ConnCAN First Person Interview: Steve Barr

About Steve Barr

Steve Barr founded Green Dot Public Schools in 1999 with the vision of transforming secondary education in California by creating a number of high-performing charter high schools using available public dollars. Under Steve’s leadership, Green Dot built one of the first comprehensive public high schools in the Los Angeles area in thirty years in fall 2000 and built a second high school in fall 2002. Prior to founding Green Dot, Barr held a number of leadership positions in political science and social service organizations as co-founder of Rock the Vote and AmeriCorps. In August 2006, he was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 most powerful people in Southern California.

On great schools:
“It's a basic thing. Small, safe, schools, with high expectations, where all dollars see the school site, and the parents are partners. That plays well in poor areas of New Haven, Hartford, in Boil Heights, and also Beverly Hills. And in Beverly Hills they pay twenty-five grand for that."

On recruiting teachers:
“I believe there is no teacher shortage in the country, there's a work condition problem. Right now, the stigma on teaching is that it’s not a profession, when it is actually one of the most important professions. We don't treat teachers like professionals. And it’s not just the pay, it’s the inability to have a say in what goes on around you.”