Not much appreciation

and “Stepping out again,” Nov. 17

As a district music teacher for grades K-8 over 17 years, I cannot agree more with former school board member Caprice Young, who stated that the goal of this school should be the highest level of performance, regardless of the geographic location of the students enrolled at the school.

As usual, Los Angeles Unified School District policies seem to be created in a vacuum. The arts teachers in the district and members of the arts community should have input for this project.

This state-of-the-art school could be modeled after the very successful New York City public arts high school, La Guardia Arts, which looks at both academics and artistic ability in its entrance requirements. In Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, the same sort of school is desperately needed.

The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts cannot begin to provide the space needed for students who want a serious arts career path. To relegate the new LAUSD arts school to serving the local area is a disservice to all students in the district and a total waste of district resources.

Eloise Porter

Woodland Hills

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Critics of the new arts school miss the real point. The school is a fiscal disaster. It will cost $232 million and initially provide “seats,” as the educrats phrase it, for 1,700 students. That works out to $136,470 a seat.

And that’s the good news. The bad news is that this gilded showplace will not be used primarily to teach skills for which there is a critical need, like math or science. No, it will be reserved for training in the arts. And people are arguing about whether anyone can enroll, or only kids with talent? Presumably, it will graduate dance troupes that can entertain tourists from those countries that are training their children in more productive skills.

Arthur O. Armstrong

Manhattan Beach