New Schools for Baton Rouge has a goal of educating 12,000 students in charter schools in north Baton Rouge by 2017, says its founder and CEO, Chris Meyer. He launched the nonprofit in April to help facilitate the creation of charter schools in the Capital City through “venture philanthropy.” The former superintendent of the state-run Recovery School District adds that charter groups could eventually manage up to 27 schools in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone. However, each charter school could take up to a year of planning to reform an existing public school, and no school has yet been chosen to be a prototype. “I don’t expect anybody to open by 2013,” Meyer says. However, by next spring New Schools expects to announce—after a year in operation—how much money it has raised and which charter operations are committed to Baton Rouge. Over the next six months, New Schools will be connecting with local educators to apprise them of teaching opportunities in north Baton Rouge classrooms. Meyer compares the function of New Schools to that of a chamber of commerce, recruiting and vetting system operators like KIPP, which currently runs nine reformed schools in New Orleans. “It will really create an educators’ marketplace in Baton Rouge that we’ve never really seen before,” he says, noting that principals with years of proven educational success will be hired to work with teachers as a team. He foresees that the coaching and interaction will change the mindset of many teachers who now work in public education: “I know when I show up to work, I’m not grinding on an island by myself,” Meyer says.Adam Pearson, The Business Report