This fall, New Orleans’ state-run Recovery School District will become the nation’s first big-city school system comprised entirely of charter schools. (A few non-charter schools will continue to operate outside of the jurisdiction of the Recovery School District.)
Hechinger Report contributing editor Sarah Carr spoke with NPR’s Rachel Martin on Sunday about what the transition means for the city. They spoke about what distinguishes charters from non-charters in a practical sense, with a focus on the experiences of students and families.
In recent weeks, the Hechinger Report has also been running a series of student opeds from New Orleans, on everything from school discipline to Teach for America.
Sarah Carr is a senior editor for The Hechinger Report. She has written about education for the last 13 years, reporting on battles over school vouchers, efforts to educate China’s massive population of migrant children, and the explosion of charter schools in post-Katrina New Orleans. She is the author of Hope Against Hope, a nonfiction account of New Orleans schools post Hurricane-Katrina, which she reported with the support of a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University. Carr has contributed to the New York Times, the Daily Beast, Time, the Miami Herald, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans public radio and numerous other media outlets. She has won several national awards, including from the Education Writers Association for her work at Hechinger. Carr is a graduate of Williams College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
