New Orleans Schools 'Abysmal' Pre-Katrina
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N.O. Public Schools 'Abysmal' Before Katrina

With just one-sixth of its schools capable of operating and the rest deemed unsafe or unready for use as a result of Hurricane Katrina, educators in New Orleans are struggling to get the entire school system up and running in the face of opposition from the City's teacher's union.

Still unprepared for the coming hurricane season, and plagued by numerous other financial and structural problems, New Orleans has managed to get some of its schools in operation, but nowhere near enough as many to satisfy the United Teachers of New Orleans, which represents about 4,000 teachers who have been unable to return to work. USA Today reports that the union has sued to force the city to open more schools.

In an editorial USA Today wrote that "Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was arguably the nation's worst urban school district, but Katrina has given the city and the state "a rare opportunity for a fresh start, one that could produce a model for other struggling systems across the USA."

Working step-by-step, officials insist that undue haste to reopen schools risks a return to a dismal past as described by USA Today:

♠ Only 44 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading and 26 percent were proficient in math during the 2004-05 school year. Among eighth-graders, only 26 percent were proficient in reading, 15 percent in math.

♠ Three out of every four schools were declared "academically unacceptable" by the state in the 2003-04 school year.

♠ Deficits and allegations of corruption prompted the state to bring in the same New York turnaround firm hired to rescue schools in St. Louis.

After reviewing the books in New Orleans, the takeover experts declared that New Orleans' situation was worse than the notoriously mismanaged school system in St. Louis.

Says USA Today, only by moving carefully can the district grow and adapt.

According to the newspaper, the state Legislature in November seized control of 102 of the district's schools in recognition of the fact that New Orleans was incapable of running its schools alone. Since then both have followed a carefully designed plan where the governor and the state's schools chief appear to be opening only as many schools as are presently needed and imposing quality controls on those that do open.

According to Louisiana officials New Orleans served 56,000 students before Katrina while today it's handling nearly 10,000 students with a capacity for 2,000 more.

That's not enough to satisfy the union whose leaders argue that by returning soon to a larger school district, ready or not, the city will be able to lure more citizens with a sense of normalcy, ignoring what constituted normalcy before Katrina when the city's schools were among the nation's worst.

One bright spot is the arrival of a highly acclaimed charter school in New Orleans which hopefully marks the beginning of a charter school system in the city. In July a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school, probably the nation's most successful charter school system came to the city and other charter schools with successful track records have been asked to come to New Orleans.

Since they do their own hiring, picking only the best of the former union members, teacher's union opposition is certain. School reformers told the newspaper that the union is pressing to open traditional schools quickly as a way of getting more of its members back on the payroll.

Says USA Today "If state education leaders are allowed to lay out their plan deliberately, in years to come Los Angeles, Detroit and other cities with troubled schools will come to New Orleans to learn valuable lessons. Opening schools for the sake of opening schools, however, would only compromise that dream."

News Max.com ~ Carl Limbacher ** N.O. Public Schools 'Abysmal' Before Katrina