Conservative Activists Stir Up O.C. Education

By NICK ANDERSON

March 17, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A Yorba Linda school trustee pops onto a campus to give teachers an unsolicited lecture on the importance of phonics instruction. Another “back-to-basics” crusader in Anaheim seeks to scuttle state-mandated bilingual education.

Two more trustees of an Orange County education agency in Costa Mesa skewer a federal career program championed by President Clinton and a broad front of county business and school leaders.

Each of these seemingly isolated episodes of recent weeks reveals another layer of the same story: A new brand of conservative activism is taking root on some county school boards, polarizing education politics here.

Loosely organized, the activists now control one of every six seats on public school and community college boards in Orange County. That’s a sizable minority for a movement that, by the reckoning of its own leadership, numbered just a handful of adherents before the 1994 elections.

Most of the new conservatives are confined to the role of minority critic, but some have gained real power in setting district budgets and policies. New right-of-center majorities took over Garden Grove and Westminster school boards last fall. Another, more conservative ruling bloc in Orange will be tested in elections next November.

The most important force behind the insurgency is the Tustin-based political action committee Education Alliance, which is opposed to teachers unions and heavily financed by Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., an Orange County banking heir known for his Christian conservatism.

Purportedly nonpartisan, the Education Alliance gave a seminar last month at the state GOP convention on “How to Elect Republicans to School Boards.” However, many of the group’s most prominent foes are moderate Republicans.

Teachers also are paying close attention, because one of the group’s stated goals is to weaken teaching unions.

“It’s a wake-up call for some of us,” said Barbara Kerr, secretary-treasurer of the California Teachers Assn. “We need to do more to make sure that public education is put in a good light.”

CTA officials said the union spent more than $92,000 in Orange County in the last election, more than any other county in the state, in part to counter what Kerr called “extremist groups” bent on “destroying public education.”

But Education Alliance leaders say they just want to reform a broken school system. They cheer the organized opposition of teachers because they say the public is against union influence in schools.

“What we’re doing is exciting,” said Mark Bucher, a Tustin construction consultant who co-founded the group in 1994. “We think the education establishment has a vested interest in running our schools exactly the way they’re being run. They’re so afraid of losing their stranglehold. For us, when we get a couple people on a school board, that’s a huge, huge victory.”

Founded after the defeat of Proposition 174, the 1993 school-voucher initiative, the group’s stated goals are to revamp curriculum to emphasize traditional learning, roll back federal and state education mandates and abolish bilingual education.

Although Ahmanson-controlled Fieldstead & Co. of Irvine has been its largest financial backer, the Education Alliance denies a religious agenda. The group spent more than $66,000 in the 1996 elections. Its platform specifically opposes teaching “a particular set of religious beliefs” in public schools.

But many school trustees favored by the group support so-called school-choice vouchers, or some form of public aid for parents who choose to enroll their children in parochial or other private schools. That has long been a key goal for many religious conservatives.

People for the American Way, a group critical of the political activities of religious conservatives, charges that the Education Alliance is a front for fundamentalists who want to take over public schools.

“The sub-agenda is to wreak havoc on public education and bring Christian doctrine into schools,” said Jean Hessburg, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based group. “If they’re hostile to public education, that’s a concern for parents and a concern for us.”

Measured by their deeds, most of the new conservative trustees so far are giving little emphasis to religion in schools. Consider what four of them have done so far this year.

In the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, trustee Roseann Thorn has drawn criticism for a Feb. 4 incident in which teachers allege she intimidated them to make a point about reading textbooks.

According to the local teachers union, Thorn entered Travis Ranch Elementary School in Yorba Linda without permission from the principal, gathered primers from classrooms and made “derogatory comments” about the school’s reading program.

Thorn, elected last fall with Education Alliance backing, denied any wrongdoing. “It has never been my intention to intimidate anyone,” she said in a statement faxed to The Times.

But she acknowledged she had “borrowed” some 50 books that she suspected failed to meet new standards for teaching through the word-sounding method known as phonics. Enforcement of those standards, adopted after tests showed California students reading poorly, is a central aim of the Education Alliance. The spat landed in the school board late last month. A board majority, opposed by Thorn, voted 3-2 to affirm it “does not condone” intimidation of teachers. But the vote did not specifically reprimand Thorn.

In Anaheim, another conservative trustee wants to kill programs that teach basic skills in languages other than English. Harald G. Martin, an Anaheim police officer, was elected to the Anaheim Union High School District in 1994 and the Anaheim City School District, which oversees elementary schools, last fall.

Martin and a majority of high school trustees have voted to study an overhaul of bilingual education. But Martin found no backing in January when he proposed the same in the elementary district.

“I’m getting hammered,” Martin said, “but I’m making inroads.”

Records show the Education Alliance gave Martin no campaign contributions.

But Martin is endorsed by the group and said, “We probably agree more than we disagree.” For instance, he said, he agrees “100% that vouchers are a good thing. One of the greatest enemies of public education has been a lack of competition.”

Elsewhere, the target is a federal career-guidance initiative known as “school to work.” Orange County Board of Education trustees Ken Williams and Eric Woolery--both elected under the alliance banner last year--on Feb. 11 held a public hearing to attack the program.

