About

Mission:
The mission of the Orleans Public Education Network (OPEN) is to bring the full New Orleans community together for a respectful and informed dialogue about the future of public education in the city. OPEN seeks to engage the community voice in every aspect of education visioning and policy reform, building a permanent entity to monitor, advocate, and hold accountable the necessary parties to ensure access to quality public education for all children in Orleans Parish.

Vision:
OPEN believes transformative change in public education requires an informed and engaged community working in concert with schools around shared values and a commitment to excellence. OPEN’s work is driven by and rooted in its organizational values.

Values:

  • Every child has the capacity to learn and succeed.
  • The purpose of all education is to make students life-ready:  fully capable of realizing continuing education and/or career choices, and prepared to be productive, engaged citizens.
  • A well-educated citizenry is a requirement for, and will lead to, a happy and prosperous city.
  • Community support and ongoing engagement is necessary to sustain excellence and equity in public education.
  • There is a tremendous amount of wisdom contained within the New Orleans community.
  • Civic engagement can transform the performance of public systems.
  • A successful process includes working positively with, though not under the control of the existing education and political establishments.