Fractured Future
by Charles Lussier - Advocate (excerpt)

A proposal moving through the Legislature to remove eight schools and create a new southeast Baton Rouge school district is the latest effort to dislodge the East Baton Rouge Parish school system from its historic place as the main provider of public education in the Capital City.

The proposal, which cleared a Senate committee Thursday, comes on top of the breaking away of three other school districts in the past decade, as well as new laws that promise a wave of new charter schools and a growing number of private schools receiving public money. The school system, the second-largest in Louisiana, must struggle to adapt and survive in this expanded world of educational choice.

Proponents say the changes will give parents new ways out of the parish school system, which is ranked 48th in the state and is home to many schools that have earned Ds and Fs under the state’s letter-grade ranking system. They also argue that any loss in revenue to the public school district will be offset by equivalent savings.