School Candidate Calls for Reform

Saying that “our school system is in crisis,” Los Angeles Board of Education District 1 candidate Genethia Hayes on Thursday called for sweeping education reforms, including improved teacher training in South-Central Los Angeles--home of the city’s lowest-ranked students.

Flanked by about 30 parents, religious leaders and community activists who braved drenching rain to show their support, Hayes, 54, stood in front of Jefferson Middle School and called for programs to increase reading proficiency and expand parent involvement in schools.

“The children in this district read at the 27th percentile--even if they had textbooks they couldn’t read them,” said Hayes, who is trying to unseat board member Barbara Boudreaux in a district that stretches from the poor neighborhoods of South-Central west to the middle- and upper-class communities of Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw. “That’s not heartbreaking, it’s unethical and immoral, especially since education is the only way children of color have to level the playing field.”

Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also blasted current board members, citing that, in addition to having the lowest test scores in the city, District 1 has the fewest number of LEARN, charter and magnet schools.

“The single most [important] social justice issue facing this city is the education of the next generation of Los Angelenos,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what else we do. If we can’t get them educated, we’ll be in trouble.

“We do not have a board that understands that. We do not have a board that functions as a board,” she added. “And we do not have a board member in District 1 who has provided any leadership.”

Then Hayes referred to large color charts of student test scores at schools where Boudreaux served as principal.

“As you can see, during the time she was principal, test scores went down in reading and math,” Hayes said, “and they went up the minute she left.”

Boudreaux responded: “This campaign is getting dirty--heated with lies, cutthroat.”

Hayes, a conflict resolution trainer, called Boudreaux divisive, and vowed to expand peer mediation programs to reduce inter-ethnic rivalries and increase after-school and weekend learning opportunities for children.

Boudreaux, interviewed at her campaign office, accused Hayes of “spewing forked-tongue lies” and of being a pawn in what she called a “sinister effort” led by Mayor Richard Riordan to “take over everything in the city.”

Boudreaux was referring to Riordan helping to raise thousands of dollars to help finance Hayes’ campaign, as well as the campaigns of two other challengers and one incumbent.

“The mayor’s game is to privatize the entire city of Los Angeles and its vendorships for his own constituency,” Boudreaux said. “Genethia is his handpicked lady of the day.”

Hayes and Boudreaux, 65, both have deep roots in the city’s African American community. And both have been targeting the most likely voters in the district--African American women over 60.

Members of the 40,000-member United Teachers-Los Angeles union will be helping Hayes get her message out to potential voters in the April 13 election, union President Day Higuchi said.

“It is time to end the politics of division which has marked this district,” Higuchi said. “It’s time to have qualified teachers, not horrified teachers, which you will find in many of the schools in this district--teachers cowering in fear because of the politics that have existed under the present board member.”