Councilman Herb Katz’s untimely death Wednesday left a problem he cared deeply about – the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s foundering special education program – unsolved.

Years ago, Katz’s two young blind sons were ill-served by the District’s special ed program. The boys subsequently died of cancer, but, Katz said, the District’s treatment of them had made “activists” of him and his wife.

At a Council meeting 18 months ago, several parents of children with special needs described the long-running problems that beset the program, as well as the intimidating tactics, including gag orders, that the District employed to keep them quiet and in line.

Katz and his Council colleagues, Bob Holbrook and Bobby Shriver, were clearly moved by the parents’ statements.

There were tears in Katz’s eyes and his voice broke as he spoke of his sons and his determination that the current generation of students with special needs not suffer as his sons had.

The three then did immediately what the School Board had never done, in spite of years of parents’ protests. They outlined a series of steps that the District should take to reform the program, and proposed that the City withhold $520,000 of its annual allocation to the District until an independent study of the special education program was done and the recommended reforms were made.

It was an unprecedented and controversial move, but the study was done and some changes have been made in the process and the chain of command, but the program itself remains flawed.

At Tuesday night’s Council meeting, interim superintendent Tim Cuneo will formally request that the City release the money.

We are offended by the very idea that an issue that Katz cared so deeply about will be discussed, and possibly resolved, the day following Katz’s funeral. Out of simple respect, it should be postponed.

But, whether or not it remains on the Tuesday agenda, the Council would dishonor Katz’s memory, and betray the students he wanted so much to help, if it were to grant the District’s request.

According to Cuneo’s letter, the District bureaucracy has been reconfigured, “facilitators” have been employed, a handbook has been produced, a forum has been held, but the program itself is still troubled, and, after 18 months, people in key positions seem more interested in defending themselves than in solving the problems.

Earlier this week, Ralph Mechur, president of the School Board, told the Daily Press that the board was trying hard to understand the issues. It took Katz, Holbrook and Shriver about ten minutes to understand the issues and act to solve them. The board’s had five years,

Worse, a senior special ed staff member regularly blames a small group of hysterical parents of children with special needs for causing all the commotion.

And now some District employees allege that the independent study was “biased.”

Given all this, Katz wouldn’t release the money now, nor play politics. Neither should his colleagues.