State Funds Crisis Team for Compton Schools

Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill Wednesday that requires a fiscal crisis team to develop new recovery plans for the troubled Compton school district, which has been in a state of receivership since it nearly went bankrupt four years ago.

AB 52 appropriates $500,000 for the team to study and recommend improvements in the district’s academic programs, finances and facilities. The 5-year-old team, based in Kern County and dispatched to ailing school districts by state officials, is to devise its plans in consultation with the state-appointed administrator in Compton, union representatives and the local school board.

Some district officials, however, worry that the bill may set up a tug-of-war between the crisis team, the state Department of Education and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which devised the district’s first recovery plan.

State officials took over the 28,000-student district in 1993 after it requested a $20-million loan to make payroll and meet other expenses. The state-appointed administrator oversees district operations, and the local school board--which was stripped of its powers in the takeover--continues to protest the state’s involvement.