Candidates Clash on Busing Pupils to West Valley to Ease Crowding

Two candidates for the West San Fernando Valley seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education differed Tuesday over the use of Valley schools to relieve classroom crowding in minority neighborhoods.

A press conference was called by school board candidate Barbara Romey and Bobbi Fiedler, a former Republican congresswoman from the Valley and former Los Angeles school board member. Bunny Field, another candidate for the West Valley school board seat, later held her own press conference outside.

A Romey press release said the conference would “unmask the school board’s backdoor effort to bring back forced busing.”

But cross-town busing to achieve student racial balance was not the issue. Instead, Romey charged the Los Angeles Unified School District with intentionally sending unnecessarily large numbers of minority students from crowded inner-city schools to Valley campuses.

By crowding local schools with inner-city youngsters, Romey said, the district is trying to force more Valley schools to convert to a year-round schedule, which has been unpopular with some parents.

After the Romey-Fiedler conference, Field held an impromptu session with reporters at which she said she wanted to monitor the truth of their statements but was barred from entering. Fiedler, standing only a few feet away, interjected: “You never tried to attend.”

The two women exchanged icy stares, then Field continued.

New Kind of Segregation

At the Romey-Fiedler conference, the women said school closings in the Valley and on the Westside, coupled with increased numbers of minority students from crowded schools being bused into those areas, would create a new kind of segregation--schools with predominantly minority enrollments in white neighborhoods.

Romey said there is plenty of classroom space for students at schools closer to their neighborhoods.

A school district spokeswoman said students are assigned to less-crowded schools on a space-available basis. Parents are usually given a choice of sending their child to a less crowded, segregated school close to their neighborhood or an integrated school farther away, she said. Most parents choose the integrated school.

Romey said the board should consider limiting the number of minority students bused to Valley schools until support services are available. There are two major busing programs, a voluntary desegregation plan and a mandatory program to relieve crowded campuses.

At her news conference, Field also deplored the large number of children bused outside their neighborhoods because of crowded conditions, but labeled “racist” Romey’s idea of limiting the voluntary busing program, in which most participants are black.

Field said a program to accelerate state funding for construction of schools should prevent additional Valley schools from having to adopt a year-round calendar.