Belmont Center

You are absolutely right to urge the Los Angeles Unified School District to get out of the real estate development business in connection with the Belmont Learning Center project (editorial, June 15). While there may be a crying need for additional multifamily housing and/or a supermarket in that particular neighborhood, the LAUSD has no business using taxpayers’ funds that are intended for educational purposes to subsidize apartments or supermarkets.

The LAUSD claims that the noneducational aspects of the Belmont project will subsidize its operations. As anyone who is involved in the real estate development business will tell you, that position is preposterous. Simply saying that it is so does not make it so.

The LAUSD should get out of the real estate development business and stick to the business that it is responsible for, i.e., educating children.

O’MALLEY M. MILLER