Quick Take: Talking About Education Discussing Schools With Garland Robinette & Chris Stewart

I’ll be on Garland Robinette’s radio show, “The Think Tank” on WWL AM 807/FM 105.3 on Monday to discuss the ongoing legal battle over a new funding plan for New Orleans schools.

Earlier this week, attorneys for Lusher and Lake Forest, two selective-admissions charter schools under the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), argued in federal court that the new funding plan would violate the charter contracts the two schools signed with OPSB back in 2011.

The unified funding plan, which was approved by OPSB earlier this year, would allocate funds to the city’s public schools using a formula that takes into account the added costs of educating special needs, ELL, at-risk, and overage students. Because Lusher and Lake Forest serve a disproportionally small percentage of the city’s highest-need students, they would likely see an overall decrease in their annual funding.

The funding plan, which is modeled on the formula used by the Recovery School District (RSD) over the past several years, is supported by an overwhelming majority of the city’s public schools, both OPSB and RSD superintendents, and several community organizations.

You can hear my discussion with Garland live on WWL on Monday morning at 10:30am HERE.

Or you can listen to a podcast of the episode, which should be available after the broadcast HERE.

School Board Mayhem in the Music City

In case you missed it, I joined my friend Chris Stewart on his podcast, Rock The Schools, earlier this week to talk about Nashville school board politics.

I recently wrote a piece in the Huffington Post detailing the outrageous and nasty behavior of Metro Nashville School Board member Will Pinkston (who subsequently threatened to sue me for libel over the article).

Pinkston has led a crusade against charter schools and viciously attacked his perceived opponents. On the podcast, Chris and I discuss how he’s managed to get away with it for so long. You can listen to the episode below.