charter schools

Watching the Charter School Movement Play Out

Amy Jeffries — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:37:40 +0000

Journalist Sarah Carr spent a year chronicling the lives of a skeptical teenager, a fresh-faced teacher, and a veteran principal in three separate charter schools in New Orleans for her new book, “Hope Against Hope.”

Some of the same players who orchestrated the makeover of public education in the Crescent City after Hurricane Katrina are trying to do the same thing in Baton Rouge, without the prompting of a natural disaster.

Supporters of the movement hold up charter schools as the salvation of American education. Critics say the overhaul will lead to its ruination. What Carr found was a lot of gray.

Growing Doubts About For-Profit Public School Management

Annie Gilbertson — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:26:17 +0000

For-profit public school management is on the decline across the country. In 2007 about half of charter schools that entered into management contracts did so with a for-profit company. Three years later, that number fell by 25 percent. In New Orleans, all of the for-profits that came in to manage charters after Hurricane Katrina are now gone. Opposition to for-profit public schools in Mississippi is growing fierce.

THURSDAY: GOP Consultant Sally Nungesser, Thrive BR's Sarah Broome

Jim Engster — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:48:38 +0000

Jim talks with Republican consultant Sally Nungesser about the deal reached in Washington to avoid the "fiscal cliff".

Then, Jim talks with Thrive Baton Rouge's Sarah Broome, who has been named one of 225 Magazine's "40 under 40" this year.

Big Charter School Push Coming to Baton Rouge

Amy Jeffries — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:00:00 +0000

The Recovery School District is announcing plans for an "Achievement Zone" in north Baton Rouge where the schools have been failing for decades.
As part of that effort, New Schools for Baton Rouge will be facilitating the development of charter schools.
Before moving upriver to launch the new non-profit, Chris Meyer worked for the RSD in New Orleans, identifying which schools to turn over to charter operators there.
As he told WRKF's Amy Jeffries, Meyer is out to prove that you don't need a hurricane to make radical changes to the way schools work.