Public school critic funds alternative

RALEIGH -- A Triangle businessman envisions a new private school in North Raleigh as the beginning of a dream to create a system of 25 private schools that would rival public education in Wake County.

Robert Luddy bankrolled Thales Academy, which opened three weeks ago. The school, which has only 20 students and charges $5,000 a year for tuition, is off to a modest start. But Luddy hopes that a combination of his money and the school's success will spark a revolution for parents dissatisfied with the state of public education.

"We don't want to be standing in the way of the public schools," said Luddy, president of Captive-Aire Systems, a private company in North Carolina with more than $150 million in annual sales of commercial kitchen ventilation systems. "If we thought they had solved all the problems, we wouldn't need this school."

In addition to the current school, Luddy is helping to open another in Apex next summer. He said he's also talking with Louisburg College in Franklin County and parents in Cary about creating their own schools.

Luddy envisions other communities working with him to create their own private schools. He's setting up a management company to help community groups who want to form their own schools.

Luddy said he's investing $100,000 of his money to help operate the new North Raleigh school. He said he's also building the permanent home for the school in the Heritage community of Wake Forest, which could cost him $1.6 million.

Wake Schools Superintendent Del Burns said it's too soon to speculate about the impact that Luddy's plan would have on public schools.

"My focus has to be on the public schools and helping every child succeed," Burns said. "Parents have to make the right choices for their families."

Luddy, who lives in Wake Forest, is a frequent critic of public education, which he says is "failing our kids." He lost a bid for the Wake County school board in 1997.

Founded Franklin

The following year, Luddy founded the popular Franklin Academy charter school in Wake Forest. He has lobbied the General Assembly to lift the cap on the number of charter schools, which receive public funds but operate outside the established school district.

Luddy also put his money into the St. Thomas More Academy, an independent Catholic school which opened in 2002. Luddy donated $250,000 for the building and the land for the new three-acre campus that the school is moving into this month. He said there's no connection between the school and the Thales Academy schools.

Most recently, Luddy worked against last fall's $970 million school construction bond referendum in Wake County.

"If you have to have police in schools, that's a problem," Luddy said. "If you have a 30 percent dropout rate, there should be a riot."

The proposed schools would all go by the name Thales Academy, after the ancient Greek philosopher Thales, who is called the "father of science."

The schools would stress a method of teaching heavy on repetition. Luddy said the schools would offer kindergarten through eighth grade and hold 200 or 400 students. Financial aid would be provided to families.

Luddy is banking on parental dissatisfaction with the direction of public schools, especially in Wake. His pitch includes the promise of relief to Wake parents who are wary of the district's tumultuous student reassignments. He's also touting how students at his schools will be in a safe environment and not treated as just a number.

"I like the fact that the expectation here is they'll behave and focus on learning," said Joann Gardner, who is sending her daughter, Serena, to second grade at Thales after having attended North Ridge Elementary School in North Raleigh.