A Fresh Line on Learning

When Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn this month proposed a “new partnership” of businesses, religious leaders, nonprofit groups and government to improve learning and literacy in Los Angeles, he drew applause--and skepticism. Appoint a task force to improve education? In this town? Unlike New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who recently wrested operating control over schools from the state Legislature, Hahn has no direct authority over schools. But anyone who concludes that civic leaders here can’t influence education defines learning, and leadership, too narrowly.

Saying the mayor has no control over the school day ignores the opportunity for learning outside of school. That nonschool time used to be filled by extended families, stay-at-home moms and neighbors who oversaw children’s play, chores, homework and other after-school activities.

These days, recreation centers, sports teams, church groups, private lessons, volunteer work and part-time jobs may fill that time and provide adult guidance. Or, in too many neighborhoods, kids choose between a TV inside a locked apartment and unsupervised time on the street.

City Council President Alex Padilla recently asked the city Commission for Children, Youth and Families to survey just what after-school programs, public and private, were out there. This modest step is one that surprisingly few cities have taken. The challenge for the mayor’s new partnership is to determine which programs best boost children’s chances of academic and social success. Then the coalition needs to foster programs in neighborhoods that lack them.

Los Angeles is rich in residents with the passion and expertise to help, from researchers at high-powered universities and think tanks to leaders of nonprofit programs and advocacy groups such as New Schools, Better Neighborhoods, which lobbies for schools to serve as community centers.

No, Hahn can’t walk into John C. Fremont High School and, presto, fix the nightmares described in a recent Times story. Two-thirds of Fremont’s students drop out before reaching their senior year. A third of the school’s 2,300 freshmen read no better than third-graders.

As badly as fixes are needed there, failure starts earlier in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After-school programs, parks, museums, churches, sports leagues, businesses and others can help fill the gaps. Otherwise, Los Angeles will come up short not just on skilled workers but on the shared values that knit isolated individuals into a city. This is exactly the kind of crisis the mayor should address.