RIORDAN CRITICIZES CONGRESS.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

Offering a sharp rebuke of Congress, Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday said the nation needs an agenda of offering health care to the poor and improving the educational system.

``If you ask the question, `What can we do to help the poor people of this country?', the politicians in Washington don't have the foggiest idea of what to do,'' Riordan said during his monthly ``Ask the Mayor'' show on radio station KFWB (980 AM).

``They give speeches and talk about this, but they know nothing. Health care and education should be our top priorities. Our national agenda should be to give the tools to compete in society to the poor.''

A longtime advocate of education reform - the mayor helped finance the campaign of four school board members this year to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District - Riordan said he believes school systems need tough managers.

``Education can only be solved at the local level and you need people to manage the district who are willing to fire people who fail children,'' Riordan said. ``It's not enough to put computers in classrooms and have smaller class sizes if they aren't being taught.''

Riordan also questioned the effectiveness of making the Internet available to school children.

``In 99 percent of the cases, it's a waste of time where they are playing games or in chat rooms,'' said Riordan, who has been an advocate and whose charitable foundation has paid to put computers in classrooms. ``The kids are better off being taught to read and write and do arithmetic.''

On health care, the mayor pointed to the program he put together two years ago to try to make sure children eligible for Medicare are receiving medical attention.

``Health care is a county responsibility, but we in the city have to do all we can to make sure they get as much money as possible,'' Riordan said.

``There are over 300,000 kids in L.A. who are eligible for Medicare and aren't getting it. That's what we're trying to do with our Program Healthy Start.''

The mayor said such a program could be administered through the school district, but would require the county to provide the money.

Riordan also was questioned about the ongoing Los Angeles Police Department corruption investigation at Rampart Division and he continued to offer his support of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

``All of this was the result of a more than year-long investigation by the Police Department,'' Riordan said. ``Any time you have a 10,000-person organization, you are going to have 1 or 2 percent who are bad apples. Bernie Parks is doing all he can to get those out of the department.''

Riordan also was quizzed on improving traffic - ``We have to do more to convince people to get out of their cars or share them'' - as well as his plans for Thanksgiving.