The Only Interest Group That Counts : Wisely, LEARN’s reform plan puts children first, the status quo last

Give schoolteachers and principals more control over what goes on in the classroom--and then make them accountable for the results. Have the key decisions made at the school, not by bureaucrats downtown or in Sacramento--and give parents a real say. These are the common-sense recommendations of a group of civic and business leaders who just might have the clout to actually effect major change in the mammoth and troubled Los Angeles Unified School District.

After more than six months of intensive study and discussion, the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) this week issued its preliminary plan for school reform. The plan calls for, among other things, a reduction of bureaucracy and allowing schools more control over spending, hiring and teaching. It also recommends making the principal primarily responsible for a school’s performance and direction.

While these ideas hardly seem radical, it will take both strong persuasion and hard-ball lobbying to make them happen. That’s because there are so many groups with entrenched interests in the status quo. LEARN’s approach is to suggest that the only interest group that everyone should put first is the children.

No one wins when too many families flee public schools because parents perceive, rightly or wrongly, that the schools just aren’t good enough. Children lose when they are yanked into schools far from home, parents lose if they have to pay private school tuition, and eventually employers lose because they must rely on public schools to turn out educated, literate workers.

Understanding that “we’re all in this together,” LEARN has come up with a reform plan that it is now circulating among its many trustees, who represent a cross-section of business, labor, education and parent groups.

Everyone agrees it’s a good start. Now the hard part begins--selling it.