EDITORIAL IN DENIAL LAUSD MUST ACT LIKE AB 1381 IS THE LAW, BECAUSE IT IS.

WITH just four weeks to go until the law gives him partial power over the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is preparing for the transition.

His core team is discussing strategy, figuring out which schools will be part of the three clusters that his office will have direct control over.

Meanwhile, LAUSD officials are doing ... not much. Their only strategy seems to be to gamble that a judge will strike down AB 1381, the state law that gives Villaraigosa limited power over the district. Arguments in the case are scheduled to start Dec. 15, but a final decision could be a long way off.

In the interim, district officials are doing a disservice to their 700,000 students with their head-in-the-sand approach.

Like it or not, LAUSD officials and board members must snap out of their unseemly denial. As trustees of the second-largest district in the country, they need to be guiding the changeover -- not just hoping it goes away.

They must stop just criticizing the mayor's audacity, and get on board and act like this is the law -- or at least get out of the way.