EDITORIAL : TIME TO TAKE A STAND; L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF MUST FORCE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO DEVOTE MORE RESOURCES TO CLASSROOMS, WHILE OUTSIDERS WORK ON OUSTING FOUR MEMBERS UP FOR RE-ELECTION NEXT YEAR.

THROUGHOUT much of this long autumn of our discontent with LAUSD, the Los Angeles school board has dilly-dallied with how to spend a $70 million windfall in state funding while children continue to be deprived of a quality education.

Superintendent Ruben Zacarias has proposed a menu of programs that could bring small but important improvements to the ability of thousands of children to progress successfully through the public schools into lives as worthwhile adults.

But the board - bought and paid for by teacher and administrative unions - has finagled the process (as always hiding behind closed doors) to channel the money into employee paychecks.

A quiet and decent man, Zacarias has proven time and again that he is committed to reforming one of the nation's largest and worst-performing school districts despite the resistance of staff and the incompetence of his overseers - the school board members.

A more bombastic man would have stood up in public and told the board to back his agenda or fire him. But that is not in Zacarias' nature.

If he had, Zacarias would have found that every sector of the Los Angeles community would have rallied behind him because the board has lost all credibility.

Meddling in day-to-day operations, micromanaging the schools and supporting a corrupt system of favoritism in appointments and contracting are just a few of the crimes that have made the board an object of widespread anger.

Even the sporadic efforts of a few board members, such as David Tokofsky, have amounted to little. Mainly, this is because each is so beholden to employee or teacher unions in their campaigns that doing what's right for children takes a back seat to doing what's right for the people who got them elected.

On Tuesday, Zacarias and new business czar Dave Koch armed the board with a cautionary report on Los Angeles Unified School District finances in an effort to head off the board's compulsion to give a bonus 1 percent raise to teachers - a deal that would cost nearly $30 million this fiscal year - without any assurance they can cover the salaries in subsequent years.

The board stalled for another month rather than support the superintendent and help the children with new programs.

It's been this way for so long that numerous bonfires of reform are burning around the city.

The latest may prove to be the most important: the Committee for Effective School Governance, led by the distinguished president emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Harold Williams.

The group of 23 prominent business, civic and educational leaders has targeted LAUSD for a top-to-bottom overhaul.

The top indeed is where the problem lies. Four of the seven board members are up for election in the spring, providing a chance for new leadership that is committed to putting the education of 700,000 students ahead of the 50,000 employees.

A school board that makes hard policy decisions, empowers the superintendent to carry out the plan successfully and holds his feet to the fire would be the start of a new LAUSD.

Let reform begin at the top.