The trustees, outnumbered by a three-vote majority, oppose a $4.7-million federal grant to a coalition of Orange County educators and business leaders. They charge that the money comes with too many mandates from the Democratic president and that the program will erode teaching standards.

The criticism has angered educators throughout the county, who say that negative publicity has cast a cloud over a popular program that does nothing more than motivate kids to consider career choices.

Williams replied: “I’m not out there to ruin any child’s future or vocational career. This Ken Williams is not an evil person.

“But the substantive issues have never been addressed. This is a big government program, run from Washington, D.C., [and] modeled after European countries with a socialistic philosophy of cradle-to-grave services.”

While these four trustees reflect a new conservative activism on local school boards, the Education Alliance lost several high-profile campaigns last fall. Moderate education leaders predict the group will suffer more reversals as voters learn more about it.

Voters booted Frank Ury--a co-founder of the group--off the Saddleback Valley Unified board of trustees. He also was dropped from a state academic standards commission after Republicans lost their majority in the Assembly.

The group also suffered critical defeats in Santa Ana Unified and Brea Olinda Unified, by fingernail margins, and wider defeats in Capistrano Unified.

“There was a huge sigh of relief the day after the election,” said Elizabeth Parker, president of the Orange County Board of Education and a leading critic of the alliance. “There was a belief that they were going to take over the majority of a lot of boards.”

But Bucher said the Education Alliance posted “tremendous gains,” increasing to 29 the number of trustees it supports or rates favorably, up from about 17 two years ago, of the total 174 seats in Orange County. Voters gave right-of-center activists with views supported by the group new 3-2 majorities in Westminster and Garden Grove.

In Garden Grove, new trustee Linda Paulsen--a principal at Willis Warner Middle School in Westminster--told The Times she is a “conservative educator” who would support “a well-written school-choice initiative.” She has joined Education Alliance-backed trustees Bob Harden and Terry Cantrell.

In Westminster, the new face tilting the balance of power is Helena Rutkowski, a Polish immigrant and harsh critic of bilingual education who was backed by the alliance.

Though she also was heavily backed by Westminster teachers--normally a sign of opposition to conservatives--Rutkowski told The Times she supports giving government aid to parents with children in private schools.

“These people are paying twice,” Rutkowski said, referring to taxpaying, private-school parents. “I believe they should certainly get help.” Rutkowski, who put her children through public schools, conceded that such opinions could draw fire. After all, most public school teachers and most voters rejected a state voucher initiative just three years ago.

But the statements and actions of the new trustees underscore deeper changes in Orange County school boards.

In the past, most trustees have couched their public statements in the muted, noncontroversial language of education bureaucrats. Many still do. But now, more trustees on both sides of issues seem unafraid to speak their minds, even if the price is a bickering or divided board.

That seems especially true in Orange, where a conservative majority has gained wide notice for attacking federal and state education grants. Four of the board’s seven seats are up for election in November.

“The most strident voices are not necessarily speaking for the great majority of people,” said Robert H. Viviano, one of three Orange trustees in a centrist minority. “But on the other hand, you listen to what they have to say. If the idea’s good, I don’t care where it comes from, even an organization that is a little foreign to my view.”

Times correspondent Jennifer Leuer contributed to this report.

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A New Conservatism

The number of Orange County school trustees backed by the Education Alliance, a 3-year-old conservative political action committee based in Tustin, has grown to 29. Some were supported by campaign mailers or endorsements in recent elections; others are simply incumbents rated favorably by the group. When they were first elected:

1981: 1

1991: 3

1992: 2

1993: 2

1994: 8

1995: 0

1996: 13

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Where They Have a Majority

Garden Grove Unified

Trustees: Terry Cantrell (elected in 1994), Bob Harden (1994), Linda Paulsen (1996)

Board strength: Three of five

Impact: Paulsen’s election enabled Harden to vault ahead of a senior and more moderate trustee to become board president. He promises a more traditional approach to reading and math and is skeptical of textbooks that fail to drill basic skills. He also wants to get more parents involved in school board issues.

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Orange Unified

Trustees: Maureen Aschoff (1991), Martin Jacobson (1993), Bill Lewis (1991), Max Reissmueller (1993)

Board strength: Four of seven

Impact: Very conservative majority made headlines last year when members proposed to reject a federal grant for a school health clinic, arguing that big government would usurp local control. The board later backed off, but now is giving close, skeptical scrutiny to grant applications. Majority also has been crusading to privatize such school services as busing. Seats held by Jacobson and Reissmueller are up for election in November.

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Westminster

Trustees: Sondra Rinker (1994), Michael J. Verrengia (1994), Helena Rutkowski (1996)

Board strength: Three of five

Impact: The three trustees favor giving some form of government aid to parents who enroll children in private schools. The district had previously won approval to waive certain state bilingual education requirements; look for the board to move even more aggressively to limit non-English teaching while pressing for more emphasis on basic skills.

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Where They Have Two Seats

Anaheim Union High

Trustees: Harald G. Martin (1994), Katherine H. Smith (1996)

Board strength: Two of five

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Irvine Unified

Trustees: Karen J. Preston (1996), Hank Adler* (1994)

Board strength: Two of five

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Newport-Mesa Unified

Trustees: Wendy Leece (1994), Judith A. Franco* (appointed in 1980, first elected in 1981)