A Wish List for 1999

The last year of the millennium is at hand and some no doubt will regard this as a particularly fateful day for stouthearted resolutions and hopeful wish lists. For these folks, it’s not just doing better than last year, it’s the urge to clean house in preparation for whatever the next thousand years has in store.

The Times hopes that people will keep the “end of the world as we know it” stuff down to a dull roar. Meanwhile, we have our wishes too. And remember, hopes are like horseshoes: Getting close does count.

IN EDUCATION

California still ranks near the bottom on most public education indicators. That’s why the statewide goals ought to be:

A competent teacher in every classroom; principals who lead and will productively assign teachers; accountability for both principals and teachers, tied to classroom performance. Smaller classes, along with longer school days and longer school years. Let’s have textbooks for every pupil in every subject, well-stocked school libraries and enough librarians to manage them. And, come on, in this day and age, can’t students have clean restrooms?

Every child ought to be able to read in English by age 9 or the end of the third grade, whichever comes first. And there must be a consensus on how to end traditional bilingual education as mandated by Proposition 227. What’s needed are facts about which strategies are best.

IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

A regional approach ought to be the goal, and airport expansion is a prime example. Resolve the long and bitter debate over whether to build a commercial airport at El Toro after the Marines leave the air station there this summer.

The same goes for the fight over expansion of Burbank Airport, which desperately needs a modern terminal. Burbank and its partner cities must agree on a plan that ensures passenger comfort and safety without ignoring Burbank’s realistic fears of increased noise and street traffic. Los Angeles International will grow, but expansion should come in a way that balances economic interests with quality-of-life concerns in surrounding neighborhoods.

And how about a little “just say no” backbone among elected officials concerning generous campaign contributions from those seeking excessive development in hazardous or environmentally sensitive areas? Otherwise, look for more voter growth-control measures, as in Ventura County.

IN ORANGE COUNTY

We hope that the first new leadership in a decade for the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office has more success in solving problems like jail overcrowding and collecting child support payments.

On the coast, the Bolsa Chica wetlands would benefit from an end to the dispute over how many houses will be built in the area and from more care to stop pollution problems like the oil that spilled into the wetlands in December.

IN LOS ANGELES

Members of the two charter reform commissions should embrace the proposals hammered out last month by the compromise committee. That means backing a single consensus charter package on next June’s ballot. Consensus is the only way that reform of Los Angeles’ 73-year-old charter can succeed.

Now to San Fernando Valley secession fever: Don’t catch it. Put the divisive campaign on hold and unite behind the effort to bring significant change to Los Angeles.

How about a drug- and scandal-free year for the Los Angeles City Council? Meanwhile, council members should hit the mute button on the rabid parochialism that plagues solutions to city problems.

IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY

We hope for a big year out of Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, particularly in the area of child support, and a Board of Supervisors that doesn’t rely on The Times to disclose what’s really going on in county government.

The oft-maligned Metropolitan Transportation Authority gets a walk this time around. Let’s just hope the MTA provides the kind of bus service that the region sorely needs.

IN SACRAMENTO

We can use a more cooperative, bipartisan Legislature. There will surely be partisan disagreements and intense debates, but they should be shorn of the personalized rhetoric of some recent sessions.

More contemplative legislators should start right out with education reform, quick action on bills to give California a new ban on assault weapons and tougher restrictions on the manufacture and sale of cheap handguns.

Statewide, we hope for easing of the shortage of affordable housing for renters and first-time home buyers. That’s already occurring in Southern California.

There’s more: a revised state tax structure to remove the incentive for neighboring cities to sabotage each other’s commercial areas and bust their municipal budgets in recruiting “big-box” retailers.

Long-since needed:

--A satisfactory result in the long-running effort to save the Headwaters Grove of old-growth redwoods from the chain saw.

--Serious HMO reform that guarantees consumers basic rights, beginning with the ability to appeal health care denials to a truly independent medical review board.

NATIONALLY

Puh-leeze, let sex go back to the bedroom and the government to governing. It’s news, but it would suit us fine to never again hear the words “Lewinsky,” “impeach,” “rule of law” and “Will the honorable gentleman yield me an additional minute?”

Halting corruption by passing a strong campaign finance reform bill should be the No. 1 priority in the Senate.

As welfare reform continues, we could use more jobs, high-quality day care for mothers new to the work force and training that leads to a permanent exodus from dependency.

We hope the Food and Drug Administration quits turning a blind eye to the safety of new drugs once they reach pharmacy shelves. Sharpen conflict-of-interest rules so federal oversight officials cannot be influenced by money from drug companies.

A FEW WORLD ISSUES

Let’s all step up to help the homeless of Honduras and other Central American countries lashed by Hurricane Mitch. The Red Cross and Los Angeles-area charities need funds, food, clothing and building materials.

We hope Gov.-elect Gray Davis removes the remaining chill of ugly-Americanism brought about by the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 and his predecessor’s lamentable divisiveness. Davis can help do that by sticking to his promise of an early visit to Mexico. Trade with Central America and Pacific Rim nations should also enjoy a higher profile.

The government of Japan, we hope, will follow its rare admission of economic bungling with strong action to jump-start the economy and give a boost to all of Asia.

Africa, often ignored by the West, needs peace and support, particularly in Angola, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi. We wish for a smooth transition in South Africa from President Nelson Mandela’s heroic years in office to a nation of equality for the black majority.

AND FINALLY, Y2K

By mid-1999, may all of the nation’s and the world’s critical computer and electronic systems will be declared ready for the rollover. Otherwise 2000 could begin as a real bummer.