Education Ranked Top Issue by Valley Leaders

Echoing familiar themes, more than 100 San Fernando Valley community leaders ranked education, transportation, jobs and crime as key quality-of-life issues here, a new study shows.

The San Fernando Valley Indicators 2000 report, which will be discussed at a news conference today, includes survey results from about 125 people who were asked to rank a dozen quality-of-life issues in order of importance.

The No. 1 issue in the report by the Van Nuys-based Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley was education and test scores, followed by transportation and commuting, employment and crime, in that order.

Bruce Ackerman, president and chief executive of the alliance, said the survey was not a scientific random sample, but will help his organization decide what issues it should focus on.

“For me, looking at leading an organization that’s going to be aggressively involved as an agent for change, we needed to know what the issues were, and this helps to define those issues,” he said.

Ackerman said the alliance plans to conduct a similar survey each year.

Most of those surveyed in the report attended an alliance conference in February on the Valley economy and other issues. The alliance also surveyed additional business, government and community leaders.

One researcher questioned whether it was indicative of the community as a whole.

“My guess is that people who come to these conferences don’t represent, proportionately, the communities in the Valley or the people who live in those communities,” Cal State Northridge economist Shirley Svorny said. “It’s more of an indicator of people who are active in the community.”

For instance, in the new report, the issue of income distribution and equity ranked last.

“My guess is that the people at that conference were not income-challenged,” Svorny said. “But a broader swath of people might rank that higher.”

On education, the survey echoed familiar criticisms against the Los Angeles Unified School District, which respondents called “too large, poorly managed and unaccountable.”

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School boards are too removed from what goes on at campuses and are not responsive enough to parents, the survey said. It also concluded that teachers have too many job protections and not enough incentives to excel.

Respondents also called for breaking up L.A. Unified into two or more smaller districts as well as incentives for teachers and administrators balanced against calls for stronger guidelines and greater discipline.

Singling out transportation as “one of the most challenging issues facing the Valley,” the report said the system was burdened by poor planning and an overloaded and aging infrastructure.

Stating mass transit needed to be given a higher priority, the report said drivers should be given more incentives to use a timely and convenient public transportation system.

The report cited the need for bus and carpool lanes along the San Diego Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass and along the Hollywood Freeway in the Cahuenga Pass.

In addition to “expanding and extending” local freeway systems, respondents favored construction of toll roads and giving the Valley more funds from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

And, not surprisingly, the businesspeople surveyed called for reducing taxes, easing government restrictions and adopting “business friendly” policies to attract and retain industry.

With suburban sprawl, the report also said there was a need for community empowerment and long-term redevelopment of communities.

The report said the Valley is a safe place to live but that vigilance is needed even when crime is decreasing. It called for more support of community-based policing, youth activities, education and crime-prevention programs as well as support of Neighborhood and Business Watch programs.

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Rounding out the list of 12 concerns, in order, were population and density, housing affordability, air quality, water quality and availability, residential real estate trends, commercial real estate trends, health care availability, and income distribution and equity.

Both Ackerman and Robert L. Scott, who put together the report, acknowledged there were no surprises in the ranking.

“You’re not going to find anything very shocking out of this,” said Scott, executive vice chairman of the alliance. “Interesting, maybe. Shocking, no.

“Crime is lower than what I would have expected, but overall, I wasn’t terribly surprised,” he said. “These are all topics that have been of some concern.”