Roberti Offers Compromise on District Split-Up

SACRAMENTO —  Seeking to revive his stalled legislation to split up the Los Angeles Unified School District, state Sen. David A. Roberti on Tuesday offered what he described as a compromise to opponents of his plan.

The Van Nuys Democrat announced he is still pushing a proposal to establish a commission to break up the nation’s second-largest school district and put the plan on the ballot.

But Roberti said he is now willing to add another wrinkle, calling for a separate measure on the same ballot to provide for a property tax increase that would generate an unspecified amount of money “for educational reform” in Los Angeles.

In describing the sketchy outline of his revised proposal, Roberti said that if critics of his breakup measure “want a revenue raiser on the ballot, I’m willing to put a revenue raiser on the ballot and let the public vote on it. And I want them, in response, to put a breakup of the school district on the ballot.”

The new proposal was presented last week to Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), who chairs the Assembly Education Committee which in July rejected Roberti’s legislation to set up a racially and ethnically balanced commission to devise a plan to split the 640,000-student district into seven smaller school systems.

Roberti said he was responding to a suggestion by Eastin that schools in Los Angeles would need more funds if the district was split up.

At the heart of the breakup fight is a contention by supporters that smaller districts would allow parents and teachers more control over the classroom learning environment. Opponents, however, view the proposal as promoting segregated education and call for other reforms such as funneling funds directly to schools, bypassing a central administration office.

Eastin, a potential candidate next year for state superintendent of public instruction, has left open the door to a possible compromise on the split-up. Roberti said he has not heard back from Eastin so he decided to nudge her to reach a decision.

She was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but in recent months she has repeatedly voiced strong reservations about setting up a commission with a narrowly focused plan to dismantle the school district which covers Los Angeles and a number of surrounding communities.

Roberti stressed he is unwilling to budge on the commission’s predetermined task of breaking up the district “because the public will have the right to vote up or down on the issue.”

Roberti said he could not estimate how much revenue would be raised by the property tax and cautioned that some other revenue-raising device could also be devised by Eastin to fund educational reforms.

He also noted that the breakup plan and the financing issue would not be linked on the ballot. “Voters could support either, neither or both measures.” he said.

But Roberti’s olive branch to his critics did not soften their objections. Opponents of the breakup immediately assailed Roberti’s new proposal, saying the tax would probably need to be approved by two-thirds of the voters--an almost impossible task.

Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), a breakup foe, described Roberti’s new proposal as “the same old thing . . . because we know a parcel tax isn’t going to pass and the breakup could. So, it’s not a compromise. It’s just another way to get his bill back on track.”

William Lambert, a lobbyist for the United Teachers, Los Angeles, characterized the proposal as a “warmed over” version of the breakup bill that was rejected by the Assembly Education Committee.

And one source close to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), a staunch opponent of the breakup, said he doubted if the compromise would “meet the Speaker’s concerns.”

Roberti acknowledged that Brown is “not excited about the breakup proposal.” But he said he believes it’s important to attempt to win passage of a measure before the Legislature recesses for the year on Sept. 10.

He repeated warnings that if the Legislature fails to approve a plan supporters may be forced to seek a ballot initiative to split up the school district.

Breakup supporters already are moving on other fronts.

Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) last week won approval from the Senate Education Committee of a proposal to dramatically reduce the number of signatures needed to petition the State Board of Education to divide schools in Los Angeles.

The measure is set for a hearing on Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Committee.