Panel Debates Monitor for L.A. Unified

Several key members of a state Senate committee said Wednesday that they will push for state oversight of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Senate Education Committee postponed voting on a bill to place a monitor over the district, but Chairwoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) said that she would bring the measure back at a special meeting Wednesday and that she intends to vote for it.

The delay will allow the bill’s author, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), to write amendments trimming back the authority of the monitor in hopes of winning over opponents who say the new administration needs time to prove itself.

Polanco is also drawing up an amendment that would create a joint committee of the Legislature to establish goals for the district and receive reports from the monitor. If, after three years, the district has not improved the quality of education, the committee would recommend a breakup plan to take effect two years later if progress was still inadequate.

Interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines testified Wednesday that a monitor, even with reduced powers, would jeopardize the district’s search for a new superintendent.

Cortines said he supports the imposition of state benchmarks for improvement, but said an experienced and well-qualified candidate would not want the superintendent’s job if he or she had to report to a state monitor.

“I do believe that a state monitor is misguided at this time,” Cortines said. He said the district already has undertaken significant changes, including reorganization of the administration, introduction of a new reading program and the elimination of patronage.

After a year, “if the program has not been made better, then I do believe further action needs to be taken,” Cortines said.

In a 90-minute debate, committee members split over the proposal. Two members who represent Los Angeles argued that the district has been given too many chances and requires immediate state oversight. They and Polanco said the district has failed to adequately educate generations of students. Polanco cited a personal experience, telling the committee that his brother reached high school without being able to read.

“This crisis has been metastasizing for five years,” said committee member Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles). He scoffed at Cortines’ suggestion that the new superintendent could make quarterly progress reports directly to the joint legislative committee.

“The district has a conflict of interest in monitoring itself and sharing bad information,” Hayden said. “The district’s job is to put the best foot forward and ask for money.”

Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) said it is imperative for the state to “engage in day-to-day watching” to be sure the district improves.

Two other Democrats on the committee expressed reservations but did not say how they would vote on the bill.

State Sen. Raymond Haynes (R-Riverside), the only Republican on the committee to speak Wednesday, called the proposal a waste of money that would pay a monitor a large sum to watch the district for three years and then possibly recommend no change.

Haynes said he can’t imagine any Republican voting for the emergency legislation. A split along party lines would doom the measure on the Senate floor, Haynes said Wednesday.

After speaking with district officials Tuesday, Polanco agreed to drop provisions of the bill that would give the monitor authority to make policy and veto decisions by the Board of Education.

His bill also specified that the monitor would be paid at least as much as the new general superintendent, who is expected to be named this month.

Three unions, including the 43,000-member teachers union, oppose the bill. Representatives of the California School Employees Assn. and the Service Employees International Union told the committee Wednesday that they would drop their opposition once the proposed amendments are included.

A spokesman for United Teachers-Los Angeles said the amendments have eased, but not eliminated, that union’s opposition.