EDITORIAL : PAINTED INTO A CORNER; LAUSD MUST SHOW THE PUBLIC THAT IT HAS TRULY CHANGED THE WAY IT DOES BUSINESS IN LIGHT OF CHARGES.

NOW we know the true cost of doing business with the Los Angeles Unified School District - a Bayliner boat, a Ford Explorer and a Ford truck.

According to the District Attorney's Office, that's all it takes to entice district supervisors to swing contracts to favorites and siphon off the public's hard-earned tax dollars.

Six people in two schemes are accused of looting the $2.4 billion Proposition BB bond issue, including two LAUSD supervisors who prosecutors say took gifts of boats and vehicles from contractors for work that was never performed.

Who cares if L.A.'s children don't have classrooms that have a fresh coat of paint, clean restroom facilities that work and cool classrooms?

It took the efforts of the Daily News and the Proposition BB oversight committee, headed by Steven Soboroff, to force a serious investigation of discrepancies in the way the district awarded painting contracts from the Proposition BB school repair bond.

The Daily News examination of these informal contracts, known as ``B letters,'' showed that the ploy used to avoid competitive bidding significantly drove up costs. Interviews and a review of district documents showed the use of B contracts as widespread: More than 3,000 were issued for work ranging from painting to security bars and air conditioning.

Last week, the District Attorney's Office announced that two LAUSD supervisors and four painting contractors face felony charges stemming from a scheme involving millions in federal money and Proposition BB school repair funds.

The LAUSD supervisors charged in the scheme are Billie Joe Simily, 59, of Pasadena and Richard Steinfeld, 53, of Apple Valley.

The district's response is a classic paint-by-the-numbers cop-out. Valley board member Julie Korenstein said she hoped the arrests would serve as a warning to any LAUSD employees who might be tempted to twist the contract system to their own advantage.

Sort of like a kid who was punished for being naughty in class.

It won't do. Not when millions of dollars are floating around with few controls, accounting or review.

Deputy District Attorney Stuart Lytton said in a statement that the LAUSD stopped using B contracts for painting ``as a result of the investigation and news media coverage of the practice.''

Does that mean the district is using B contracts for other work, to skirt scrutiny?

The board can't whitewash this scandal or wash its hands of any responsibility for not questioning the process.

Who created this process?

Who was responsible for oversight?

Are we really to believe it was just two bad apples and that the rest of the bushel of bureaucrats is unspoiled?

Let's not forget that the Board of Education had to approve all B contracts that were passed to it by employees in the maintenance and operations division.

In the past, the LAUSD's chief counsel, Rich Mason, defended the practice of using multiple informal contracts at the same school, saying it sped work along.

``The public, our customers, would expect nothing less,'' Mason said last year when the Daily News reported the investigation. ``It would be expected of us to expedite work and not throw at our customers that we've got six months of red tape before we can finish the job.''

In light of the fraud now alleged within the district, perhaps the board should take a hard look at Mason and others who are so quick to defend impropriety and poor performance and so slow to fix any problems.

And perhaps the seven dwarfs of public school policy should rethink their official posture of seeing no evil, hearing no evil and questioning no evil in doing their jobs.

Perhaps they should empower an independent counsel of their own to conduct a thorough housecleaning.

Last year, when the District Attorney's Office finally launched a serious inquiry into how the LAUSD has awarded more than $13 million in repair jobs and improvement projects, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons suggested the LAUSD may be the victim.

Get real. The victims are the children.

LAUSD is no victim, and no innocent bystander. At the very least, large numbers of officials failed to do their jobs for these problems to arise.

Voters should send a clear message in April, when four board members are up for election.

They have the chance to stop this board from ever playing dumb again. All they have to do is elect smart people willing to dig and go to work to fix the schools.