The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 134

OPINION M5 LOSANGELESTIMES LETTERS David D. Hiller Publisher and Chief Executive Officer News James E. Editor Managing EditorManaging EditorAssociate Editor Douglas FrantzLeo C. WolinskyJohn Montorio Deputy Managing EditorInnovation EditorCreative Director Melissa McCoyRuss StantonJoseph Hutchinson Assistant Managing Editors John Arthur, Janet Clayton, Colin Crawford, Marc Duvoisin, Simon K.C. Li Opinion Michael Newman Deputy Editorial Page Editor EDITORIALS ver wonder why Los Angeles schools are flailing about so badly? Look not in the classroom but at the top: a school board that places politics, union priorities and personal payback over students time and again.

All appeared to play a role in the unconscionable vote Thursday to reject the Green Dot charter-school application for eight new high schools. Even though Green Dot founder Steve Barr runs unionized schools, United Teachers Los Angeles has never liked him because teachers in Green Dot Schools are not aligned with UTLA. Barr insists on a labor agreement that allows him to set reasonable work rules and fire bad teachers; UTLA stand for it. Parents and students from Watts, where Green Dot planned to open the schools, pleaded for approval, one girl in tears because of the physical violence she suffers at her public school. The board also ignored its own staff and the board member, Mike Lansing, who represents Watts.

Green campuses are oases of safety, and they outpace nearby public schools academically. The response from board members Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, Jon Lauritzen and Julie the three who kept approval from going forward indicated how much priority they put on such matters. The board has a contentious history with Barr, who put up a fight two years ago to take over faltering Jefferson High. He settled for opening schools in the vicinity, but the public battle was bruising, especially when L.A. Unified teachers jumped ship to join Green Dot.

Then Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has alienated the board with his bid for more power over the district, endorsed Green model. The trio of board members appear unprepared to let such slights pass. This page recently endorsed Poindexter LaMotte as someone who, despite various failings, could think independently. Consider us chastened. Voters will get a chance to remove Lauritzen, the most anti-reform member of the board, from office in May.

Korenstein, who admits bothered by Green size (not a valid reason for rejection), said she wanted to wait until scores came in from its five newest campuses. Her explanation wash. Green Dot has a substantial record from its other campuses, and L.A. families are tired of waiting. By law, charter applications must be considered on such substantive issues as whether the schools are sound financially and academically.

Green Dot passes on both counts. This situation called for a strong executive leader to lobby and even bully the board into compliance. Unfortunately, Supt. David L. Brewer lacks the political experience of his predecessor, Roy Romer.

have to be more assertive with his board if he is to achieve real reform. Green Dot almost certainly will win its appeal at the county level, and that might be to its advantage. The district admits it does a sketchy job of overseeing its charters one reason the board, at the same time it was rejecting Green Dot, approved a provisional extension for another charter school despite that abysmal academic record. Eventually, this frustrating moment in L.A. Unified history might lead the state to approve broad chartering powers for Green Dot.

But the time lag means that the eight new schools probably will have to wait an extra year. Once more, the losers are the students. More charter, less chatter In refusing to allow Green Dot schools to open eight new campuses, L.A. Unified has failed its students. A sadvertised Kyle testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the questionable firings of eight U.S.

attorneys was bad news for Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.The chief law enforcement officer stands revealed as either an unreliable witness or a man who would rather deceive Congress than admit to his own wrongdoing. Sampson, former chief of staff, contradicted the attorney statement on March 13 that he was involved in any of the firings.

That might have caused more of a sensation had Gonzales not already amended his denial after e-mails revealed that he was present at a meeting at which the firings were discussed. new, formulation is this: involved in the deliberations as to whether a particular United States attorney should or should not be asked to But even that seems hard to square with testimony that Gonzales took part in discussions about the and of various prosecutors. The attorney evolving explanations undermine his claims that the dismissals were not politically motivated. Sampson insisted that no prosecutors were fired because of the public corruption prosecutions they were pursuing (or not pursuing). But he conceded that one of the dismissed attorneys, David C.

Iglesiasof New Mexico, was not targeted until October, around the time two Republican members of Congress were asking about his handling of a corruption investigation of Democrats. testimony gives the impression of an office lacking strong leadership. The attorney general seems to subcontract important decisions to his underlings and not the sort of over-organized, detail-obsessed underlings who chief executives like to rely on. Sampson said that was really no of the plan for dismissing the U.S. attorneys other than chart and notes that I would dump into my lower right desk Congress and the Justice inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility will continue to investigate whether, and to what extent, corrupt motives played a part in these dismissals.

Gonzales should forthrightly assist in those inquiries preferably as a private citizen. spin Senate testimony from his deputy calls into question the attorney truthfulness. The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be 150 words or less and may be edited. They become the property of The Times and may be republished in any format.

