HER LONG QUEST TO FIX L.A.’S PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM IS FINALLY GAINING WIDESPREAD SUPPORT, RECENTLY FORCING A STUDY OF AN LAUSD BREAKUP For the last 20 years or so, Paula Boland has been talking about breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District. But until this year, with L.A. Unified’s turmoil over the Belmont project and the controversy over former Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, Boland’s cause had failed to catch fire with the public. Boland’s organization Finally Restoring Excellence in Education (FREE) got enough signatures on a recent petition to force the Los Angeles County Board of Education to study the matter of breaking up the LAUSD, splitting off the San Fernando Valley and dividing it up into two separate school districts split along Roscoe Boulevard. The proposal is now in the public hearing phase, with the second county hearing slated for Feb. 24. The board has until June to make a recommendation to the state Board of Education about splitting up the LAUSD. If the state board agrees to move forward with separating the district, it would go to a public vote. Boland, a Republican assemblywoman from Granada Hills in the early 1990s, takes part of the credit for getting the proposal this far along. During her term in office, she got legislation passed that took away a school district’s veto power over breakup efforts. She also launched legislation to take away a city’s veto power over secession efforts, though that proposal didn’t pass until she had left office. Her efforts have not gone without criticism. Valley Latino groups, for example, charge that FREE’s proposed Valley districts would disenfranchise Latino parents. Question: What first prompted you to get involved in the secession and LAUSD breakup movements? Answer: Back in the 1970s, wherever you went, you heard two things: school districts need to break up, they’ve lost their mission and they’re not doing any good, and we need a separate city. I was a member of CIVICC, the group studying detachment. When the city found out we were studying it and we were close, they went to Sacramento and had a couple sentences inserted in legislation. What it said was, should people want to detach a school district or a city, the city council or school board could veto it. So they took our democracy away in the middle of the night. And during all those years of the very early ’70s until I ran for office in the early 1990s, all you heard was that people wanted out of the schools. So when I was in Sacramento, I took the voice of the Valley with me to get the democracy back, so if they wanted to be a separate city they could, if they wanted to be a separate school district they could. I did the school bill first, because if you look at what’s the most important, it’s kids’ lives. The first bill I carried was to remove the portion where the school board could say no. Q: You’ve been pushing for a district breakup for two decades now. Have things changed to make it more likely to happen? A: Well, what we saw 20 years ago, others saw too. However, there were lots of folks that didn’t want to admit the problem was there. They were protecting the establishment, protecting an inept school board, and all of a sudden, enough became enough. And it’s been interesting to see so many factions now that have decided they can’t be blind to what the district is doing. It’s gratifying to see that everybody will face up to the truth. Parents always knew it, businesses have always known it. Now we’re seeing some of the bureaucracy saying the same thing. Q: Do you think the Belmont fiasco has made breakup a priority in the minds of Valley parents? A: Of course. Belmont was a rape of the taxpayer again with an inept school board. The school board has notoriously gone against what they know (taxpayers) want. They don’t listen to (taxpayers) at school board meetings. They just do what they want to do. Q: FREE has come under criticism from Latino groups and leaders who charge that the proposed boundaries of the two Valley districts would dilute the power of Latino parents. Is that a valid criticism? A: I’ll tell you what their argument is. They agree in total that the way the (two proposed Valley) districts are drawn, there’s one district that’s more than 69 percent minority, the other district is 71 percent minority, and with the new census, I think those numbers will be higher. They are not saying that they are drawn (in a way that discriminates against Latinos). Their belief is that if they (split the districts) down the San Diego Freeway (instead of along Roscoe Boulevard, which is the proposed split), they have more people registered in those districts, so therefore they could control (school board elections). However, the reason the lines were drawn the way they are is, we must meet the federal and state guidelines (for the ethnic mix within each district). It would be disproportionate (if it were split down the 405 Freeway). Q: How were the lines decided upon? A: We had to use federal and state guidelines for race mix and economic mix, and going over the numbers for months, this was the most fair way and the most proportionate way to draw the district. The other thing you need to know is, there’s only one issue before us now and that’s to get two school districts in the San Fernando Valley. People can talk about a million things if we all had our druthers, we’d probably like eight districts but it wouldn’t fit the guidelines. So the important thing is to split them and get the parents taking charge of kids’ lives. We did what we knew they couldn’t argue with at the state level. This is how it works: People get a petition, they get it qualified, bring it to the county Board (of Education) and then the county must send it to the state Board of Education. You can’t change it or modify it. What’s before us is, do you want 200,000 kids in two new school districts instead of leaving them in a failed district? Do we want to rescue these kids and give them an opportunity and future? Q: Did you consider consulting other groups pushing LAUSD breakup when you were working on the proposed boundaries? A: We went to the PTA, we stayed in touch with parents. Involved with this were people all over the Valley. Once we had drawn the maps, we brought 50 people together. It was in the newspaper, everybody knew I had passed the bill. Everybody knew in 1996, even before I was out of office, that I was going to start drawing lines and getting a petition together. Not a soul contacted us and said, “We’re from MAPA (Mexican American Political Association) and we’d like to give you some ideas on lines.” State Sen. Richard Alarcon was on the City Council. We tried to get hold of him and got no response. So nobody had any ideas to offer. Everybody knew we were working on this; we were out in the community. Q: If MAPA and other groups oppose FREE because of the proposed boundaries, would that derail your breakup efforts? A: No. We have huge numbers of Hispanics from the East Valley supporting us. They know they want their kids to have a good education. They know they’re getting shortchanged and they want to see the district broken up. And they’re not looking at it from politics. They’re looking at it from what’s best for the district. I think that what some of these groups (like MAPA) are not seeing is that there are wonderful Hispanic parents in this Valley who will run for school board and will win elections. They need to really go to the parents. Those are the people they need to be talking to, instead of each other. Q: Did your two children go to LAUSD schools? A: Yes, they did. It was shocking that you could walk into classrooms and see kids running around and no one teaching them. It was shocking just how much education had changed since I was in school, and I unfortunately couldn’t afford to send them to private school. My grandchildren (who live in the Valley) do go to private schools. Q: Are you still considering a run for L.A. City Council in 2003, when Councilman Hal Bernson is termed out of office? A: When that time comes, I’ll consider it. I’ve been asked by so many people. SNAPSHOT Paula Boland Position: Co-Chairwoman Organization: Finally Restoring Excellence in Education Born: Oyster Bay, Long Island, N.Y.; 1940 Education: San Fernando High School Personal: Married, two children Most Admired Person: Ronald Reagan
