Thursday, March 29, 2007

Charter Schools: This Week On Smart City

Educating children from America's cities may be the toughest challenge urban leaders face. This week, we'll talk to three guests who are deep into meeting that challenge.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson is the nation's only mayor who has the power to charter schools. His point person in setting up and running the chartering operation is David Harris who is with us this week. David and Mayor Peterson have been recognized for their efforts with an Innovations in American Government Award.

Irasema Salcido is founder of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools in Washington, D.C. The schools use each subject - even music -- to teach public policy. We'll find out from Ms. Salcido and music teacher Emily Isaacson about life inside a charter school.

Finally, Smart City will feature the latest in city travel from Keith Bellows, editor of National Geographic Traveler.

Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.

In Memphis, Smart City is broadcast on WKNO FM, 91.1, at 9 a.m. Sundays. It is also webcast and podcast at the Smart City website, which also has a listing of broadcast times in other cities and the sign up for a weekly newsletter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just like some schools are better than other schools, some charters are better than others. However, two major recent research projects have recentshown that overall charters do not perform as well as public schools. George Lord

Smart City Consulting said...

But in our minds, they're still work the experiment, because there's no mistaking the studies that show how poorly urban schools are doing.