Please include your name, hometown and daytime telephone number; with email, send attachments. For complete guidelines, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 74511. By mail: Letters to the Editor, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st Los Angeles, CA 90012.

E-mail: How to write to us Policing the homeless Re view of skid Opinion, March 27 While Los Angeles Police Capt. Andrew Smith makes a great attempt to discredit the criticism of the LAPD issued by Ramona Ripston, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, his rebuttal takes a turn somewhere along the line and merely turns into a roundabout form of propaganda: will continue to provide training in dealing with the troubled and troublesome population on skid row. Do we need more money for housing, for supportive services and mental health care? Of article presents an image of the jaded officer who has seen too much; an officer who justifies taking serious action through the telling of tragic stories and while on the topic, say no to some more money for the cause. Tanya Meaida Northridge As one who has worked with the homeless in Long Beach, I too am appalled at hypocritical comments concerning the efforts of the LAPD on skid row. Smith and his officers, like the Long Beach police force, perform an underappre- ciated job in trying to keep the skid rows of their respective cities as safe as possible for the unfortunate residents of those areas.

And I know although they might not say so they appreciate their efforts, as do people like me who work with skid row residents. As my mother would say, stars in your crown, Capt. Smith. Michael Weller Long Beach Smith states that thousands of people who until recently came downtown to party in a lawless environment have simply gone home, or to jail, now that police are on the scene. As the largest developer of student housing around the USC campus, on the edge of downtown, I have seen an increase in homeless people moving into South L.A.

since the police crackdown began. The homeless are not going home, as the police captain suggests, because they have no homes to go to. They are not in jail because they have not committed crimes. Instead, it seems to me that the overly aggressive police presence downtown appears to be chasing them to nearby areas that lack the services to handle them. Without a real citywide plan for reducing homelessness, we will soon be back where we started.

Alan Smolinisky Los Angeles The author, who is on the board of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, is co- principal of Conquest Student Housing, a firm housing more than 2,000 students at USC and UC Santa Barbara. How the past plays a present role Re plays no part in this history Column, March 26 The honest examination and reconciliation of American history is vital not only to education in a pluralistic society but to achieving true democracy. The history I learned in public schools was predominantly Eurocentricin perspective and dishonest about the settlement of the Americas. My education did little to account for disparities in wealth, power and privilege along the lines of race. The diverse people of America do not share the same historical experience.

The vestiges of this past continue to stifle human development and impose second-class status on too many. Accounting for and reconciling our collective history is the only path to unleashing the power of this pluralism and realizing the higher tenets of democracy. Frank de Jesus Acosta Whittier The writer, coauthor of History of Barrios Unidos: Healing Community belongs to Barrios Unidos, dedicated to empowering Latino youth and families. The shame and anger that this native Californian often feels toward the modern mes- tizo movement are due to the selective account of history put forward, mainly the dismissal of the own Spanish descent.The movement then recommends turning toward any European to blame for the destruction of the Indian nations within New Spain post-1492. Few mestizos understand they share DNA with the murderers of the Aztec, Yaqui and Inca.

They understand that the Mayflower bring down Teotihuacan. Matt McLaughlin Santa Barbara How you see history depends on who you are. I can still remember one of my students from Tlaxcala, Mexico, speaking with pride about a mural in a Tlaxcalan church that depicted Tlaxcalan soldiers defeating the Aztecs with the help of Hernando Cortes. Nelyollotl depicts heritage, not history. California was never a part of Anahuac.

Recent linguistic studies suggest strongly that Aztec origin was south, not north, of Anahuac. One must remember that the Mexica rewrote their history to justify their conquests. Thurber D. Proffitt Orange The writer teaches Mexican American history at Santa Ana College. At-risk health coverage Re insurance options dwindle for March 27 This article illustrates the need for healthcare reform and points out the deficiencies in the current system.

Thanks to The research and comprehensive examination of the plight of these individuals affected by the erosion of benefits, I hope more Californians will feel the urgency in addressing this issue. Jeff Okey Senior media relations associate The California Endowment Los Angeles Ihope Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reads this report about the effect of outlawing underwriting in market for association health plans a decade ago. Forbidding insurers to consider preexisting conditions supposedly protects those citizens. In fact, it victimizes everyone by allowing healthy people to wait until they get sick to apply for coverage.

This causes a death spiral whereby healthy people quit association health plans and buy individual health insurance instead. Schwarzenegger wants to destroy the latter market too by imposing the same rule. Good health policy should encourage people to buy low-cost health insurance when they are young and healthy. The plan does the opposite, and it will cause rate increases that will prove impossible for many to bear. John R.

