EDITORIAL A MINI BREAKUP.

LEGISLATION to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District may be on life support in Sacramento, but the yearning for independence is alive and well within the district.

In the southeast portion of the LAUSD, six small cities -- Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate and Vernon -- are pushing for autonomy.

They know better than to seek outright independence -- previous efforts at breakup have been quashed by the anti-education education establishment. So the cities have set their sights on something less ambitious: The power to name their own superintendent and have more say over budget and curriculum, but not the power to fire or hire teachers or interfere with labor deals.

The vision falls short of the ideal of total independence, but it's a big improvement over the status quo, which is to remain a cog in an enormous, bureaucratic machine.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed the effort, saying the LAUSD needs more local control.

And it does, which is why breaking free from the behemoth would be good not just for six small cities in the southeast, but for all of the communities in the district.