Planning Community-Based Schools

Though the challenge of providing quality public education may find different solutions in different cities, the Coalition for Community Schools maintains that small, neighborhood-centered schools should be a priority for every city. In the following interview, Coalition Staff Director Marty Blank explains the benefits of community schools and discusses the progress being made in implementing them throughout the country.

From the interview:

"We’re finishing a paper about community leadership and looking at 11 different communities, and we are beginning to see efforts moving toward scale. In Chicago, there are now 102 community schools, and that includes some regular public schools as well as charter schools. In Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon, there are 50 community schools out of 150 schools in the entire county, and there is great demand for more. Cincinnati has a school construction program akin to what is going on in L.A. – frankly, Cincinnati has some of the worst facilities in the country – and they have a vision of turning every school into a "comprehensive community-learning center," their name for a community school."