Prop. 174: Who Does it Leave...

Many Central Los Angeles residents who want to send their children to private schools, but can’t afford to, regard school vouchers as their long-awaited ticket out of the city’s ailing public school system.

But Proposition 174, which would allow parents to use tax-funded vouchers to send their children to private or parochial schools, may not be a viable option for some parents. Most local private schools, for instance, are not equipped to serve special-education students or limited-English speakers, who account for at least two in five students in Los Angeles.

Neither Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles nor the vast majority of other religious and nondenominational private schools in Central Los Angeles offer bilingual or special-education classes. There are several private special-education schools in Los Angeles, but tuition is far greater than the $2,600 vouchers that will be issued to parents if the measure passes.

Proponents of Proposition 174, which goes before voters Tuesday, argue that vouchers would give private schools the financial incentive to start special-education and English as a Second Language programs. And, they say, the measure would be particularly beneficial to inner-city children without special needs because many of those students attend the worst public schools.

“I would rather not buy food than send my daughter to a public school,” said Jinah Sihn, whose daughter attends first grade at Los Angeles Hankook Schools, which have about 200 elementary and junior high students at its two Mid-City campuses.

“I went through public schools in L.A. and there are no standards. I hear about guns at school, that high school graduates can’t read, and I think to myself, ‘Have our standards gotten that low?’ ”

In a February, 1993, report, “What a Voucher Could Buy,” the Southwest Regional Laboratory found that only 3.5% of the state’s private schools provide special instruction for students who speak limited English, and fewer than 10% have special-education programs. The California-based educational research agency mailed surveys to 2,717 private schools with an enrollment of at least 25 students, and received 1,004 responses.

Whether Proposition 174, also known as the Education Vouchers Initiative, is a workable option for all children is of great concern in Los Angeles, where more than 40% of the roughly 640,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District speak English as a second language, and 10% are enrolled in special education. School officials estimate that the percentages are even higher in the inner city.

“Private schools could reject kids with learning disabilities or limited English, and the majority of students in my district would fall (into) this category,” said Barbara Boudreaux, a Los Angeles school board member whose district includes parts of South-Central and Southwest Los Angeles. “If it should pass, it would be totally devastating to my district.”

Proponents doubt that students speaking limited English would be shunned under the voucher initiative because private schools would cater to these students’ needs.

“I think you would see the free-market economy working,” said Andrew Cunningham, South-Central director of Yes on 174. “If there are children eligible for ESL (English as a Second Language) or bilingual courses, and schools know they would have a reliable source of income, I think you would see a change in the private-school curriculum.”

Special-education students also would be able to attend private schools because it is “highly likely” that the Legislature will award these students additional funds, said David Barulich, research director of Yes on 174.

Proposition 174, however, merely states that, the Legislature “ may award supplemental funds for reasonable transportation needs for low-income children and special needs attributable to physical impairment or learning disability.”

At the ERAS Center, a private special-education facility in Culver City, most parents are not contributing anything toward the annual $18,000 tuition because the government is picking up the tab, said Barbara Cull, the center’s executive director

Federal law requires public schools to send a special-education child to non-public schools such as the ERAS Center if the school district does not have proper facilities to educate the child or if the child has not progressed for two or three years. The tuition is then subsidized by the school district. At some schools, additional funds are raised through other sources. In Los Angeles, there are about 80 private special-education schools.

“To me, Proposition 174 wouldn’t help parents very much because it wouldn’t cover even half the tuition at this and most other special-education schools,” said Cull, who estimates that most private special-education schools charge between $10,000 and $20,000 a year. “Why would parents choose to use the voucher when they don’t have to pay anything right now?”

By law, special-education classes must be smaller than regular classes. Smaller classes cost more, as does hiring bilingual teachers, who tend to have more credentials than other teachers, school officials say.

The all-boys Verbum Dei Catholic High School in Watts is in an area in which many children speak Spanish as their primary language or require special education, said Principal Marvin Threatt. Students must wear white shirts, blue ties and navy pants to school, which Threatt said is part of an effort to instill respect, self-esteem and discipline among the school’s 300 students.

Like most other private or parochial schools in poor urban areas, Verbum Dei doesn’t offer special programs because it can barely afford to educate students without special needs, Threatt said.

More than half the students at Verbum Dei receive scholarships to help pay the school’s $1,800 annual tuition, the principal said. The scholarships are provided through annual subsidies from the Archdiocese.

“We’re cut and dry,” Threatt said. “We don’t have the money for special programs or any frills.”

Still, Threatt said he believes that if Proposition 174 passes, more inner-city students would have the option of going to private schools if they wish, and private schools in poor areas would not have to struggle so hard to stay financially solvent.

Among the few private schools in Central Los Angeles offering language assistance to non-English-speaking students are the Los Angeles Hankook Schools.

Although all academic classes, except foreign languages, are taught in English, students who speak only Korean receive some assistance in their native language. The schools also offer Korean as a foreign language.

“Actually, a lot of parents bring their children here because they want them to be in an English program, rather than a bilingual Korean program in the public schools,” Principal John Regan said. “They want their children to keep up their Korean, but they want them to learn in English.”

That is a problem Katherine Delgado understands. Delgado, who now sends her children to the private Resurrection School on the Eastside, said she was horrified when one of her daughters was placed in a modified bilingual class in a public school--even though she doesn’t speak Spanish.

