Bid to Put L.A. Schools Under State Scrutiny Fails

In the waning moments of the legislative session this week, the Los Angeles Unified School District fought off a bill that would have placed it under state oversight.

Despite intense lobbying, Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) was unable to get an Assembly vote on his bill to establish a monitor who would track the district’s progress on improving student achievement, increasing the number of credentialed teachers, adding textbooks and improving school safety and parental involvement. The legislation died without a hearing in the Assembly rules committee.

A related resolution to create a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly to oversee the district was one of the last measures to die on the Assembly floor early Friday morning.

Proponents of the resolution tried repeatedly to garner the 41 votes needed for Assembly approval, but they ultimately fell short. It failed on a 36-32 vote.

The district did not oppose a joint committee, and Polanco said he would bring the measure back next year.

“I just basically ran out of time,” he said.

Six key Democrats who supported him had left by the time the vote was taken, he said.

The defeat of the monitoring bill removes a threat to local authority that had cast a shadow over the Board of Education’s search for a new superintendent this spring.

Supt. Roy Romer, who accepted the job not knowing whether he would have to contend with a competing state executive, expressed relief Friday.

“We don’t need people sitting up on the bank with a stopwatch,” Romer said. “We need people down on the road pushing the wagon.”

He vowed to make sure the Legislature receives all the information the monitor would have provided.

“Without the committee, I will just volunteer on a frequent basis to keep them apprised of what our benchmarks are and how we are proceeding toward them,” he said.

The defeat of both measures reflects a change of attitude in Sacramento about the district, said the district’s new lobbyist, Fabian Nunez. The Belmont Learning Complex, the abandoned high school project that earned the district intense criticism, is fading as a political issue, he said.

“We can’t forget the mistakes the district made with Belmont, but at the same time we need to recognize that we have a new administration and a new superintendent,” Nunez said. “This district has been injected with new energy.”

At least one legislator who voted against the joint committee proposal concurred.

“With the new superintendent and with a reform slate of board members, they should be given the opportunity to make the kinds of reforms and changes that need to be made,” said Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena). “I sense a commitment to that.”

Scott said he also opposed the infringement on local authority.

“I’m hesitant to say that we can run a school district from Sacramento,” he said.

But after Polanco agreed to make several amendments, district officials said they no longer object to a joint committee focused solely on L.A. Unified.

Initially, the measure specified that the committee would “direct” the district. Polanco deleted that language and added a statement acknowledging that the district has made strides.

In its current form, Nunez said, the measure would provide the district a forum in which to work out legislative solutions to its severe problems.

“We thought it would be a great idea to get a group of legislators who review the progress of the district and work with the district on concerns they are having,” he said.

Polanco said he will reintroduce the measure with the amendments sought by the district.