Segregation Called Key Issue in School District Breakup
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Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge) said Tuesday that segregation is the first issue a special citizen’s task force on breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District will have to tackle.
At the first hearing of the advisory group, which La Follette organized last month, the San Fernando Valley legislator acknowledged that critics of district reorganization proposals most often cite segregation as a main concern.
Los Angeles, which is the nation’s second-largest school district with nearly 600,000 students, is 84% minority. Some critics say that breaking up the district would create smaller districts that would be almost entirely black, Latino and Asian.
La Follette suggested that one solution would be to require open enrollment in the new districts, which would allow students to choose their district.
Barbara Stone, a Cal State Fullerton political science professor and member of the state Little Hoover Commission, told the task force that she did not believe district reorganization would cause funding inequities because all school districts receive the bulk of their money from the state.
The task force will hold a second hearing in October.
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