“She was criticized because she didn’t know Spanish,” Delgado said. “That’s part of the reason why she wanted to go to a private school.”

All of the 286 Catholic schools in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties teach only in English, said Bill Rivera, director of public affairs for the Los Angeles Department of Catholic Schools. While some schools accept students with minor learning or physical disabilities, he said, none can accommodate students with more severe difficulties. Rivera estimates that there are about 50 Catholic schools in Central Los Angeles.

Among the 500 schools in the Southern California Assn. of Christian Schools International, only a few have English as a Second Language or special-education programs, said Jerry Haddock, the association’s regional director.

“It’s an individual school decision as to what type of program they have,” Haddock said. “But it’s hard for us in the private sector to offer special programs because there’s no assistance to provide that.”

Conrado Terrazas, a field organizer for Citizens Against 174, said he believes school vouchers would work against all inner-city students because private schools would be inclined to accept more privileged students.

“If (the proposition) passes, it would reduce the budget of the school district and the only students who could go (to private or parochial schools) are more advantaged students,” Terrazas said. “This issue really affects Central L.A. because the students here have a lot to lose.”

Proponents, however, say school vouchers would open opportunities to inner-city students because many of them would be able to attend private schools they previously could not afford.

“There are many people in the inner city who would be happy to get out of the public schools because that’s where the schools are the most overcrowded and where people are most dissatisfied with the schools,” said Barulich of Yes on 174.

Detrick Hudson, a 17-year-old senior at Verbum Dei who attended public schools until this year, said he feels as if he is a step ahead since he switched to a private school.

“There’s more a sense of security here,” he said. “With all the violence in the public schools, I just wanted to get out. In my neighborhood, a lot of kids look up to me because I go to a private school.”

And despite the reputation of private schools as being elite institutions catering to students from well-to-do families, many inner-city private schools reflect their community.

At St. Thomas the Apostle School in Pico-Union, for instance, most of the 317 elementary and junior high school students are on scholarship because they can’t afford the school’s $1,000-a-year tuition. The vast majority of students attending the school are Latino and live near the school.

“We do not want to be an exclusive school,” said Principal Dan Horn. “We want to serve the neighborhood. Parents make nothing less than heroic sacrifices to send their children here.”

On a recent afternoon, parents lined up near the school’s main entrance, waiting for their children. Guadalupe Sandoval, a single parent whose son attends the school, said she works two jobs--as a waitress and hostess--to send her boy to a Catholic school.

“It’s hard to pay the tuition, but it’s worth it,” she said. “I work very hard.”

Irene Chavez, also a single parent with two children at St. Thomas School and another child at a nearby Catholic high school, sells tamales and used clothing in front of St. Thomas Parish to help pay for her children’s education.

Although her children receive almost full scholarships, Chavez last year had to pay the difference in tuition in pennies, Horn said.

“It wasn’t enough, but we didn’t have the heart to turn them away,” the principal said. “They live in a one-room apartment and the mom sleeps on the couch and the girls sleep on the floor.”

Because so many of St. Thomas’ students are poor, teachers at the school make about $10,000 a year less than starting teachers in Los Angeles’ public schools, and the school must turn away some students every year. Like several other local private schools, St. Thomas has a long waiting list.

“We had one child call and say, ‘I don’t want to go to schools with the gangs,’ ” Horn said. “And we had a father who literally came here and begged me to let his child come here. He said he would do anything.”

In May, the U. S. Department of Education recognized St. Thomas School as one of the nation’s Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, an award presented each year to outstanding public and private schools. School officials hope to expand St. Thomas’ campus to allow for more students, but need to raise about half of the $5-million construction costs before building can begin. The school is trying to raise the money through private donations and fund-raisers.

Another notable private school in Central Los Angeles is the Marcus Garvey School in South-Central, where preschool children learn to count in English, Spanish and Swahili and fifth graders begin to tackle calculus.

Visitors to the predominantly African-American school pass through hallways lined with pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson and other African-American leaders. In almost every class, students respond to questions by “oohing” and “aahing” and waving their hands wildly in the air, hoping to be called.

Anyim Palmer, wearing a T-shirt that read, “We must educate our own,” said he opened the school after seeing the failure of African-American children in the public schools.

Palmer, who wants to expand his elementary and junior high program to the high school level, is a strong advocate of Proposition 174 because he believes vouchers would benefit African-Americans. Students at the Slauson Avenue school often must leave the school because they can’t afford the $368 monthly tuition.

“I share their agony, but if I can’t get people who pay, I can’t run the school,” Palmer said. “Vouchers would help America because public education right now is handicapping the nation.”

On the Cover

Kevin Taylor and Denise Ramos, first-grade classmates at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Pico-Union, play a game in which students try to guess the contents of a box.

Private-school advocates say students such as Kevin and Denise receive a better education than public-school students, and argue that Proposition 174 will give more students the chance to attend superior private and parochial schools. But opponents say special-education and English as a Second Language students could be shut out.

“If Proposition 174 passes, private schools can pick and choose who they want,” said Los Angeles Unified School District board member Mark Slavkin. “And it’s likely that they would say to students, ‘We don’t have people on staff who speak your language, so sorry, you’ll have to go somewhere else.’ ”