EDITORIAL ONE TOUGH SELL LAUSD WILL HAVE A HARD TIME PERSUADING VOTERS TO TAKE ON ANOTHER SCHOOL BOND.

IF nothing else, members of the Los Angeles Unified School District board have proved they are not politically suicidal.

That much was made clear by their decision last week not to seek a parcel tax in the November election. The board rightly reasoned that if voters were asked to take on an additional $150 in property taxes, they would be less likely to approve the $4 billion bond measure the board is putting on the very same ballot.

But just because board members aren't politically suicidal doesn't mean they're politically smart.

Even without the parcel tax, the Los Angeles Unified School District will have a very hard time convincing skeptical voters that they should pass a fourth bond measure in eight years.

As it stands, owners of the typical $500,000 San Fernando Valley home already pay $425 in property taxes for the school district. With the price for bonds already approved by the voters set to increase over time, that figure will go up to $565 in 2006.

And were the LAUSD to get its newest bond measure passed, the price tag would jump to $710 by 2009.

Besides feeling overtaxed already, L.A. voters have grown weary of a school district with a seemingly insatiable appetite for cash, but little stomach for financial accountability or efficiency.

If the school board wants to win the public's support, it will need to demonstrate that somehow - despite many past broken promises - this time the people's money will be wisely spent.

The board will need to show why it needs more money now when millions from previous bond measures remain unspent.

It will need to explain why, at a time when L.A.'s public-school enrollment is no longer soaring, the LAUSD must continue building schools at breakneck speed.

And the board will need to justify why it decided to allocate a piddly $50 million - less than 2 percent - of the bond revenues to charter schools.

By 2012, charter schools will educate an estimated 10 percent of the LAUSD's student body. Charter schools are, as a whole, the most popular, successful and economical way to publicly educate children today. By shortchanging them, the LAUSD seems contemptuous of education reform.

All of this adds up to one very tough sell on the next bond measure.

L.A. voters have shown time and again that they are willing to sacrifice for education - but they won't be taken for fools.