Bill Boyarsky

The teacher evaluations recently posted on the Los AngelesTimes Web site deserve acareful but skeptical reading.

In 1947, Stanley Mosk, then a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, was confronted with a case that divided the city. Three African American families had moved into the all-white Mid-Wilshire district, and the neighbors were trying to run them out, invoking restrictive covenants banning blacks from the area.

When this recession is a memory, the Jewish community’s unemployed and their children — just like the rest of the country — will still feel the psychic impact of prolonged, desperate days of job hunting and scraping for house payments or rent. Making it worse will be the injury to their pride, as people with a distinct work ethic face the humbling experience of explaining their plight to family and friends.

What’s the place of Jewish life in the multiethnic mixing bowl of the Los Angeles public schools? It’s a complex question in a district where young people from Mexican, Central American, African American, Armenian, Persian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Syrian homes, among others, bring their traditions, religions, sensitivities and prejudices to the classroom and school yard.

“Raw power, an unabashed transfer of political power to parents.”

Looking for clues to help save public schools, I visited teacher Ellie Herman’s drama class at Animo Pat Brown Charter High School.

L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz hustled into his fourth-floor office suite followed by two aides, just after he finished a long council session. I followed him into a back office to interview this City Hall newcomer, the latest person to represent the difficult 5th District.