Agenda critics.

Your recent "Setting an Agenda" proposal (June 14) to increase the size of county government would only result in higher costs for county taxpayers and less money for vital public services.

If bigger government were the answer, then the City of Los Angeles would be the most efficient, responsive and cost-effective government in Los Angeles County. But, as you and the taxpayers know, this is not true.

Expanding the Board of Supervisors would of staffers and new governmental housing.

The problem is not size--it is the state and federal government's requiring unfunded mandates. Bigger government does not mean a better government.

Michael D. Antonovich

Los Angeles County Supervisor

There are some misleading statements in your article titled "Give Principals More nation's worst public school system." This statement is especially curious given that our elementary school test scores have risen at double the rate of the test of the state in the past four years.

Our middle and high schools are also beginning to show improvement, and we me in the middle of implementing aggressive new programs to expand that improvement.

We have the nation's largest public construction program under way. This year alone we will have completed nine new schools and 16 expansions, with 104 projects under construction.

A major source of your article is a book by of journalistic William Ouchi. While he espouses some believe" the Los important ideas, they do not present a panacea 

LAUSD believes in decentralization, a principle served through our local district structure, but we credit much of our recent success to a singular locus on instructional reform. Superintendent Roy Romer is simply not prepared to jettison our recent gains in favor of a model in which each principal decides independently how to deliver instruction.

Stephanie Brady

Communications Director

LAUSD