EDITORIAL : ATTENTION SILENCE, PLEASE; SAN FERNANDO MAYOR'S IDEA HAS EVERYONE SHOUTING, WHEN THEY SHOULD BE LISTENING AND LEARNING.

SCHOOL'S in session and the entire LAUSD machine, from the elected board of education to the teachers union, should sit down and take notes.

If they stopped shouting and listened a minute, maybe they'd learn a thing or two from San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez II.

Or maybe that's why they're all shouting. The L.A. educational establishment is afraid he makes too much sense.

Godinez made a reasoned and passionate call for a separate district for the 19 schools in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Frustrated with the current system, Godinez said his community and the neighboring area of Pacoima in the city of Los Angeles could tailor a curriculum to meet students' needs.

Imagine that. Placing students first. Creating education to serve the students, not the masters.

This radical Godinez must be stopped at all costs.

So out came the naysayers with a force and quickness that is rarely seen among Los Angeles Unified School District officials, the teachers union and local officials.

The reasons against breakup were most informative. For example, Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the needs of the San Fernando cluster ``are not that different from the inner city or East Los Angeles.''

``You have a large number of kids who need to master English and overcome the disadvantages of poverty. We have proven programs that work and a large district can swing those into play,'' Higuchi said.

Really? Then why is the dropout rate so astronomical and the achievement rate so abysmal?

And if there were successes to brag about in the LAUSD, why have those proven programs not been swung into play for the Northeast Valley? Why do students in the San Fernando cluster have the lowest standardized test scores and the largest high school in the Valley?

Maria Reza, administrator for the San Fernando cluster, argued vehemently that breaking up L.A. Unified would not place more experienced teachers in those classrooms or increase the budget.

Reza should visit Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima. Perhaps she would see how they have placed experienced teachers in the classroom, lifted morale, raised student achievement and saved money on administration that has been channeled back into the classroom to benefit students.

In fact, the charter school has worked so well, the UTLA wants to punish experienced teachers who prefer to stay at well-run charter schools instead of returning to low-performing, morale-sucking LAUSD schools by cutting their benefits.

The LAUSD and teachers have been promising reforms for decades. Their empty rhetoric costs billions.

And the return on investment? Students continue to graduate year after year with low test scores - if they graduate at all.

Godinez has raised a valid concern that needs serious study and consideration. Legitimate and real issues face any potential breakup, and those questions must be answered.

But the issue deserves study. And the naysayers who have perpetuated failure and who have failed a generation of students have little credibility to be questioning credible voices in the community.

Mayor Godinez is leading the way and the LAUSD should be listening - and working to find solutions that will save the next generation of children from educational deprivation.