Mass communication professor Craig Freeman is no stranger to Louisiana’s public school system after 10 years at the University, but he’s about to be working with much younger students than he’s used to.
The practicing attorney and LSU Law Center alumnus was recently elected to a four-year term on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board.
He has four kids in the public school system, and the Philadelphia native said he wants to bring the focus of education back to students.  Freeman decided to run for this position after “lots of conversations [among past board members] where kids weren’t the focus.”
He said he campaigned door-to-door most nights during the campaign, joking that he is still recovering from the project.
Freeman said his kids have received a great education, but all kids don’t have a great experience.
The University loses talented teaching candidates because of low-performing public schools near campus, Freeman said. 
“The best way to improve a school is to give it a very capable principal,” Freeman said.
He said good principals give teachers the freedom to focus on teaching and the educational welfare of their students.
“It’s hard to move the system because of decades of politics and problems,” Freeman said.
Some schools are still having problems resonating from racial integration in the 1960s and ’70s, and Freeman said the issues still make black and white families uneasy with the public school system.
He said he has no further political aspirations other than improving East Baton Rouge Parish Schools.
“I’m not a politician, I’m a dad,” Freeman said.
 
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Contact Parker Cramer at [email protected]