EDITORIAL : PLAN FOR VALLEY COLLEGES COMMUNITY COLLEGES ARE AN ISSUE FOR VALLEY SELF-DETERMINATION.

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ASSEMBLYMAN Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, stood tall as a San Fernando Valley leader when he called attention to the total lack of Valley representation in the Los Angeles Community College District board.

Cardenas sees a problem and offers a solution - election of college trustees by geographical districts rather than at large. His idea deserves consideration as a step in the right direction. But we strongly encourage him and the public to take this further than he is proposing.

The Los Angeles Community College District is a sprawling territory, far larger than the entire city of Los Angeles. The district has nine colleges including three in the Valley - Mission College in Sylmar, Pierce College in Woodland Hills and Valley College in Van Nuys.

All seven members of the college district's governing board live outside the Valley.

Cardenas wonders if the Valley suffers from a lack of representation. As a result, he introduced legislation to change the way trustees are selected. He wants to carve out seven districts, with one trustee elected from each.

As we have said in the past, we are not enthusiastic about such a change because we believe that would encourage trustees to focus excessively on their own slice of turf and micro-manage it, while also depriving the LACCD of ``big picture'' leadership by the board of trustees.

However, we see merit in taking his idea to the next level and splitting the Valley away from the Los Angeles Community College District, creating a smaller and more manageable Valley district containing Mission, Pierce and Valley colleges.

Just look at the generally superior reputation of smaller community-college districts such as Glendale and Santa Monica, which each has one college.

Such a move could lead to more accountability for the Valley's colleges and for the taxpayers who support Mission, Pierce and Valley colleges. This approach is the Valley's best safeguard against its local community colleges being shortchanged.

Repeatedly, we have said that community colleges have enormous importance and are a tremendous value, offering solid education at unbeatable prices. In addition to providing an academic foundation for students who intend to transfer to four-year colleges and universities, community colleges offer job training that is critical for others who intend to enter, or re-enter, the work force soon.

The role of community colleges in the Valley and elsewhere is critical. It ranks right up at the top, along with issues like creating smaller, better public school districts and improving local civic leadership through the groundbreaking Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

We believe the Valley should move forward on this issue, too, and take control of the governance of its community colleges. We urge Cardenas, other leaders and the public to work together for a Valley community college district.