How to Focus on Priorities

In government, real leaders have to make priorities. In a tight and flailing economy, they have to determine which public employees--by the nature of the service they provide--merit the greatest possible protection from the budget crunch. Members of the Los Angeles City Council are showing that they understand that priority-making responsibility; some members of the Los Angeles Board of Education, unfortunately, instead are showing a stunning inability to get their priorities straight.

Ensuring public safety must be the top priority of the council and the mayor. Thus council members Zev Yaroslavsky and John Ferraro have suggested, among other things, that city layoffs, including staff reductions in the offices of the mayor and City Council, may have to occur. That clearly unpleasant prospect must be considered because the city is facing a $155-million budget shortfall--and because the council members place top priority in restoring officers to the Los Angeles Police Department and preventing reductions in the Fire Department. Their recommendations do not suggest that city planners and aides who might be laid off are unimportant--only that the city’s top budget priority must be given to public safety.

Contrast the council members’ clear priorities with the muddled ones of the school board.

The school board voted Monday to guarantee that for the next two years non-teaching school district employees, in effect, are automatically entitled to any favorable deal that teachers may get. Any gain in compensation that the district gives to teachers must also be extended to other district employees, such as drivers, janitors, clerks and others.

Members Julie Korenstein, Mark Slavkin and Warren Furutani objected to this provision.

All district employees have a valuable role; but without teachers, students cannot learn. That means that maintaining educators--who have been threatening to strike--should be the top priority of the school board.

Linking possible gains of teachers with other district employees holds dangerous fiscal implications for the severely strapped district. Worse, the action indicates that the school board may be losing sight of its basic purpose--ensuring the quality education of Los Angeles public school children.