Graham Director Health Care Studies Pacific Research Institute San Francisco Everywhere we turn, insurance options are becoming fewer. Nowhere is this more vivid than among the self-employed or those who work in nontraditional jobs. California should encourage more insurers to write policies via associations and protect those association plans that still exist. What actions from our Legislature or Department of Insurance would make association- based coverage more widely available or better protected? To reduce the number of uninsured in our state, we should stop adding to the number who are without coverage which is exactly what inaction or misguided action will do. Terry Hagan Rancho Santa Margarita FBI failings are cause for concern Re has some explaining to March 28 It is disquieting, at best, to learn of the bipartisan agreement that the ability to protect the country from terrorism is in serious question.

This is further evidence that the protection-from-terrorism theme has lost credibility as a justification for the secrecy and abuse of power that exists throughout the Bush administration. Not until there is a change in the culture will we witness a change in the effectiveness of the leadership in any of the agencies of our government. Aculture change must be led by a change in the philosophy and behavior of senior management, in this case the president and vice president. There is little to no evidence that this will occur within the next two years. The alternative, then, is to be prepared for the reality that, as Sen.

Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) stated, shoe drops virtually on a daily Hopefully, for the benefit of all of us, congressional action will help minimize the fallout. Karl Strandberg Long Beach he know when to quit? Re occasion for redo Opinion, March 26 been said that the Federal is to remove the punchbowl just as the getting started, thereby limiting the inevitable hangover that follows rapid economic expansion. But theAlan Greenspan and BenS. Bernanke regimesnot only refilled the punchbowl, they cranked up the music while investors of all stripes danced and asset prices zoomed. Amazingly, Lawrence H.Summers now asks the Fed to go easy, in effect offering a Bloody Mary as dawn approaches.

Easy money has fueled many an asset bubble over time, and it appears that if Summers gets his way, there are more ahead. Just how much monetary stimulus can our economy stand before we reach the overdose stage? Alan M. Scolamieri Long Beach Developing issue Re using suits to fund March 27 So developers are upset because they have to pay fines and fees for the extra use of the freeways and environmental impact their developments create. Too bad, so sad. It seems Caltrans should have an ally in the powers-that-be, which issue permits for the overdevel- opment that is rampant.

It makes sense that the more you build, the more people you have sharing space. No way do I think there is anything altruistic in the taking place these days. about making money for the few at the expense of the rest of us. Marty Wilson Whittier Solo carpoolers Re proposes carpool snitch March 27 There will hopefully soon be away to get back at solo drivers in carpool lanes who are under the misguided impression that carpool lanes were created just for them to break the law. A recently introduced bill saysthat anyone observing a car with only oneperson driving in the carpool lane can report this cheater.The cheaters will not be cited but rather will be sent awritten warning.

This is very good news for people like me who take laws seriously but have no recourse to punish the guilty. Bill Spitalnick Newport Beach Michael Osbun Tribune Media Services Mayflower bring down Matt McLaughlin, Santa Barbara I always achallenge, when entertaining out-of- town guests, to come up with that holy grail of tourist Los Angeles: the celebrity sighting. Sure, there are ways to engineer it attending a taping of Jay Leno, joining a paparazzi stake-out, checking into rehab that strategy has always seemed inauthentic to me. Seeing celebrities in the wild may not be a regular part of for many of us, but a must for a So-Cal visit. Recently I hosted a friend on her first visit to L.A.

As a born-and-raised Brooklynite, she was not exactly a novice at celebrity sighting. But she still wanted to see a famous person here, in the city that makes and breaks them, where they barricade themselves from scrutiny in heavily fortressed hilltop homes or fall into obscurity in nondescript Valley apartments. This particular celebrity sighting was even harder to arrange than dinner at Mozza. The main problem was that, quite unlike the Getty or Disneyland, celebrities are not immobile. Then I had to contend with the sad, perennial truth that I have absolutely no access to any famous people.

Celebrities are not my friends or neighbors, and I have neither the cash nor the connections to circumvent velvet ropes at a Sam Nazarian nightclub. Finally, no matter how much US Weekly tries to convince everyone that the ideal celebrity sighting is the one that proves just like I wanted us to encounter one doing something that proves the exact opposite. I would have to position myself in places where whether because assured privacy or assured paparazzi celebrities feel free to behave outrageously, as they should and as we expect. Exclusive restaurants, high-end boutiques, new nightclubs with entrances marked by beefy bouncers in a back alley these were the places, I guessed, where celebs would be. Where they would be found wearing things I would never wear, saying things I would never say and spending like I imagine.

My friend and I walked with watchful eyes around ritzy portions of Hollywood, West Hollywood, West L.A. and beachside towns. But my preparations were mostly in vain the only celebrity my friend spotted (other than a CW starlet at the airport) was near atourist trap rather than at a secret VIP spot, and she was behaving like And who was this lucky star, you ask? It was none other than Hillary Swank, strolling with her boyfriend near Third Street Promenade. As fate would have it, Imissed seeing her. I was too busy looking at those other tall, thin, precariously beautiful Southern California creatures, far easier to spot: palm trees.

Swati Pandey Only a free-range celebrity will do OUR SO-CAL LIFE.