Straitjacketed Education

Now that Supt. Ruben Zacarias knows the extent of the textbook shortage in the Los Angeles Unified School District, he and the school board need to negotiate a balance between the district’s central authority and the increasing independence allowed at each campus. School reform requires principals, parents and teachers to gain some control over discretionary spending. But it should not be at the expense of something so basic as a textbook for every student in every class.

Zacarias, superintendent barely a month, inherited this problem and many others in the massive district. However, he has spent more than 30 years working in the LAUSD. He should have an insider’s familiarity with its problems and good ideas about solutions. Zacarias has promised to hire a business czar to concentrate on this sort of resource problem. Interviews are scheduled this month, with the goal of making the choice in September; the sooner the better.

So far, Zacarias has asked staff members to identify funds for the purchase of new books and to set up a revolving replacement fund for lost books. He has also correctly demanded that schools make books the top priority in instructional-material funding and has called for regular inventories, a function lost when the central book warehouse and the ordering department were eliminated in 1990.

The school board is expected to take up the textbook shortage Aug. 18, the next regularly scheduled meeting. Members should concentrate on solutions instead of reacting defensively to Times articles describing the shortage and quibbling over whether the district spends a woeful $26 per student on textbooks or a slightly less woeful $32. The district sets aside as much as $72 per student for instructional materials, but that must cover textbooks, workbooks, computer software, lab supplies and even paper and pencils. Finding new funds may prove easier than in past years because of a state revenue surge. That’s in addition to Proposition BB bond money, which frees up general funds that previously were siphoned off for repairs. Private efforts like the one for Fremont High School, reported in The Times today, also can be part of the solution.

School board member Jeff Horton, a leader on the textbook issue, is expected to propose remedies that along with benefiting classrooms would restock school libraries, which suffered greatly during two decades of tight budgets. His colleague David Tokofsky would increase the textbook budget and also penalties on students who fail to turn in textbooks, a burden particularly at schools with high transiency.

Zacarias and the board need to take all these ideas and develop a comprehensive plan to restock classrooms now and keep them well-stocked.

The shortage is most critical in high schools. Too often textbooks may not be taken from the classrooms. Without take-home books, homework becomes guesswork and tests must be taken on material that could not be reviewed. The removal of this educational straitjacket seems very little to ask.