EDITORIAL : THE DREAM LIVES; BREAKING UP LAUSD MAY BE BEST FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN.

WITH its botched coup to dispose of Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, the reform-minded LAUSD board has squandered an opportunity to resuscitate the dying district.

Instead of re-establishing public trust, the new board needlessly and inappropriately has created race wars.

Instead of operating in the open, the board has fallen victim to the secret society of its predecessors.

Can the Los Angeles Unified School District be salvaged? Can true reform be accomplished in a reasonable time? Can the district even figure out who is in charge, the superintendent or the new CEO?

We hope so, but. . . .

Throughout the latest round of chaos, the nation's second-largest school district, with nearly 700,000 students, is in jeopardy of capsizing with a new generation of youngsters on board.

This just can't be allowed to continue.

Valley VOTE might have it right. It's time to seriously consider breaking up the district and creating smaller models that work.

This City of Angels can no longer afford to measure men by the color of their skin but, as Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently phrased it three decades ago, by the content of their character.

And the City of Angels can no longer afford to allow some bureaucrats to squander millions more and jeopardize the lives and safety of children, teachers and staff.

The Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment board this week formed an exploratory committee to review whether to create the Valley's own school district.

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close sees a separate municipal government, a separate school district and a separate transit district as a three-prong approach to Valley self-rule.

VOTE's move is overdue. Breaking up the district into manageable units might well be the best - and possibly only - way to give everyone a chance to get a quality education.

Critics who suggest the move is about white flight are spouting racist propaganda over informed debate.

The Valley is a multilayered, multicolored, multicultural city of 1.6 million people who want the best for their children, regardless of ethnic persuasions and cultural backgrounds.

African-American parents, Latino parents, Asian, Caucasian, Albanian, Armenian, Italian, Jewish and all other parents simply want good schools for their children.

It's not a whites-only dream. It is the epitome of the American dream.

And it will only happen when people of conscience, regardless of color, demand an end to fraud and corruption and work to restore quality to public schools.

A separate Valley district certainly is worth considering.