Good morning.

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Austin Beutner has been an investment banker, a Los Angeles deputy mayor, a candidate for mayor (briefly) and publisher of The Los Angeles Times (also briefly). On Tuesday, Mr. Beutner, 58, was named superintendent of the Los Angeles school district. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Q. A slightly cheeky question: Do you find it at all odd that Los Angeles of all places should be picking a middle-aged white guy with no experience in public education to run its schools?

A. I’m a bit of an unconventional choice, that’s clear. But if you put it in the context of where the district is, well, hard choices lay ahead. Maybe an unconventional choice is just what you need. An unconventional choice who understands the complexity of Los Angeles. An unconventional choice who understands how to frame the complexity about budgets.

Q. What do you see as your biggest challenges?

A. There’s still a big opportunity gap between what kids can achieve and what they are actually achieving. All the resources that need to go to the communities most in need are not getting to the communities most in need. Less than a third of the kids are proficient in math. That’s the language of the future. Less than 40 percent are proficient in English. I think we are looking at some hard choices ahead. There’s no way around it.