Divided Crowd Discusses District Breakup Bid
A public hearing on a proposal to create two new San Fernando Valley school districts drew a sharply divided crowd of about 150 people Thursday, with opponents showing up in force for the first time.
“I’m very concerned about this proposal,” said Ana Soriano of Sylmar, who said she has four children in the Los Angeles Unified School District. “It divides the Valley into upper class and lower class--and that is not what education is about.”
The breakup proposal by the citizens group Finally Restoring Excellence in Education, or FREE, calls for two new districts--with Roscoe Boulevard serving as the primary boundary line between them.
Soriano and other opponents said the north Valley district would have a greater number of poor and minority students than its south Valley counterpart.
FREE organizer Stephanie Carter said there was no attempt to divide districts by race or class.
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