Schools Assailed at VICA Conference

While numerous indicators point to a San Fernando Valley economy on the rebound, the failure of schools to adequately prepare students for jobs in the next century remains a dark cloud on the horizon, speakers at a business conference said Friday.

“Educating the Workforce in the Coming Century” was among the most popular, and spirited, sessions at the 11th annual Business Forecast Conference, sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

“Only the public schools will allow our society to move forward,” said Ron Unz, whose controversial campaign to end bilingual education in schools led to the passage last year of Proposition 227. “We need to find out what the problems are, and boldly face them and fix them.”

Yvonne Chan, principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, which serves 1,200 low-income elementary school students, believes the Valley needs to form its own school district. She also called for more parental involvement.

During a keynote address, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan called the current public school system not only dysfunctional but “evil” and called for a “revolution in our schools.”

Rocky Young, the new president at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, cited the responsibility of the community college system for turning out tomorrow’s workers.

“We have the responsibility of correcting whatever has not worked in the past,” said Young, who assumed his post this year.

He called for more assistance in that task from the business community, saying “the business community cannot sit idly by and let us make mistakes.”

Business needs to offer more internships and programs designed to integrate students into the workplace before graduation, he said.

The conference at the Warner Center Marriott began with a review of a 66-page report on the Valley’s economy, produced by the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at Cal State Northridge.

The report, officially released Friday, showed the Valley area is home to 630,000 private-sector jobs with an annual payroll of more than $23 billion.

James P. Dow Jr., an assistant professor of economics at CSUN, said the economic ups and downs of the Valley have, in general, closely tracked those of Los Angeles County.

He said, however, that by some measures the Valley lagged the county. For instance, the proportion of residents receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children increased much faster in the Valley than in other parts of the county during the early part of the decade. In recent years, AFDC rates have decreased in both the Valley and the rest of the county.

This year’s conference attracted a record number of participants--nearly 500.

Irene Tovar, executive director of the Valley-based Latin American Civic Assn., came to hear the CSUN report and stayed for a session on the Latino community and its growing impact in business and politics. Tovar said she was happy to see the business community address the importance of this growing group.

“For the first time, we’re addressing in the business establishment what many of us have known for many, many years,” Tovar said. “That there is a vibrant community that has never been fully recognized.”

Scott Campbell, a district manager with Glendale-based Public Storage Inc., said he came to the conference for opportunities to expand his contacts.

“I think it’s important for us to be able to network with other people from industry and to try to get ideas and share ideas,” Campbell said.

Providing opportunities for networking was one of the goals of the conference, according to Martin Cooper, head of Woodland Hills-based Cooper Communications. Cooper served as chairman of the event, which was sponsored largely by the Los Angeles Times Valley Edition.

“I wanted to share as much information and background with as many business and political leaders as I could,” Cooper said. He said the attendance figures showed he had accomplished that goal.

Another goal, he said, “was to show as many business, elected and media people as I could how vibrant and important the Valley business community is.”