EDITORIAL FIGHTING BACK CHARTER SCHOOLS SAY ``NO MORE'' TO LAUSD BULLYING.

TIRED of getting picked on, some local charter schools are fighting back against the schoolyard bully: the Los Angeles Unified School District.

For years, the district has shorted the charters, charging them dearly for administration and other services, while offering scarce little in return. To compound the insult, the district now plans to withhold some $3 million in federal special education and desegregation funds from these independent but fully public schools.

The charters tried to appeal to the bully's sense of compassion, or at least fairness, noting that they serve some of the most diverse and disadvantaged student bodies in Los Angeles. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. ``We've only got so much to share here,'' says Tim Buresh, the LAUSD's chief operating officer, ``and this is part of the compromise of being a charter.''

In other words: The bully does whatever the bully wants.

That leaves the charters with no choice but to seek justice in court. Seven L.A. schools, including five in the San Fernando Valley, have banded together to demand their fair share.

And so, once again, the district's inability to make sensible policies will result in expensive litigation, with taxpayer dollars wasted on lawyers and hearings, rather than supporting teachers and classrooms.

It shouldn't have to be this way.

There's no good reason why the district and charters should have an adversarial relationship. They are, in theory anyway, both striving for the same goal: To provide a quality education to the children of Los Angeles. They're funded and supported by their very same taxpayers and serve the very same students.

But bullies will always protect their turf. District officials, seeing the success of charter schools - which produce higher test scores than traditional public schools - feel threatened. Charter schools succeed because they're free of the unions and bureaucratic restraints that choke public schools, and that makes a lot of people nervous.

So the district does its best to make life difficult for the charters in whatever way it can, with students ultimately paying the price. When charters don't get the funds they need, they can't offer a full range of services and opportunities to their students. The kids suffer, while the bureaucratic bullies get a chance to show just how strong and mean-spirited they really are.

But the charters aren't going to take it any more, and they should be able to mount a good fight in their defense. Like all bullies, the district has size and might on its side, but not a whole lot of smarts.

Ripping off kids is a lousy strategy - both in the court of law and the court of public opinion.