During the last legislative session, BRAC opposed creation of a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish, saying the full impact of that district, and other potential independent districts, had not been fleshed out.
Today, Jim Richardson, director of LSU’s Public Administration Institute, and visiting LSU researcher Roy Heidelberg are meeting with legislators, school board members and other stakeholders to discuss their report, “School District Restructuring & Reform: East Baton Rouge Parish,” which was commissioned by BRAC and BRAF.
The report reviews possible implications of the potential southeast district, a “south” district west of Interstate 10, and the state’s “achievement zone” in north Baton Rouge. The report says creating independent school districts, without appropriate settlements to cover legacy costs, would unfairly burden the students left behind.
But as difficult as agreeing upon a cost-sharing formula might be, that could be the easy part compared to creating independent districts that don’t divide the parish by race and class. The system only recently resolved a federal desegregation order, and creating “boundaries that appear to exclude the poor, black residents could invite more scrutiny,” Richardson and Heidelberg say.
They suggest creating a “unitary financial system” over “community school subdistricts” to preserve economies of scale, distribute costs and preserve access to specialized programs for all neighborhoods.
BRAC President Adam Knapp says the chamber isn’t taking a position on the report’s suggestions, but says the report presents an opportunity to see if the various sides in the reform debate can find common ground. Read Daily Report PM today for additional details.
