Legislators Should Back LAUSD Breakup

* It is disheartening to San Fernando Valley parents that one of their state legislators, Sheila Kuehl, opposes the effort to break up the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the nation.

Almost everyone agrees that the LAUSD is far too large to provide its students with the adequate education needed to compete in tomorrow’s marketplace. For heaven’s sakes, even Tom Hayden supports an LAUSD breakup.

For years, Valley parents have tried in vain to establish their own smaller, responsive district. Now, due to the tremendous resolve by Assemblywoman Paula Boland, the state Legislature has passed a bill that offers parents and students newfound hope.

AB 107, which Gov. Wilson has signed into law, lowers the signatures needed to put a breakup measure on the ballot from 25% of all registered LAUSD voters to 8% of only those voters who reside in the area seeking separation and who voted in the last gubernatorial election. For example, if the Valley wanted to create its own district, it could qualify such a ballot initiative with only about 17,000 signatures.

Perhaps more important, AB 107 also removes the veto power from the L.A. school board over any citizen petition plan.

Sadly, Kuehl once again is out of touch with her constituency, ostensibly because she does not understand the importance of dismantling the LAUSD education bureaucracy and providing students with the most enriched environment possible.

As a product of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, another L.A. County-based but much smaller district, I know firsthand how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to thrive in a manageable, well-run school system.

MARK BOSS BENHARD

Agoura