INDReporter

AOC to air ‘Superman' panel

by Walter Pierce

The film is widely seen as a damning indictment of teacher unions and "drop-out mills," i.e., inner-city high schools.

Panelists (from left) Hunter Beasley, Sarah Walker
   and Gary McGoffin

Acadiana Open Channel will begin airing on Friday the 37-minute panel discussion that followed a Jan. 12 screening of the acclaimed documentary Waiting for Superman, brought to Lafayette by sponsor IberiaBank as the inaugural event in the 2011 Independent Weekly Lecture Series. Panelists for the discussion were retired educator Melinda Mangham, UL education researcher Dr. Billy Stokes, Lafayette Parish School Board member Hunter Beasley, parent and Community Coalition member Sarah Walker and Gary McGoffin, a Lafayette attorney and longtime public education advocate. The panel discussion was moderated by Independent Weekly Managing Editor Walter Pierce.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman takes a probing look at the current state of American public education by following the lives of five students scattered around the country and their opportunities - or lack of - to get a decent education. The film is widely seen as a damning indictment of teacher unions and "drop-out mills," i.e., inner-city high schools.

AOC 1 will air the panel discussion at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11; 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12; 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14; and 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16. The discussion will also air at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18. More broadcasts will be added to the AOC schedule in the coming days.

You can also view a video of the panel discussion here.