Change for the better
Baton Rouge Alliance for Students wants engaged residents to understand, not just debate, what's really happening in the city's public schools.
The Baton Rouge Alliance for Students opened its ninth class of Changemakers this week, with 28 new members embarking on a 10-month journey to better understand public education in Baton Rouge.
Rather than relying on knee-jerk assumptions or treating long-held opinions as facts, Changemakers exists to explore the realities and opportunities within the public education ecosystem, one engaged resident at a time.
Why it matters: Beyond its mission, what's inspiring is seeing people from every Baton Rouge demographic come together to learn and improve our community.
Powered by youth: The program is open to everyone, but its energy comes from the passion and engagement of a group of young professionals in Baton Rouge.
- There's no cost for the program, which includes monthly discussion sessions, school tours and visits to other cities to see how they tackled education challenges.
- What participants learn, among other things, is that some stats that look bad on paper are, in reality, impressive given some students' circumstances, while first-glance positive numbers aren't so great once examined.
- In short, Changemakers exposes each class to an unvarnished look at what's working and what's not within Baton Rouge's public K-12 options.
Notable quotable: "Changemakers is about bringing people together who believe that every child deserves the opportunity to thrive, and giving them the knowledge, relationships, and tools to help make that possible," says Adonica Pelichet Duggan, CEO of the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students.
The bottom line: Baton Rouge won't run out of headlines about its schools anytime soon, but a room full of young people willing to do the work is a pretty good sign the city isn't out of people who care.
