EDITORIAL TEACHER POWER UNION LEADERS' OUSTER OFFERS CHANCE FOR POSITIVE - OR NEGATIVE - NEW DIRECTIONS.

THERE used to be a time when teachers unions were the outside force fighting the entrenched bureaucracy to get their members the respect and compensation they deserved.

These days, though, unions leaders are often indistinguishable from the bureaucrats, and both are working in league to preserve their organizations, not to benefit members or the public. This has clearly become the case with the leadership of United Teachers Los Angeles, and it's a credit to the teachers that they finally threw them out.

Earlier this week members voted out UTLA President John Perez and other top leaders. And though they are negotiating a contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District, it wasn't only pay that moved them to action.

As one teacher put it, members are tired of the ``bureaucracy that's run amok.'' They want leadership that fights for them and their students, not against them, and that supports real education, not just endless testing.

Join the club.

It's been clear to many people that the existing bureaucracy of the country's second-largest school district - and that includes the teachers union - has lost sight of its main goal, to educate children. The No. 1 goal was to keep the bureaucracy running and its leaders enjoying their positions.

This change in UTLA leadership may or may not be the revolution that heralds a new day of empowerment for the teachers and, consequently, for students and their families. But it could be the opportunity to open a dialogue that's instructive and that can honestly engage the community in what's wrong in classrooms and what we can do to make it right.

No one wants to give up power. But real empowerment of classrooms is the only thing that can derail the growing support for alternatives such as breaking up the LAUSD and the creation of large numbers of charter schools, where the faculty does have an ownership stake.

It's up to rank-and-file teachers to stay involved and make sure this change of leadership works for the good of them and their students. That would be welcome progress.