"I'm not a fan of charters"

This evening in my neighborhood of West Riverside in Uptown New Orleans, I met Anastasia.

When I asked Anastasia her opinion of public schools in New Orleans, she got a solemn look on her face and slowly shook her head no, saying, "I'm not a fan of charters, that's for sure. I tell everyone I can that charters are not the way to go."

I inquired further. Anastasia just graduated from Sci High, a charter high school in uptown. She was proud of her high school accomplishments, and was told throughout her high school career that she was on track to college and doing well. What's more, in addition to attending Sci High, Anastasia was also a student at NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, which has offered supplemental enrichment classes for exceptionally talented secondary aged students since 1973 (Harry Connick Jr, Wendell Pierce and the Marsalis brothers are among the alumni). It was clear that Anastasia was on the road to success.

Anastasia had scholarships from various performing arts schools across the country, but turned them down because she was told that she would qualify for a TOPS scholarship in Louisiana, which means that she will be able to attend one of the public colleges or universities in the state for free.

She later learned that she would not qualify for TOPS because her HS curriculum did not include a requisite class in Biology. She blames the Sci High staff for not providing her with the necessary classes to quality for TOPS, and leading her to the decision to turn down the partial scholarships from a school in Baltimore. She is now soured on charter schools entirely, and mentioned that some of her friends had similar experiences.

Anastasia said that "she's learned the hard way" and now has to figure out how to move forward with her education. From her perspective, Sci High let her down, and it, and other charters along with it, are to blame.