Writing in the Saporta Report (Atlanta), Bill Garrett, President of Cristo Rey High Atlanta Jesuit High School, discusses the significance and successes of a Cristo Rey model school:
Sometimes we only hear about the problems of schools— high costs, lack of measurable results, questions of competence, conflicts of linking incentives to test scores, and the layers of politics.That’s why the opening of Cristo Rey in Atlanta is good news because it tells a different story. The story is being written by a team by a team of committed educators and volunteers as well as 41 of Atlanta’s premiere businesses and 154 high school freshmen.
The Cristo Rey story started in 1996, when the first such school opened its doors in the tough Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The idea was simple: if high school students from lower income families could be given an opportunity to receive a high quality, college preparatory education they, too, could go on to college and break the cycle of poverty in their families just as their wealthier peers had done.
Cristo Rey Atlanta opened last July. Prayers and best wishes to President Garrett and the students, faculty and staff!
Related post: "Cristo Rey Comes to Milwaukee."
