As many of you all know prior to Katrina, New Orleans had one of the worst public school systems in the nation. Often times, students belonging to lower socioeconomic neighborhoods in the city are raised to be underserved in receiving a lower quality of education. This statistic provided by the Solutions for the Future, proved true concerning the public education system here in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before Katrina, the state of Louisiana developed a Recovery School District to take command of the five lowest-performing schools. Efforts to improve upon this system were made by mayor Ray Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back (BNOB) Commission following Hurricane Katrina which consists of committees helping to create a major plan to rebuild New Orleans — especially the public school system. The U. S. Department of Education as also stepped in to assist the Louisiana Department of Education in developing a grant to have the schools reopened in the city serve as charter schools.

The Education committee of the BNOB commission in the past year developed a mission to create an educational system that would distinguish New Orleans in a positive way, attracting both families and businesses back to the city. In order to carry out this plan the committee received input from some 1,500 students, parents, teachers, business leaders and community members from New Orleans. Additionally, education experts from around the world provided insights into what has worked in high- performing schools with students in similar socioeconomic factors. The committee faced several challenges because in the fall of 2005 they expected up to 50 percent of their pre-Katrina public school students to return to schools of a certain standard, to insure that the schools would remain open for the long- term.

Initially there were challenges faced in their efforts to rebuild which included the results of an extensive demographic study places revealing that fall student enrollment would be between 28,500 and 34,000. Since schools were unable to open fully in the fall of 2005 but rather opened in the spring of 2006, most schools enrollment reached full capacity within two weeks of registration. This began the need to rapidly prepare more schools to open for the 2006-2007 school year. As a result, the Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School Board planned to open a total of 56 schools, consisting of a mix of charter, state-run, and district-run schools.

Another challenge BNOB faced was that there were multiple governing bodies responsible for making decisions including the charter boards and school boards. Without efforts being made for a strong oversight body to govern the decisions of how the renewed public school systems would run and protocol, conflicts were sure to continue to develop and serve a distraction. An representative from the Solutions for the Future of New Orleans organization credit’s the committee for putting too much emphasis on politics and not enough on student achievement, and maintaining stability to execute the plan over the next five to ten years.

The U.S. Department of Education and federal government provided assistance with U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announcing that over $60 million in foreign aid donations have been awarded, and $235 million in supplemental funding from the Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students program.

In addition to restart aid, the Department of Education provided more than $20 million through a special charter school grant to Louisiana, enabling numerous public schools in New Orleans to reopen as charter schools, expediting children’s education and the region’s recovery. Another $30 million will be awarded for K-12 education in Louisiana. This funding will be used largely for reconstruction of libraries, science laboratories and other physical assets. When schools began re-opening in November 2005, twenty-five of the 117 schools reopened, serving 12,500 students–which represents only 20 percent of the pre-Katrina student population. Of the 25 schools that opened in the spring 2006 semester, 18 were charters, three were run by the state, and four were run by the local school board.

The supplemental funding, which Congress has given appropriately under the Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students program, will help K-12 schools and students. This funding will provide assistance to local education agencies for the cost of educating students enrolled in public and nonpublic schools who were displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the 2005-06 school year; and ensure stability in the coming school years. The U.S. Department of Education increased the per student amounts to $1,500 and $1,875 per quarter, or $6,000 per student and $7,500 per student with a disability, respectively, for the year—the maximum amounts authorized in the supplemental aid package. These funds must be obligated by Sept. 30, 2006, and used for school year 2005-06 expenditures.

With all the monetary gift the once deteriorating public education system on New Orleans was in thing can only get better. Though disastrous, Katrina helped shine a light on the devastation the city faced after the storm as well as the problems the city faced prior. New Orleans public schools were being listed as one of the worst in the nation year after year and the U. S. Department of Education did not take action until these schools were in their most venerable state. My partner and I realize that as the government is concerned with the reconstruction of the schools, and local governing bodies worry about who will be placed in control the students are being neglected. This disaster has passed and now it is up to the students to take the necessary steps to continue there education. We plan to assist and mentor these students in the capacity we see fit, being that we also had our education disturbed due to the storm and need guidance on how to continue on.

Works Cited:

God’s house is also referred to as the Tabernacle which was a military tent that was devised by the Hebrews who built the principles for its construction by what the learned from the Egyptians and changed things to better represent Yahweh. The tabernacle, or God’s house was built with gold, silver, wood, leather, and goat’s hair. It had a rectangular courtyard, an altar with ridges on top that resembled horns, doors aligned with cherubs, and the Ten Commandments located in the backroom; all were built elaborately to give the impression that as you move further into the tabernacle you were approaching the heavens.
The idea of the Promised Land could be problematic because it gives off the idea of God only caring for a chosen people and granting them a gift. I say this because in biblical times, the Israelites were God’s chosen people and were evacuated into the Promise Land after being escaping slavery. Thus the idea of their being a Promised Land could lead those that are not Hebrew to think that God has excluded them from his gifts.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 1:31 am and is filed under Class Comments, Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.