L.A. performing arts school principal -- "I've had it!"

"No one has found a way to fund any of the programs that are ongoing," Isaacs said in an interview. "We have a $65-million theater and no money to run it.

Norman Isaacs, the Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts' fifth principal in four years, has resigned over the district's lack of arts funding. The school fails Deasy's and Broad's funding test because it's a mainly-neighborhood school, not a charter.

Isaacs tells the L.A. Times:

 "We have a $65-million theater and no money to run it. It got to the point where I could not get the support from the district that was so very important, and I needed to call attention to that." 

When the school board decided that 70% of enrollment must come from the low-income neighborhoods adjacent to the school, wealthy funders, led by billionaire power-philanthropist Eli Broad, withdrew their support. Broad wanted the campus entirely removed from district control.

The Times reports:

...building interest in the school is difficult because, during tight budget years, the district reduced elementary and middle school arts programs that could feed students to the high school. Nearby Virgil Middle School, for example, had a highly regarded orchestral music program and later added a dance program. But budget cuts terminated both efforts, officials said.