An organizing committee hopes to launch a charter school for at-risk, low-income children in North Charleston county in South Carolina. The International Baccalaureate school would include a laptop for every student and separately funded outreach programs for families.

Carolina Preparatory Academy would be a 700-student, kindergarten-through-12th grade college prep school. Pete Kennedy, co-chair of the organizing committee, is a former principal of the upper school at Porter-Gaud, an elite private school. He will be the charter school's principal, and he said he hopes to combine the best of public and private education into a public school for low-income children.

The charter school will require more money than it receives from the state to operate, and organizers plan to solicit support from businesses and philanthropists to support students as best they can.

"We're trying to be diligent about making sure we can sustain this," said Stephen Broderick, co-chair of the organizing committee.

Source: The Post and Courier , Charter school in works for N. Charleston, by Diette Courrégé