UTLA Officials Try to Keep It Together

Leaders of the Los Angeles teachers union Saturday called for more aggressive measures to reverse the widespread dissatisfaction with city schools that has fueled efforts to break up the nation’s second-largest school district.

Speaking to 300 members of United Teachers-Los Angeles at its annual leadership conference in Rancho Mirage, union officials said they plan to initiate projects to help schools meet academic standards.

“Even though it looks very quiet right now, all of the discontent that’s driving this idea to break up the school district is still there, and people are running out of patience and are willing to try something radical,” said UTLA President Day Higuchi.

Several communities have embarked on plans to carve up the 708-square-mile Los Angeles Unified School District. Lomita and Carson submitted plans to the county’s Office of Education to form their own districts years ago. In March, a South Los Angeles group also submitted petitions to form the Inner-City School District.

In the San Fernando Valley, breakup talk that once dominated discussion about the schools has waned in recent months but could revive.

The teachers union has been a staunch opponent of the breakup, despite divided opinions among rank-and-file teachers.

About 45% of teachers polled in a UTLA telephone survey this spring said the district was too big and should be divided. UTLA officials say that when teachers better understand the consequences of such a breakup, fewer will favor the idea.

UTLA hopes to reduce breakup support by making schools better and having teachers talk about proposed improvements with students and their parents.

“It makes sense to have a strategy that has the method that there is some positive change coming on and that the message comes from the teachers,” Higuchi said.

UTLA officials have been meeting with consultants from state and national teachers unions to discuss ways to counter negative attitudes toward city schools, which enroll about 650,000 students.

The union commissioned a survey by the Peter D. Hart Research Assn., a Washington, D.C.-based polling agency. The firm asked parents their opinions of the school district and teacher performance, as well as their thoughts on dismantling the district.

“The discontent with schools in Los Angeles is substantial,” said John Britz of the California Teachers Assn., summarizing the poll results.

While the union’s plan does not focus specifically on strategies to combat breakup efforts, Higuchi said they are not being ignored.

“We’ll deal with each secession movement individually as those petitions hit the state Education Department,” he said.