Mr. Boyarsky is quite a cheer leader of the Los Angeles Unified Academic Decathlon program.
I admire that school districts as troubled as Los Angeles Unified can muster enough enthusiasm for a program that engages brilliant and motivated students.
Yet as school districts invest in a larger number of boutique programs, the greater number of students who struggle in poor schools, with underfunded faculty and limited resources, is by far the greater tragedy.
No matter how impressive the most elite of students may be, the success of few cannot cover over the endemic, daily failure in which the vast majority of LA Unified students are mired in.
Instead of donating a large sum to an intellectually well-endowed program, why not contribute a few extra hundred grand toward pushing for an en masse secession of the Valley and West Los Angeles Communities from the entire district? Los Angeles Unified has exposed their incapacity to secure children's persons and future from elementary to high school. Parents in wealthier enclaves of Los Angeles have every right to command more autonomy for their children and the schooling which they receive.
A thriving Academic Decathlon program is nice. A thriving, and smaller, school district that responds more quickly to the needs and the vision of community stake holders would be better.