Community College Picks

Four of seven seats on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees are up for grabs in the March 4 primary. Political savvy and heartfelt commitment will be necessary to fend off Gov. Gray Davis’ proposal to preserve California State University and University of California funding but decimate the budget of the community colleges, where nurses, airport screeners and skilled child-care workers are trained. Though three-quarters of adults in the U.S. never complete a four-year college, they increasingly need technical skills to stay employable. The community colleges, not the UC and Cal State systems, teach most such skills. In addition, every student who spends two years at community college before transferring to a public four-year college saves the state thousands.

All organizations need new blood, so it is with some regret that The Times endorses the incumbents. But only the incumbents in these races have the skills to navigate tough years ahead for the colleges.

District 1: Sylvia Scott-Hayes

The first Latina to have served as the district’s president, Sylvia Scott-Hayes has lobbied vigorously for the colleges in the Legislature. Her opponents -- Donna J. Warren, who ran as the Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor last year, and conservative cable TV host Mark Isler -- tick off ideological agendas only distantly related to the colleges.

District 3: Mona Field

Currently the board’s vice president, Mona Field has one strong challenger in Wilma E. Bennett, a smart businesswoman who rightly accuses the board of failing to give citizens advance notice of special meetings. But Field is the best candidate. A Glendale Community College professor and textbook author, Field is respected as a collegial and candid leader. Her two opponents are affable but unfocused. Earl Raymond High is a minister campaigning earnestly to help ensure “success for low-income challengers,” and Joyce Burrell Garcia is a self-described “educator/analyst/mediator.”

District 5: Georgia L. Mercer

An aide to former Mayor Richard Riordan, Georgia L. Mercer has deftly supervised the implementation of Proposition A, a 2001 bond measure to modernize district buildings and grounds. Her opponent, David J. Sanchez, an aide to former L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, is a lackluster candidate who offers boilerplate goals like “improving accountability.”

District 7: Warren T. Furutani

Warren T. Furutani, the board’s president, has sensible goals, including fending off state efforts to cut the colleges’ peer counseling and literacy programs, and the background to achieve them: He is an aide to Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City). He is running against two candidates without clear reform agendas: Mark Gonzaga, a TV producer and an environmentalist, and David R. Hernandez, who ran for San Fernando Valley mayor in last year’s election.