Chartering Big Easy Schools

NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS FAST-FORWARD
In the years immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the constant blame games heaped upon federal, state and local officials effectively choked off many of the recovery efforts in New Orleans.

But now that the city has moved on, something miraculous is happening to their once-shoddy and ineffective public schools. In fact, when newly appointed school superintendent John White announced in September of this year that current conditions were unacceptable, and said: “We’re going to change that,” people believed him.

While similar promises have not been matched by results in other cities with faltering education systems, there are several reasons for optimism in New Orleans.

First and foremost is that the chaos in the aftermath of Katrina “wiped out resistance from politicians and unions and improbably made the Big Easy a national laboratory of educational reform,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Five years ago, only 23% of New Orleans school kids tested at or above “basic” – Today that figure has more than doubled to 48%.
Today, John White says that four out of every five kids in New Orleans attend charter schools. “In other cities, charter schools exist despite the system, says White, adding that, Here, they are the system.”
That’s why he views as attainable the goal of New Orleans having the first “all charter” school system by 2013.

Superintendent White, 35, a Teach for America graduate like former D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee, formerly served as New York City’s Deputy Superintendent of Education under another trailblazer, Joel Klein.

To accomplish these goals requires a mindset adjustment by long-time city educators like Mary Laurie, the principal of a formerly failing school, O. Perry Walker High.

Laurie recalls how she used to “walk the union line” during teachers’ strikes, saying it was “on behalf of the children.” Today she readily admits it was “on behalf of the adults,” adding that educators like herself have to admit they were wrong, and “own up to it.”

After the district turned the school over to a local charter association five years ago, Principal Laurie was given autonomy. She separated the boys and the girls in class, brought back Advanced Placement Tests after 20 years and “restarted a student newspaper.”

Today, kids not only wear ID and uniforms, but the school interior is freshly painted, and stays open until 7:00 pm during the week, and on weekends, so it can provide a safe place from the “hard streets.”

Another big plus is Louisiana’s new and improved state government headed by Governor Bobby Jindal, and the local New Orleans city government headed by Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu, both of whom are firmly behind White and the charter schools.  In fact, Mayor Landrieu recently noted that the biggest cheerleaders for this project are African-American mothers, none of whom want their kids to go to low-performing schools.

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Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

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