6/13/00 2:20 p.m.
Convention Chair Gets Schooled
Meet Roy Romer, new superintendent of the LA Unified School District.

By Arnold Steinberg

he chairman of the Republican National Convention is named superintendent of the nation's most troubled big-city school district. This white politician will preside over a nonwhite district. The 71-year-old who has never taught school will head a school system with 711,000 students, 790 schools, and a $7.7 billion budget (lucky sevens). Local politicians who had called for a Latino superintendent remain silent.

Implausible? Simply change the word Republican to Democratic. Meet Roy Romer, the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Even the liberal Los Angeles Times, calling his appointment an "ill-considered bad fit," labels Romer a "limited Democratic party boss" lacking the "political guts" to stand up to powerful unions.

Three points:
(1) School choice. The editorial of the Times, now a born-again voice for school reform, illustrates the difficulty faced by the well-intentioned Tim Draper, the billionaire entrepreneur who sponsored for November a school- choice ballot measure. So far, the measure is more likely to spark turnout of teachers and seniors against it than parents and conservatives for it. The stereotyped coalition of Christian Right, parochial and home schoolers so far has not been part of this stealth campaign. In fact, private-school parents may feel threatened by the measure, which, if passed, would immediately increase private-school demand and, concomitantly, tuition, while not phasing in vouchers for current students for several years, thus potentially squeezing parents of private schoolers. Moreover, Draper's team, inexperienced in ballot measures, acquiesced to a ballot title headed "school vouchers: state-funded private and religious education," perhaps a fatal misstatement. The Times now speaks for a growing number of Californians open to significant changes in public schools (including charter schools), but stopping short of Milton Friedman-style school choice. In turn, this reform movement defuses the urgency of the school-choice movement.

(2) California and Bush. Unlike 1996, when Dole ran behind everybody else, Bush is running ahead of everything, including "Draper's vouchers," which will be subjected to a negative campaign. This may force Bush to lie low on his own school-choice views. As for the U.S. Senate race, the same polls that show Bush steadily gaining continue to show Campbell consistently well behind Dianne Feinstein. (Campbell's most recent controversy is, John McCain-like, accusing his fellow Republicans in Congress of, in effect, extorting contributions from health-insurance companies.) Clearly, Bush is not the drag. In fact, while Democrats remain confident, Republicans note that with Ralph Nader on the ballot, California's 54 electoral votes, a fifth of those needed to win the presidency, could tilt toward Bush.

(3) National. What is Roy Romer really thinking in resigning from chairing the convention to commit to a multi-year tough assignment? Romer could probably pick a choice job in the Gore administration, unless, that is, he thinks there won't be a Gore administration.