Zacarias Conflict Was Pure Racial Politics.

THE moment that Los Angeles school board members appointed Howard Miller as school district chief executive, a wave of black and Latino community activists and politicians led by the state Legislature's Latino and Black Legislative Caucus cried foul.

The flashpoint for them is not the school district's abominably low student test scores, bulging schools, Belmont Learning Complex fiasco, or thousands of ill-prepared teachers that are dumped in mostly predominantly minority schools. For them, the issue is also not the overload of indifferent administrators, a teachers union that protects the job security of grossly incompetent teachers, a bloated bureaucracy, or the district's glacial slowness in getting a substantial share of bond money to make badly needed repairs at many city schools.

The issue for them has been L.A. School Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, Period. They loudly complained that the board illegally stripped him of his authority to make fiscal and administrative decisions. They accused Mayor Richard Riordan, school board President Genethia Hayes, white school board members, and vengeful teachers and administrators of conspiring to dump Zacarias. They didn't say whether Zacarias deserved to retain his authority, and indeed even his job, based on whether he has fulfilled his much-touted pledge to lift student performance at the 100 worst schools in the district.

The only issue for the black and Latino politicians who went to the barricade with Zacarias is that he is Latino, is popular in the community, and that 70 percent of the students in the L.A. city schools are Latino. For them, these are ample credentials for him to have held the top spot. They excuse their brazen play of the race card by claiming that the board did not consult with community residents, parents, and teachers before appointing Miller. This supposedly denied Zacarias due process.

It's true that board members did vote in closed session and did not consult Zacarias before appointing Miller. While it's fair to knock them for clumsily handling this, it isn't fair to tell them that they don't have the authority to hire Miller or anyone else they choose to straighten out the mess in the school district.

Miller is an experienced, knowledgeable administrator capable of making tough decisions about school district policies. Board members did what they believe is best for the schools, not ethnic special interests. They should be applauded, not reviled for this.

This ethnic posturing by black and Latino politicians was perhaps inevitable when the district went from majority white and middle-class to majority Latino and poor. This fed the suspicion of Latino activists and politicians that the mostly white administrators and board members who run the district would snatch the bulk of the funds, as well as the best teachers, administrators, and programs, for schools in the Valley, Mid-Wilshire and on the Westside.

The election of three new members, including Hayes, with the blessing and financial backing of Riordan, further deepened their suspicion that reform would come at the expense of Latinos. Zacarias' removal is seen as part of this plot.

However, the politicians who have turned the school crisis into a political and racial football are playing a perilous game. They have promoted the type of racial balkanization that pushed L.A. over the edge with the Rodney King beating, the riots and the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

These politicians have learned nothing from the sordid recent history of conflict in the city. The racial wedge that they feverishly try to widen will paralyze future decision-making by board members, reinforce political and ethnic schisms within the school district, and hopelessly entangle the board in battles with community activists.

School board members must resist the bullying and intimidation tactics of politicians and take whatever steps needed to deal with the imploding crisis in the L.A. city schools. In other words, they must say yes to education and no to those who play the race card in the name of education.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a radio commentator on KPFK-FM 90.7 and the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."