Segment 1: A shuttered charter school in Kansas City leaves some families in the lurch.
The closing of Kansas City's Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy wasn't a complete surprise, but it was announced just weeks before the beginning of a new school year. The course of events got community members wondering about a charter school's responsibility to the families it serves, and its accountability when things go wrong. Today, we asked charter school boosters about that, and about what happens when a charter school loses its sponsor.
- Douglas Thaman, Missouri Charter Public School Association executive director
- Diane Charity, Show Me KC Schools navigator
Segment 2, beginning at 19:50: Spoken-word poets from Lincoln College Prep excel in international showcase.
What spectators see at competitions like Louder Than a Bomb Kansas City and at Brave New World, the largest youth spoken-word festival in the world, is just the final product of hours of writing, editing and practicing on the part of young poets. We talked about art and inspiration with a local competitor who has taken part in both those events, and explored how poetry can help high schoolers understand and cope with trauma.
- Abby Espino Salazar, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy sophomore and poet
- Joyce Nguyen Hernandez, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy poetry team coach
- Kristian Foster, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy principal
