Baby geniuses: vouchers for prodigies?

AuthorWelch, Matt
PositionCitings - Brief Article

WHAT DO YOU do when you're a single mother trying to get by on a schoolteacher's salary while scrambling to feed the ravenous educational needs of your brainiac son, who read novels in a second language by age 6, attended community college courses at 7, passed the high school proficiency exam at 9, and entered UCLA at age 12?

In the case of Leila Levy, you butt heads with bureaucrats. The Los Angeles Unified School District repeatedly threw obstacles in her son Levi's way, initially refusing to test his abilities (because he was too young) and to place him in higher-grade classes (ditto). Now it's insisting, based on the state truancy law, that Levi stay in school until age 16--even though Leila can't afford full tuition at UCLA. "This woman was a basket case when she came in," says her attorney, Richard Ackerman. "I've never seen anybody so frustrated with bureaucracy in all my life."

Now that the 14-year-old Levi is in...

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