EDITORIAL UNDOING SCHOOL REFORM COALITION FOR KIDS NEEDS TO INCLUDE PARENTS AND TAXPAYERS.

ORIGINALLY, the Coalition for Kids was an ambitious effort on the part of civic and business leaders to reform the Los Angeles Unified School District after it was run into the ground by union-controlled school boards.

So the city's elite spent heavily to win control of the board. In just four years, that new leadership cleaned out some of the bureaucratic deadwood, initiated new educational programs that dramatically improved test scores among young children and started a crash building program to end the year-round calendar.

On Tuesday, voters rewarded those achievements by throwing the reformers out of office.

School board president Caprice Young, a coalition-backed candidate, lost badly in the San Fernando Valley to retired teacher Jon Lauritzen, who was bankrolled by United Teachers Los Angeles. Former board president Genethia Hudley-Hayes, also a beneficiary of the coalition's generosity, likewise went down in flames.

And with that, the UTLA regained control over the LAUSD.

It didn't have to be that way. Incumbent David Tokofsky, who won re- election on Tuesday, used to be one of the coalition's candidates, but lost its support for being too independent-minded. The UTLA consequently snatched him up, and with him, the majority.

The Tokofsky saga is indicative of all that went wrong with the coalition. Tokofsky is a true reformer and a popular one at that - exactly the sort of candidate a ``Coalition for Kids'' should support.

In fact, if former Mayor Richard Riordan and his pals had stuck with Tokofsky, they might have avoided the perception that they thought they knew better than everybody else what's good for kids, for schools, for teachers.

The heart of the matter is they weren't willing to share power with anyone, especially not the parents and taxpayers who are the real stakeholders in public education.

And now the old guard who oversaw the ruin of the LAUSD for so long is back in power and the losers, of course, stand to be the kids.

Under the circumstances, the burden is on Tokofsky to get focused and provide leadership to put student achievement first. Given his experience and independent voice, he's uniquely positioned to guide the board's new members on a path to genuine reform.

But no good will come unless teachers stand up for their own professionalism, and power is truly shared with the public. We have a choice; we are not condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.