L.A. Schools Stuck in the Low-Tech Rut of Past : High technology won’t solve all our educational problems, but it is a vital element of learning for our children--the future work force.

Although America is now moving down the information superhighway, many public school students in Southern California seem stuck in the dirt ruts of the past.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has only one computer for every 27 students, one of the lowest ratios in the nation. Statewide, public schools have an average of one computer for every 19.8 students, ranking California 49th among the 50 states.

To make matters worse, many Los Angeles public schools are too run-down to permit full use of high technology. The districtwide bill for deferred repairs is $600 million. In the San Fernando Valley alone, the backlog is an estimated $200 million. How can our students get onto the information superhighway if turning on their computers will blow the circuits of their school’s electrical system?

High technology won’t solve all the problems of our public schools, but it is an important tool for learning. Without easy access to it, many students will be unable to compete for well-paying jobs in the 21st Century, particularly less affluent children who do not have computers at home. Public schools will also lose many talented teachers and administrators to districts that offer greater access to technology and more fulfilling employment.

What can be done?

Educators must do a better job in formulating and selling school tax increases and bond issues. In the Santa Clarita Valley, two of the last four bond measures have failed to win approval.

Educators, for example, could show voters how one school can help improve others in the district by creating a library master data base that all can access. Voters must be convinced that more money will really make a difference in the quality of education, not simply pay for more bureaucracy or underwrite inefficiency.

Educators must appeal to all voters, not just the minority with school-age children. School leaders must demonstrate that good schools are essential for economic health, not to mention property values.

And we must change the state Constitution so that bond issues can be approved by a simple majority rather than two-thirds.

But educators must not only look to the voters to fund more high technology in our classrooms. They must also forge partnerships with Southern California businesses, which recognize that today’s children are tomorrow’s work force.

Many businesses are already helping. Through the efforts of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, for example, businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley support schools through such programs as Business Buddies, Principal for a Day, Adopt-A-School and Teacher Tribute.

Business Buddies are assigned to an elementary classroom where they work with the students individually and in groups over the course of a year. Principal for a Day brings business executives to the 38 public schools in the valley to experience a day in the life of a school principal. Teacher Tribute is a business-sponsored program honoring the Santa Clarita Valley’s outstanding mentor teachers.

Businesses are also helping local schools obtain equipment. Since 1989, the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce has raised more than $10,000 for public schools. Several months ago, Encino Elementary School received $5,000 from Citibank to buy software for its computer lab. The bank had “adopted” the school.

Companies are donating new computers, printers and software to schools. In May, IBM gave 20 computers (worth more than $100,000) to the New Directions for Youth Alternative School computer lab in Van Nuys. The lab is for teen-agers thinking of dropping out of school and adults in its job training program.

Corporate castoffs are a school’s treasure. Many computers which have become obsolete for many business applications since the introduction of newer and more powerful models still have plenty of capability for use by elementary and junior high students.

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To make the most of corporate generosity, Southern California should follow the example of the Bay Area’s Computer Recycling Center. Schools there need not approach businesses on a time-consuming, one-by-one basis. Instead, they can apply to the Recycling Center, which receives the computers from corporations, repairs and upgrades the equipment as needed, donates the equipment to needy schools and provides low-cost service agreements afterward.

California’s industry should form an organization like the Massachusetts Software Council, which represents more than 300 companies. Its recently published “The Switched-On Classroom” is a planning guide for purchasing and using high-tech equipment in schools.

Our schools, finally, should strengthen their relationships with businesses. Schools that receive donated computers should regularly inform the corporation how that gift is improving their students’ education, perhaps by inviting company officials to come and see for themselves. It could recognize the corporation through school publications and on bulletin boards.

Bringing more technology into our public schools will be difficult, but it is not impossible. In the past, Southern Californians have overcome many challenges, such as constructing a vast water system for our arid region, building the world’s most complete freeway system and building the finest university system in the world. We now face another daunting challenge--educating all our children for the high- tech future. We have the tools, we have the resources, so let’s get to work.