ESCAPE FROM LAUSD? MORE THAN 10% OF KIDS COULD BE LEARNING IN CHARTER SCHOOLS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

In a few years, the burgeoning charter school movement could siphon off more than 10 percent of the Los Angeles Unified School District's student body, freeing educators from the bureaucracy to try new ways to improve education.

Already, more than 50 charter schools have sprung up in the Los Angeles area to serve 27,800 children in predominantly poor neighborhoods.

This year alone, the district expects to process 15 to 20 charter school applications. El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills and Pacoima Elementary School both plan to convert into charters starting this fall.

Also, the Alliance for Student Achievement - a nonprofit group led by Los Angeles' civic elite - is working to launch a network of charter schools that will serve 50,000 students within five years. Education Week has dubbed the Alliance's proposal the ``Shadow L.A. District.''

In addition, the San Francisco-based KIPP Foundation is expanding its nationwide charter network to Los Angeles with proposals for two local schools.

``Ten years ago, I was seen as a black sheep. People didn't want to talk to me,'' said Yvonne Chan, founder of the first charter school in the San Fernando Valley. She opened the highly regarded Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima in 1993.

``There was so much fear of just visiting a school like Vaughn. It's so gratifying to see that we have finally earned that respect.''

Under California law, charter schools are exempt from a host of cumbersome regulations. They enjoy control of their finances and curriculum in exchange for their commitment to improve student achievement. Although largely autonomous, charter schools are public schools funded by public money and must be approved by local school boards.

With voter rejection of vouchers, official denial of LAUSD breakup movements and reform efforts struggling, charter schools have gained in popularity.

For many years, community leaders sought to fix the district from within, promoting ideas such as school-based management. In contrast, the charter movement seeks to operate schools independent of the constraints of large bureaucracies and, in some cases, unions as well.

William Ouchi, co-chairman of the Alliance's board of directors, said the group aspires to create a network of high-quality, ``brand name'' charter schools - what he termed ``the gold standard'' in the charter world.

Changing focus

To carry out that mission, the Alliance has voted to cease being an advocacy group, and to focus its energy solely on building an administrative staff to support its network of charters.

The Alliance has replaced its head, Sonia Hernandez, with former LAUSD principal Howard Lappin of Northridge, who was credited with transforming Foshay Learning Center into an inner-city success story.

``Before, we were in a sense standing on the sideline throwing rocks at LAUSD. Now we are in the trenches, trying to dig the hole and make it go,'' said Ouchi, a business professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Alliance's roots in education reform go back to the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now - an initiative created in 1991 to promote school-based management - and the now defunct Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project. The two-year-old Alliance was born when LEARN and LAAMP merged.

The Alliance counts among its fold a who's who of Los Angeles, including Antonia Hernandez, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Miguel Contreras, executive secretary/treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; and Theodore Mitchell, president of Occidental College.

But the Alliance's political clout is no assurance that it will succeed. The group must win the support of powerful unions, LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer, the school board and others.

Although Alliance officials say district leaders are supportive, when reached for comment this week, Romer was noncommittal about the group's charter proposal. A source had said he was angered by critical comments made by Alliance members.

``I am not endorsing anything at this point in time,'' he said, adding that he has not met with the group or received any details about its proposal.

Philosophically, Romer said he supports charter schools as a tool to help relieve overcrowding in neighborhoods where there is too little room for students.

School board President Caprice Young said she supports the Alliance. Young has close ties to Ouchi and the Coalition for Kids, a reform advocacy group headed by former Mayor Richard Riordan, Ouchi's one-time boss. Riordan was the driving force behind LEARN, the Alliance's predecessor.

The Coalition for Kids also includes among its ranks billionaire Eli Broad, whose foundation has set up a $10.5 million Charter Accelerator Fund in part to help nonprofits, like the Alliance, get off the ground.

``I think it's a great idea,'' Young said. ``I think it's a good change. Frankly, it's easier to sit on the outside and tell people what to do. Basically, they are putting their money where their mouth is.''

Young said if the Alliance succeeds, it will take the charter movement to the next level.

``The charter movement is at a point right now where there are tremendous successes in independent isolated charters,'' she said. ``In order to become a real force for change in the broader educational system, they are going to have to learn how to franchise themselves, clone themselves.

``Otherwise they will continue to be around the fringe serving a certain number of kids but not necessarily affect the educational infrastructure.''

Successful models

The theory behind the Alliance's charter network is to find ways to make changes on a large scale. The Alliance sees itself as the corporate world's equivalent of Bell Laboratories, cultivating best practices that might eventually spread to the district.

John Perez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, does not approve of the Alliance's proposal, arguing that charter schools have not consistently proved they are superior to regular public schools.

``It's the scale of this thing that gives one pause,'' he said. ``I don't believe it's the intent of the Legislature to set up private schools with public money.''

Under the district's personnel policy, district teachers who opt to work at charter schools are allowed to go on a five-year leave of absence. Then they must decide whether to stay with the district and the union or sever their ties and lose the benefits they enjoy under their bargaining agreement.

Teachers at some charter schools, such as Vaughn, have opted to leave. Alliance officials say they are negotiating with the unions over this issue. Perez said his opposition to the proposed charter network is not driven by potential loss of union members.

Ouchi stresses that the Alliance's charter initiative is not a breakaway movement and that it's meant as a partnership with the district to relieve overcrowding and improve student achievement.

``In a sense, we will be one of the choices the LAUSD will offer to the families of Los Angeles,'' he said. ``(The charter network) will be one of the arrows in Roy Romer's quiver that he will offer the families of L.A. In that sense, we are his partners, we are not his adversary.''

As the Alliance goes about building its charter network, Chan said the danger is it would become another bureaucracy. To prevent that, the group has committed to having a staff of no more than 25. Although the Alliance will create a standard core curriculum for its schools, the group said its charters will still have plenty of room to innovate.

``I think mainly the danger is don't make it a one-size-fits-all all over again,'' Chan said. ``I want to make sure the mission of a charter school is kept intact, which is to increase teaching and learning opportunities and to improve student achievement.''