Giving Compass' Take:

• Mark Keierleber reports that Puerto Rico education secretary Julia Keleher is working to scale up school choice options slowly, without sacrificing quality. 

• How can funders help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria? What does Puerto Rico need to build an education system to withstand future storms? 

• Learn about Puerto Rico education following Hurricane Maria.  

After Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in September 2017, the island’s public education system was shuttered. More than a year after the storm, significant recovery efforts remain underway, but Julia Keleher, the island’s reform-minded education secretary, is optimistic.

A post-hurricane education bill brought sweeping changes to Puerto Rico’s school system, including a major push for school choice — an echo of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Among the law’s changes was the creation of charter schools and a private school voucher program expected to launch next year. It also broke Puerto Rico’s unitary education department into seven regions to increase local autonomy. After a union-backed legal challenge failed in court, Puerto Rico got its first charter school, referred to on the island as an escuela alianza, this school year.

In a recent interview with The 74 in Washington, D.C., Keleher reflected on the lessons learned from that first charter school and her plans for more.

Puerto Rico is working to bring its charter sector to scale, but Keleher said she has been cautious about ramping it up too rapidly, noting that she’s not willing to sacrifice quality. But ideally, she said, a charter school will open in each of the island’s seven education regions over the next several years.

Read the full article about school choice options in Puerto Rico by Mark Keierleber at The 74.