College prep academy earns the title

The North Lawndale College Prep Academy in Chicago is another public charter school. Its enrollment is also heavily inner city.

But, the school graduates 90 percent of its students, and those who graduate go on to college.

We recently looked at some inner city Louisville regular public high schools with graduation rates only around half that number.

Wouldn’t it be great if Kentucky allowed charter schools so kids in our state could catch the fire of high expectations that you will see in this video from North Lawndale?



You know, poverty wasn’t ‘invented’ in Kentucky. Neither was the bigotry of low expectations for students.

But we have both problems in too many Kentucky schools today.

Charter schools weren’t invented here, either.

But, they provide a workable answer to the first two problems.

Isn’t it time for us to move beyond our short-sighted “not invented here” syndrome and establish public charter schools that can fight poverty and low expectations?