Wilson to Back Bill to Ease Breakup of L.A. Schools : Education: The measure would lower the number of petition signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.

SACRAMENTO —  Anticipating a key state Senate test next week, the Wilson Administration is poised to throw its support behind a bill easing the way for a breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

But Gov. Pete Wilson will refrain from taking a stance on the breakup itself, believing that it is an issue for local voters to decide, said Maureen DiMarco, Wilson’s secretary for child development and education.

The bill, carried by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), would lower the number of petition signatures needed before the breakup question could be placed on an election ballot.

The legislation would also erase the school board’s ability to squash a breakup effort by removing its veto power over such a proposal.

Boland’s bill has already advanced through the Assembly but faces a tough hearing in the Senate Education Committee. After clashes during the bill’s first hearing this week, panel members put off further talks and a vote until Wednesday.

DiMarco said her office plans to send a representative to praise the goals of Boland’s bill.

“The governor supports that there be a more manageable threshold for the people of Los Angeles to decide what they want to do,” DiMarco said. “He hasn’t taken a position on the actual breakup issue--that is for the people to determine what’s best for them.

“At this point, he is basically supporting making that process more workable for people to determine their own destiny,” she said.

The bill would lower the threshold of signatures needed to put the issue before voters. Currently, signatures must be gathered from 25% of registered voters in a territory seeking to split off from the district. The Assembly measure would reduce that number to 8% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election for the same area. The area would be defined by the petition gatherers as a new, proposed district.

Estimates of actual numbers of signatures needed would vary from territory to territory, but the lower percentage is thought by local education activists to be significantly easier to achieve.

In an attempt to bridge differences among the Senate panelists this week, some senators floated a compromise proposal: requiring signatures from 10% of the registered voters in the entire district.

But that plan was quickly rejected when Boland’s supporters realized it would mean gathering well over 100,000 signatures, an obstacle viewed as insurmountable for a grass-roots effort.

For decades, parents disgruntled with the quality of education in LAUSD have sought to split off from the mammoth, 708-square-mile district, believing that a smaller district would be more responsive to community needs.

Ron Prescott, LAUSD’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento, said the district opposes such efforts and told senators that Boland’s bill represented an unfair attempt to single out the district.

The district is attempting to alter the bill so that it applies to all school districts statewide. “We don’t want L.A. treated differently,” Prescott said.

The governor’s support of the bill will not hurt Los Angeles Unified’s efforts to amend it, Prescott said. “We can’t kill that bill, we know it,” he said. “We are trying to get legislation passed that makes sense and gives the community what it seeks.”

In his opposition to the bill, Prescott found a receptive audience in state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who spoke adamantly against Boland’s bill, contending it denied too many voters a voice.

“What you’re doing is representing a very exclusive few,” Watson told Boland in a scolding tone. “Under this bill, Ms. Boland, you disenfranchise a great number of people in this district.”

Next week’s testimony from the Wilson Administration may do little to make such Democrats as Watson budge from their opposition to the bill.

Support for the measure has split pretty much along party lines, with Republicans siding with Boland and Democrats aligning themselves with the teachers unions against the bill. A notable exception is state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who has a companion measure ensuring racial and funding equities should Boland’s bill become law.

Wilson’s support was not unexpected, given that he has again thrust himself into a campaign cycle and needs to reach out to Republican constituents while running for President.

Politics aside, Boland said it came as welcome news. “I was delighted to hear it. But I was really a little surprised that it came that soon,” she said, noting that the bill may not yet be in its final form.

“I’m certainly hopeful that it’ll be a boost,” Boland said. “I believe that now these Senate members will hear and see that even the governor thinks it’s a good idea.”

While the governor has prepared a position on the Boland bill, the top political leader closer to home has yet to take a stand on the measure.

Mayor Richard Riordan has supported breaking up the Los Angeles school system, but he has not issued an opinion on the Boland bill, aides said.

Riordan has said he would favor districts of no more than 25 schools to provide parents and students with more accountability.

At the same time, however, aides said that Riordan is a supporter of Los Angeles Unified’s reform program, known as LEARN, which seeks to shift most decision-making to local schools.

“But he is certainly interested in looking at initiatives that would introduce more accountability into that system,” said Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan’s spokeswoman.

Craft reported from Sacramento and Shuster from Los Angeles.