Endorsement: Yes on Measure LL in LAUSD for independent redistricting

We’re for — every citizen should be for — removing California politicians’ ability to draw up their own election district maps, or to oversee and control that cartographic process.

It’s simply unseemly, and needs to be stopped at every turn.

They have enough power as it is, and need to be prevented from gerrymandering those power bases to suit their own electoral needs.

That’s why we encourage voters within the Los Angeles Unified School district boundaries, which includes the city of L.A. and several other cities and areas, to vote yes on Measure LL Nov. 5: “Shall the City Charter be amended to establish an independent redistricting commission to redraw Board of Education district lines every 10 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District?”

There are seven LAUSD geographical districts and board seats whose representatives are elected by voters within those districts.

The huge district is the second-biggest in the country, and, though it has declining enrollment, still has more than half a million students, along with over 70,000 teachers and staff.

The LAUSD was last redistricted in 2011. Redrawing district boundaries is now done by the LAUSD Redistricting Commission, whose members are appointed by the elected politicians of the LAUSD board and the L.A. City Council president and L.A. mayor. The City Council itself approves the final maps.

Under LL, if passed,  an independent redistricting commission for the LAUSD would be created, made up of 14 members, four of whom must be parents or guardians of an LAUSD student.

Residents would apply to be on the commission. They would have to live in the boundaries of LAUSD and not have worked for the district for four years, nor have family members who are lobbyists.

“When redistricting is done by the members … doing their own districts and by City Council members doing their own districts, you end up with people trying to pick their constituency rather than respond to the needs of the constituency they have,” LAUSD board member and former President Jackie Goldberg told LAist.

That’s exactly what needs to change, and why residents should vote yes on LL.