Commentary

Reason.tv’s School Choice Extravaganza

Check out Reason.tv’s week long school choice extravaganza including a piece about the school choice revolution in New Orleans; an interview with Louisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek about how school choice works and why New Orleans is different; a longer panel in which I host a discussion on school choice in New Orleans and the nation with Educate Now’s Leslie Jacobs and Basis charter school’s Arwynn Mattix; and finally a conversation with Former Assistant Secretary of Education Bill Evers about education thus far under the Obama Administration.

Education Under Obama: A Conversation with Former Assistant Secretary of Education Bill Evers
Williamson M. Evers was the US assistant secretary of education for policy from 2007-2009. Today, Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and serves on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Academic Content Standards Commission. Reason.tv’s Paul Feine recently sat down with Evers to get his assessment of US education policy under Obama thus far

Education Under Obama: A Conversation with Former Assistant Secretary of Education Bill Evers


Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek on the New Orleans School Choice Revolution
Paul Pastorek has served as the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education since his appointment in 2007, less than two years after Katrina ravaged the region. The storm appeared to be the final blow to an already failing public school system. But then something amazing happened. In the wake of Katrina, reformers like Paul Pastorek decided to seize the opportunity to start fresh with a system based on choice.

Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek on the New Orleans School Choice Revolution


Katrina’s Silver Lining: The School Choice Revolution in New Orleans

Before hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, New Orleans had one of the worst performing public school districts in the nation. Today, New Orleans has the most market-based school system in the US. It’s too early to tell if the New Orleans experiment in school choice will succeed over the long term, but for the first time in decades people are optimistic about the future of New Orleans schools.

Katrina’s Silver Lining: The School Choice Revolution in New Orleans


Talking School Choice With Reformers Lisa Snell, Leslie Jacobs & Arwynn Mattix

Reason Foundation’s Director of Education Lisa Snell hosts a panel with Leslie Jacobs, founder of education reform nonprofit Educate Now! As a former member of the New Orleans School Board, Jacobs was a driving force behind the charter school movement that rejuvenated the New Orleans public school system after Hurricane Katrina. Also on the panel is Arwynn Mattix from the BASIS Education Group, which runs charter schools in Arizona that have attracted praise from figures such as Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton.

Talking School Choice With Reformers Lisa Snell, Leslie Jacobs & Arwynn Mattix