PUBLIC FORUM : SCHOOL BOARD RAISES GET A FAILING GRADE.

So the members of the Los Angeles Unified School District board are contemplating a raise in pay.

At first glance, one might be led to believe that their $24,000 salary is not high enough. Look again. The positions on the board have always been classified as part-time positions and were not meant to be full-time jobs with full-time pay.

If test scores and student achievement in general had made vast improvements, I might be willing to support the increase. But the scores have not gone up significantly, and we still rank very low in comparison with other states.

- Carolyn Whitehead

Canyon Country

School board raises? The school board members should be fired.

In private industry their performance would be deemed as unsatisfactory.

They lack the backbone to properly manage the L.A. Unified School District and should long ago have cleaned house and top management at L.A. Unified.

Unfortunately, their direction comes from the teachers union's bosses.

The constant whining about what is good for the children is a bunch of nonsense. Grades have fallen; leadership is totally lacking. Can anyone say anything positive about the school board members?

The school board should not be a steppingstone into politics at the expense of the students.

- Gary M. Schechter

Woodland Hills

I think the salary should reflect student test scores and the lack of scandal. No business would survive if it were run like the LAUSD.

I believe the person or people responsible for such scandals as the recent air-conditioning fiasco, contractor rip-offs and other assorted wasteful spending are polluting the future of all Angelenos. I for one am sick of seeing this great community diminish before my very eyes.

- Bryan Blair

North Hills

Pain of childbirth

Tess Serna wrote (Public Forum, July 8), ``Since when is the state responsible for `pain-free' childbirth?''

Since when have we become so callous as to condemn poor women to tremendous pain simply because they do not have $400 in cash? Since when do we support affluent physicians and hospitals that refuse treatment, contrary to law?

Do we really believe poverty is a crime deserving of cruel punishment? If so, what of the fathers of these babies? What painful punishment are we going to regulate for them?

A recent study on the alarming rate of death among women heart-attack victims found they ignored the pain, reasoning that it was less intense than the pain they experienced in childbirth. Not all of the women in this study were denied epidurals or other forms of pain relief.

Part of the conclusion of the study was that even with some form of pain relief, the pain of childbirth far exceeds that of a heart attack. Would we deny an impoverished heart-attack victim pain relief?

The woman who brought the suit and allowed this horrific practice to be revealed was a married woman whose husband had lost his job. They were on the assistance rolls for only a short time before and after the birth. Should every woman whose husband temporarily loses his job be punished with such intense pain? What about women whose husbands have vanished?

I am ashamed of the mean-spirited hatred toward women that is gripping our nation under the guise of a return to fundamentalist principles. Almost every day, another assault on women is on the front page, such as cutting welfare benefits. Why don't I ever hear the term ``welfare father''?

We have created a vicious trap for poor women and, like all abusers, we then blame the victims. How can anyone be proud of that? Let's start acting like truly compassionate people and care about one another, poor or not.

- Loretta Kemsley

Sylmar

I gave birth to four children at Northridge Hospital without any epidurals for pain relief. I had private health insurance that would have covered this. Nevertheless, when I inquired about an epidural, I was told by my doctor that it was not necessary in my case and it was not the policy of the hospital to administer them for the average delivery.

OK, so I felt some pain. I was so darn happy that I gave birth to healthy babies that it didn't matter. Too bad that the woman who is bringing a lawsuit against the hospital is not overjoyed that her baby was born healthy, but instead is looking at this incident as a chance to make a profit.

- Eileen Johnson

Northridge

CNN firings

I have always known that birds of a feather flock together, and in Richard Cohen's ``One mistake'' commentary (Opinions, July 8) it has never been more evident. If you are not responsible for your actions in both moral conduct and in business, then what are you accountable for? In reporting a story, should you not first get at least two reliable sources or report what is related to the story, and not what you think will sell in the media?

In a zealous effort to condemn the military to sell their story, reporters twisted the facts and proceeded to make up a story that was related to them by a soldier who was thrown out of the Army for a drug offense. In firing these reporters, CNN did the right thing.

I cannot understand Cohen's ``let's just give them one mistake'' attitude, as if it were something that could not be helped, instead of a deliberate effort to create a news story that simply was not true.

If this is what the majority of reporters believe, then maybe some housecleaning is what this current crop of media people needs.

- Paul I. Alfaro

Lancaster

AIDS debate

In his July 8 rebuttal to my letter (``There's a worse killer than tobacco: AIDS,'' Public Forum, July 2), Christopher Calhoun of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center resorted to the expected vituperation against anyone who wants to see some definitive action to halt the wildfire spread of AIDS across the world.

Conspicuous by their absence were Calhoun's recommendations for stopping this plague.

- H.L. Bradbury

Granada Hills

L.A. water rates

Regarding your big, bold headline on the front page July 1 (``Water rates dive 7 percent'') and your editorial ``Pennies from heaven'' of July 2:

The water rate structure of 1992, proposed by a blue-ribbon committee that was appointed by then-Mayor Tom Bradley; approved by the Water and Power Commission, also appointed by the mayor; and passed by the City Council, which can recognize a cash cow when it sees one, raised the prevailing water rates by 73 percent.

In addition, all water users who use more than the 175 percent - lowered to 125 percent by mayor Richard Riordan's blue-ribbon committee and commissioners - of the median water usage were assessed an additional 71 percent.

And you found it newsworthy for big headlines and editorials over a measly 7 percent. Big deal.

- Ivan E. Shinkle

North Hollywood

Alarcon's ethics

It appears that the victorious Democratic nominee for the state Senate, Richard Alarcon, lives by a different code of ethics from that which is the accepted norm.

Amid much protestations that he did not violate any laws or ethical standards of the state Senate, it is obvious that he didn't attend classes in ``Ethics 101'' while in school.

Accepting a loan to upgrade your home from a developer who has business before the City Council on which you vote is unethical. Making scurrilous charges against your opponent in a last-minute mailing in which there was no time to answer those charges was unscrupulous and unethical.

I would be ashamed to have him represent me in Sacramento.

- Herbert Auerbach

Van Nuys