EDITORIAL PAY TO PLAY ROY ROMER'S ATTENTION DOESN'T COME CHEAP.

WANT to learn about the $3.3 billion bond issue that the Los Angeles Unified School District plans to sell to voters this November? Curious about how the district plans to spend that money in its mad rush to build 85 new schools?

To find out first-hand, just show up at the exclusive California Club on Tuesday night, and be sure to bring your wallet.

For the mere price of several thousand dollars, you might be able to join the VIPs who are putting up the bucks to finance the pro-bond campaign. These members of LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer's inner circle (like billionaire Eli Broad, who recently kicked in $100,000 to clean up the district's bad image) have been part of the process while school board members have mostly been left in the dark.

The rest of us, including Angelenos who actually send their kids to public schools and will pay most of the bill, are left out until it's a done deal.

In other words, we get a deal manufactured in Romer's back room sold to us by the best public relations campaign fat-cat donors can buy.

``This is the way the world works in California,'' Romer says. ``I've got to do this.''

Please.

That's the way politics here have been played too long, and that's why the city faces secession and the LAUSD has such a bad image.

Romer could try crafting a plan publicly, seeking out the input of parents and middle-class taxpayers. He could take that plan directly to the people, without first seeking the blessing of the city's overlords.

That's to say, he could create a school district committed to serving children, not special interests, where decisions are made in pubic hearings, not at bashes at exclusive clubs.