KTLA News: "Discrimination against women in LAUSD hiring practices" (1980)

We believe it would promote hostility and worsen relations among the different groups in this community, for it could be construed as unjust selective implementation of affirmative action in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is our position that the machinery to implement effective affirmative action in the Los Angeles Unified School District is already in existence. It only needs strengthening and utilization. [Bobbi Fiedler:] ...expanded opportunities. I think the questions that have been raised here today, not only in your presentation, but also in the presentation of the previous... ...communities to students. And I think that there's been enough time which has passed in this kind of evidence, which is only coming from one school, but obviously, what is occurring at your school is occurring at other schools. Frankly the same problem occurs at schools at a three-year, but have a reduced student... [Fiedler:] I mean, that's really what... [Woman:] It's certainly not because of lack of qualified women. And many years ago, it was said, "Well, we don't have the women to fi- to fill the positions." That is not true any longer. Programs like the Administrative Development Programs, the Administrative Intern Programs and the Academy are filled with very qualified women and we have women on the lists. The problem is in the selection process. The women are not being chosen from off the lists. Now when we originally brought in the rule of five for affirmative action, whereby an administrator could reach down and take any one of the top five to fulfill affirmative action goals, we thought that that would really help. And what has happened is that it is being used against affirmative action. Women on top of the list are being bypassed and other selections are being made. The district has consistently supported those selections once they were made. That woman then faces a very difficult decision. Does she file a grievance? If you file a grievance in this district, it is very difficult to move up after that. And very frankly many good females have left the district. It is the selection process that we really have to talk about. And I feel that there are two ways to cause administrators to fulfill affirmative action commitments. The first is to include on the administrator's own performance evaluation, a ranking for affirmative action. And the second, is to require a written justification to be made and monitored whenever a selection is made which does not fulfill affirmative action goals. The selection should not be made permanent until after a review of that has been made. Now, a commission may be one way to approach the overall problem of sex discrimination in employment. What I worry about is what happens when we have budget cuts again? The commission staff goes. The commission itself will be considered not a priority item in terms of education. And since the commission functions outside the district, there is no way to secure the kind of monitoring information it needs. And the commissions are all aware of how difficult it is to get information when the district does not want to give that information. They are outside agencies. If established... ...the Los Angeles County is well known. It is also true that we have decried the proposals that either made or gave the appearance of making equal opportunity available to some, instead of all our citizens. We are here today, in response to the noticed motion introduced by your president Mrs. Weintraub. To wit, the status of the district's resource committee for sex equality be changed to that of an independent commission reporting directly to the board, through the Personnel and Schools Committee, with the intent that the new commission advise the board on matters related to women, including but not limited to sex equality as delin- delineated under Title Nine of the 1972 Education Amendments. We contend that the attainment of full equality of opportunity and results remains illusory. Not only for women, but other minorities as well. We further contend that the passage of this motion in its present form, will not only be a - would not be a remedy for this situation. To the contrary, after substantial discussions and serious deliberations, your board adopted a program of affirmative action and equal opportunity policy for all district personnel. Included in those deliberations were comments and suggestions by numerous community-based organizations, ethnic minority communities, classified and certificated employee organizations, and organizations representing the interest of women. At that time, the board enunciated a policy to provide an employment process that is unaffected by either deliberate or inadvertent bias based on race, color, sex, age, national origin, handicap, marital status, religion, or political belief or affiliations. One of the laudable goals contained in the affirmative action plan was the intent and commitment by your board to remedy underutilization of women and minorities in all jobs. This objective was to be achieved by aggressive recruitment of minorities and females and the development of training programs to enhance upward mobility of minorities and women currently employed. The office of Affirmative Action Programs was assigned administrative responsibility for implementing this policy. The County Commission on Human Relations has received periodic reports on the progress of the district's affirmative action efforts, including a report entitled Data for Affirmative Action Planning submitted by the district's Affirmative Action Advisory Committee. This comparative report depicts the district's employment efforts as of October 1978 with that of April 1978. Analysis of this report as well as other data indicates that some progress has been made, but much more remains to be done. [Rita Weintraub:] Mr... [Man:] It is obvious that more progress can be made only with [Offscreen man:] You're beyond your time. [Man:] only with this wrong [Weintraub:] Mr. Martin, could you complete your statement, please? [Man:] Surely. Sure. ...all equal opportunity programs articulated by the Board of Education. Not only is it responsible for the enhancement of merit employment for all the district's employees, but it is also administratively responsible for contract compliance related to construction as well as minority and female business participation and the purchasing of goods and services. It is therefore obvious for that - that for personnel matters the mechanism for addressing employment wrong, our underutilization of interprotected group already exists. The critical need then [Man off-screen:] Madam President, let's keep to some semblance of... [Man:] About 30 more seconds, and I will have finished. [Weintraub:] [...] Thank you. [Man:] The critical need then is support and more resources for the affirmative action program section rather than the creation of another commission if serious efforts are to be made toward affirmative action implementation. The analysis presents two crucial questions. Does the - one, does the climate exist within the board to act upon the Superintendent's Affirmative Action Advisory Committee recommendations previously submitted to your board? And two, how much internal support for the existing mechanisms dealing with equal employment opportunity has been forthcoming from this board? Now a recommendation, and I will have finished. Since the passage of the motion before you had carried the high potential of triggering a ground swell of misunderstanding, hostility and bitterness among different groups in this school district and in this community, we know that each of you possess the responsibility, sensitivity and leadership to not gamble on such an occurrent - occurrence. Instead of creating a new organization, we respectfully recommend that your efforts be focused upon strengthening and supporting the existing structure, by providing the necessary staff and financial resources to allow that structure to more adequately carry out the equal opportunity mandates of your board. We further recommend that you reaffirm your enlightened policy that affirmative action implementation is to apply to all historically deprived classes, male and female on an equal basis. I thank you. [Weintraub:] Thank you very much. [applause]