Kipp Academy Of Opportunity

Arts and education philanthropist Eli Broad today will announce his largest investment to date in Los Angeles charter schools, $23.3 million to jump-start at least 17 new campuses run by two major charter-school organizations. Broad's gift is believed to be the largest by any private donor to local charter schools and underscores his goal of creating effective schools outside the direct jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Unified School District. L.A.

Antonio Chavez spends 10 hours a day at school and two or three doing homework because he wants to go to UCLA. He isn't sure what to major in. "I need some time to learn what my interests are," he says. Fifth-graders generally do.

Is the public library no longer a haven for children? That's the message the director of a charter school in South Los Angeles sent the parents of her 340 students last week, warning them that Hyde Park--Miriam Matthews Public Library, a few yards from the school campus, was not safe for their children.