Future of Los Angeles a challenge for education, employment

By Steve Christol
Daily Bruin Contributor

Guest speakers at the 17th Annual Bollens-Ries Memorial Lecture
on Thursday predicted a difficult future for Los Angeles as the
city faces challenges ranging from education to race relations.

The lecture, titled “The State of Los Angeles: How Can Our
City Be Improved?” was held in the faculty center at UCLA and
included a panel of two distinguished speakers known for their
expertise in the fields of civil rights and education.

The speakers, Angela Oh and Genethia Hayes, said L.A. might
experience economic problems sooner rather than later if
precautions are not taken.

“There could be a crisis this summer with young people in
particular if people are not working,” said Oh, a member of
the L.A. Human Relations Commission and other civil rights
organizations such as the California Commission on Access to
Justice.

She predicted unemployment would be up in L.A. after this summer
and that companies will be leaving the region, in part because of
the energy crisis.

Hayes, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District
Board of Education, said education is important not only for
relaying to children the knowledge needed to survive in
today’s work environment, but also that education must be
used to teach children how our government works.

“We must have literate young people,” Hayes said.
“They must be functionally literate, but they must also
understand that democracy is participatory.

“Freedom is a state hard to find in a democratic and
capitalistic society,” she said, because people look for
common ground and easily become comfortable. “We stop
learning when we get comfortable.”

Hayes also addressed the importance of building new schools in
L.A., saying that there will be a massive shortage of space for
students in high schools here within five years.

“We must find 150 new schools in L.A.,” she said.
“If there are not 50 new schools by 2006, there won’t
be enough seats for ninth graders.”

She also said the dropout rate among high school students is
going down. Although this is good for them, she said, it is adding
to the number of students in schools and will decrease the number
of available seats in classrooms in the future.

Several educators at UCLA also have addressed issues of
insufficient classroom space in high schools. One of those ““
Dana Cuff ““ a professor of architecture and urban planning,
emphasized the importance of confronting the problem as soon as
possible.

“The shortage of classrooms, seats, and schools is one of
the most pressing problems facing Los Angeles today,” Cuff
said. “To begin to solve the problem is going to take some
creative thinking and a multi-pronged approach, starting
immediately.”

She suggested that a new kind of urban school site should be
implemented in L.A. using smart architectural and urban design
strategies to make them cost-efficient.

Cuff also said we should explore more ways to use technology in
education.

“Information technology makes it possible to teach and
learn in non-conventional settings,” she said. “If we
can creatively capitalize on the computer’s capabilities, we
could turn many parts of the city into “˜virtual’
classrooms.”

Another solution to the lack of classroom space in Los Angeles
Hayes suggested at Thursday’s lecture has already been
implemented in Minnesota. In Minneapolis, several high schools and
one middle school are built into the bottom floor of business
buildings.

In such an environment, according to Hayes, students can take
classes in the mornings and then practice their skills firsthand in
the businesses upstairs in the afternoons.

Though these structures lacks certain facilities present in most
high schools ““ such as gyms and sports fields ““ Hayes
said since there is a lack of land to build new schools in Los
Angeles, the Minneapolis model might be a practical solution.

When asked how Los Angeles compares to other cities in the U.S.,
Oh said that no other city compares.

“People look to L.A. for race relations problems and ask
us, “˜what should we do?'” she said, referring to
the city’s history of racial tensions and civic unrest, such
as the riots in 1965 and 1992.

Of the 62 million immigrants that come into the U.S. every year,
Oh said, 25 percent go to California, most of whom go to either the
San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles.

“L.A. County is the most diverse county in 48
states,” said Hayes. “Other places are looking to us
for education problems too.”