled throughout California to gauge support for a campaign to fill the post vacated by former Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, who was convicted on conflict-of-interest charges earlier this year. Her meeting Tuesday--attended by Valley business and civic leaders--was one in a series to gauge public opinion of her possible candidacy and to hear educational concerns.

Aides and meeting organizers said the gathering had been planned well before last month’s Assembly committee hearing on the breakup bill and last Saturday’s “parents’ summit” in Van Nuys, where Roberti and other political leaders from the Valley discussed options for advancing the breakup drive.

“We called the meeting so that we could have some intelligent input so she could understand how Valley people think, if she wants their support,” Janice Reznik said.