Dive Brief:
- A Baton Rouge campus of the network of Cristo Rey schools is set to open in August with an incoming class of about 125 students.
- To offset tuition at Cristo Rey schools throughout the country, students work in teams at local businesses. Families, which on average earn about $34,000 per year, are also required to add a portion — in Baltimore it's $2,500 — towards tuition. A private school education in Baton Rouge costs $10,000 to $15,000 per year and Cristo Rey Students there are likelly to pay around $1,000.
- Corporate partners coach teens on "corporate etiquette" and some say they might even hire students on post-graduation. Cristo Rey says it has graduated 9,800 students and all have been accepted into colleges — though not all enrolled.
Dive Insight:
"Inevitably, they will diversify the workforce that they serve," Jane Genster, CEO of Cristo Rey Network, told Business Report. With an expansion plan to open 40 more schools and enroll a total of 14,000 students by 2020, the network is growing. A large portion of funding comes from corporate donations. A reported 96% of current students are minorities, and low-income.
Yet not everyone might think having 14-year-olds work corporate jobs is a good idea. Cristo Rey students, the article says, "have little time for extra-curricular activities" since they work. Al-Jazeera America reported that 25% of Cristo Rey students at a Baltimore branch drop out, a rate that runs parallel to city public schools.
