Roberti Steps Up Breakup Fight

With efforts to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District seemingly on hold, state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) assembled a group of San Fernando Valley legislators Friday for a strategy session aimed at getting the issue moving again.

Roberti said the group of state and local legislators, which included state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Assemblywomen Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles) and Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), pledged between $30,000 and $40,000 to push the breakup of the giant 640,000-student district ahead but did not decide on what route to take. The group will meet again next week to discuss the matter further.

Breakup bills introduced by Roberti and Boland are awaiting further action in Sacramento but failed to win enough support this year for passage. Those bills could become the vehicle for downsizing the district, or the legislators could decide to try to go directly to voters with a measure on the November, 1994, ballot. The group also could decide to ask the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors or the State Board of Education to split up the vast school district.

On Friday, however, Roberti vowed to keep the issue alive, even though he is due to leave his Senate job in 1994 and has announced plans to run for state treasurer. Roberti said he would “never, never, never” stop trying to shrink the district out of a sense of obligation to Los Angeles schoolchildren. “You get into a thing and you make a commitment and you have to fight for it. No matter where I am, I’m in it.”

Roberti’s bill to establish a commission to place a breakup plan before California voters next year passed the state Senate but did not win the backing of the Assembly Education Committee. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) was adamantly opposed to the plan, fearing that it would leave poor children who live in Los Angeles’ urban core at a disadvantage.

A Boland bill that would have made it easier for citizens to ask the state or county board of education to carve up the sprawling district also failed in committee. Boland said Friday, “I truly believe that something can be done” to achieve that goal.

Friedman agreed, saying that legislators from other parts of the state needed to be educated on the issue. She also said that politicians seeking to run for statewide office will need to address the breakup if they hope to campaign effectively in Los Angeles.

“On the merits, it’s clear that having a school district of over 600,000 students . . . is too much,” Friedman said.

Roberti and others said that it would take $50,000 to get a petition drive under way to put the breakup on that ballot; to succeed in getting the issue on the ballot would cost about $350,000.

Others attending Friday’s private strategy session included Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes the north and West Valley, Board of Education member Julie Korenstein, who represents the West Valley, and former board of education President Roberta Weintraub.

The breakup has been opposed by the United Teachers of Los Angeles as well as many politicians representing South Los Angeles. It is supported by, among others, parents groups in the Valley.

A forum sponsored by groups opposed to the breakup will be held today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley.