Education-Driven Elections

Education was no doubt the top priority for voters in school board and community college races. It also, according to Times exit polling, drove the choice for mayor. That preeminence will challenge the next mayor to build on Mayor Richard Riordan’s determined focus on improving public schools. Riordan’s admirable use of the bully pulpit on an issue over which the mayor supposedly has no power has heightened expectations for his successor.

The mayor is prohibited by the city charter from managing public education. Changing that would be complicated by geography: The Los Angeles Unified School District stretches beyond city boundaries. That shouldn’t stop the next mayor from urging better pay for the school board--the members, all part-timers, currently make $24,000 a year--and seeking mayoral authority to appoint some members.

Riordan supported candidates for the L.A. Board of Education in two elections. Two years ago, he backed four education reformers. Campaigning against a stultifying district bureaucracy and the acceptance of student failure, they swept into power. This year, in part because of the opposition Riordan attracted from LAUSD supporters of the status quo, only one of three Riordan-supported candidates won outright in Tuesday’s voting, Jose Huizar.

Julie Korenstein, a 14-year incumbent who ran out of good ideas long ago, won outright in a district that represents most of the San Fernando Valley. In the June 5 runoff, Valerie Fields, who is completing her first term in a Westside and Valley district, will face Marlene Canter, a knowledgeable and wealthy independent candidate. However, the campaign has disappointed with its off-target focus. Canter should challenge Fields on her votes and her lack of willingness to stand up to union pressure--not on Fields being tardy for meetings.

The best education news of the election is the approval, after a decade of vain efforts, of Proposition A, a $1.25-billion bond measure for much-needed school construction and repairs for the L.A. community colleges. The nine-campus system, improving under a reform-minded board, is a linchpin for moving the poor into the middle class, but until Tuesday it was sadly neglected. The passage of the bond measure, the largest ever for a single community college district, was a victory for everyone who wants to see the Los Angeles region prosper.