February 5: Top Story - In New Orleans, a Failed School System Becomes a Model for Reform

A Wall Street Journal editorial says that Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent comment that Hurricane Katrina led to improved education in New Orleans was “inartful phrasing” but not “untrue.”

In other headlines...
Abandon Bureaucracy for Common Sense
La. Gov. Wants Charter-Like Freedom for All Public Schools
Charter Schools and Diversity in L.A.

In New Orleans, a Failed School System Becomes a Model for Reform

A Wall Street Journal editorial says that Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent comment that Hurricane Katrina led to improved education in New Orleans was “inartful phrasing” but not “untrue.” The Journal cites the facts that before Katrina, half of all New Orleans 4th graders failed state promotional tests, and 74% of 8th graders were not proficient in reading. Between 2002 and 2005 there were 24 indictments against school employees, and $71 million federal education funds went missing. “Today test scores are up, charter schools proliferate and schools have improved to the point that Louisiana is a leading contender for Race to the Top education grants that the Obama Administration has set aside for model school systems. As tragic as Katrina was, its destruction also replaced a failed system of public education and created a political opening for reform.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704041504575045460702754550.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

Back to Top »
________________________________________

Abandon Bureaucracy for Common Sense

A Wall Street Journal editorial recommends that the key to reforming education is “not to tweak the bureaucracy, but to abandon it.” The Journal suggests that charter schools succeed because the adults in charge of them “are free to use their common sense all day long to maintain order and instill values of cooperation and respect.” Traditional public schools should have the same freedom and the same accountability, and be allowed to succeed or fail. “Today, failure is guaranteed by bureaucracy.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704259304575043624084138794.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Back to Top »
________________________________________

La. Gov. Wants Charter-Like Freedom for All Public Schools

The Advocate reports that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced a bill yesterday to allow schools and school systems to seek four-year waivers on rules in such areas as curriculum, textbooks, instructional time, student-teacher ratios. “We will move the red tape out of the way,” said Jindal. Rapides Parish Superintendent Gary Jones said he was pleased to hear that the legislation would give traditional public schools some of the flexibility that charter schools enjoy.

Source: The Advocate, http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/83587502.html

Back to Top »
________________________________________

Charter Schools and Diversity in L.A.

The Los Angeles Times describes the local context for a new UCLA study which found that charter schools are less diverse than traditional public schools. In Los Angeles, about 9% of district students attend charters, compared to 2.5% of students nationally. Some charters serve mainly low-income Latino students, “in neighborhoods where nearly all students match that description;” another group of charter schools, ICEF, has “become a brand among African Americans as the place to go.” Gary Orfield, the study’s author, has suggested that charter schools be required, and helped, to achieve more diversity. The Los Angeles school district, which is only 9% white, no longer has integration as a primary goal, and its school construction program is focused on neighborhood schools, rather than busing. "If charter schools are doing the job for the student, and it is a better job," said Superintendent Ramon Cortines, "I'm not as concerned about the racial isolation."

Source: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charters5-2010feb05,0,3300930.story

Back to Top »
________________________________________