Excellence Close to Home : Increasing the talent pool where it has been most neglected

These days, the state of public schools in Los Angeles--indeed, nationwide--is not usually a subject that elicits cheers. But there’s a new public school in East Los Angeles that does just that.

It’s Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, a privately financed, $45-million-dollar school that was built in 27 months on 3.5 acres of land. It proves, says board of education member Roberta Weintraub, that new public schools don’t have to take five years to build and don’t need mammoth plots of land. It should be a model for private-public partnerships in improving education, Weintraub says. She’s right.

But Bravo Medical Magnet does even more. It encourages and trains future physicians and medical technicians. Bravo and a similar school, the smaller King/Drew Medical Magnet High School in South Los Angeles, are increasing the pool of talent where it has been most neglected: among Latinos and blacks.

Some 1,000 students attend Bravo; the curriculum includes courses not usually taught in high school, including classes in biomedical research and nursing. It also has an affiliation with Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center that will give students greater exposure to the real world of medicine.

While the school is open to students throughout the district, its Eastside location is close to the homes of many Latinos, who make up about 56% of the students. (King Drew also draws students from all over the city; 60% of its students are African-American).

More than examples of what can be right about public education, these schools are crucial to the nation’s increasingly high-tech future. The fast-growing number of Latino and black children are seriously under-represented in the math and science fields. Thus the creation of more Latino and black scientists, mathematicians, nurses and physicians becomes not only a matter of community pride but national necessity.

Bravo will help make a difference, and to that we say--what else? Bravo.