Two articles by Horne and Debray outline the problems with having an all-charter school district in such a metropolis like New Orleans. After the shift of power to the Recovery School District and the discharge of more than 7,000 teachers and staff, education officials quickly took advantage of the loss of contract with the powerful teachers union, United Teachers of New Orleans. As they took control of the city’s schools, they moved in inexperienced teachers to teach some of the city’s and the nation’s failing, through no fault of their own, students. “Teach For American saw opportunity and beefed up their presence in New Orleans” (Horne, 2011). These teachers taught with little or no experience at all; “33% of teachers in New Orleans were in their first or second year of teaching” (Debray, 2014, p. 191). It is without any question that inexperienced teachers should not be teaching some of the nation’s “at risk” students. They often come with very little training, and don’t know how to effectively engage and communicate with their students. They don’t incorporate culturally relevant learning, so students are further discouraged from learning. These two articles show how power and influence affect education. The state created “multimillion-dollar contracts with TFA to hire uncertified, inexperienced teachers ” (Debray, p. 191). “The locus of democratic control has merely shifted, from an elected school board to an elected governor and a partly elected, partly appointed BESE” (Horne, 2011). This helps to explain why so many locals are outraged; decisions affecting their immediate lives and families are being made in the hands of affluent, businessmen and women who see students as a tool for more money into the state, not as drivers of future change and innovation.

These two articles further outline some of the problems with the implementation of the all-charter district in New Orleans. There is a large distrust between 1) parents and education advocates and 2) the Recovery School District and BESE. Karran Harper Royall, an advocate for education reform in New Orleans, says,

“I call it educational roulette. You go into this machine and something comes out the other end. You don’t really know how those decisions were made. I don’t trust how those decisions were made. They said that 84% of the kindergarteners and the 9th graders got their first through third choice” (Debray, p. 190).

The application process for getting into these charter schools is often “complicated, created a stratified system where parents and students who are less sophisticated or less able to navigate the choice system” (p. 192). These students are sent to “dumping schools,” often the RSD direct-run schools. These schools are a harbor for students who are “expelled from other RSD charters,” and students “with special needs” (Debray, p. 191; Horne, 2011).

It is obvious that there are problems with charter schools in New Orleans: 1) Too little community input into decision making; 2) Too difficult a registration process to get into the best schools; 3) Too much federal and state government oversight and input; 4) Too much practice of “dumping” students into failing schools; and 5) too much not caring about students. What is the solution to all of these problems? Grassroots organizing.

References

• Horne, J. (2011). New Schools in New Orleans. Education Next, 11(2), Retrieved from: http://ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1237824032?accountid=9681
• DeBray, E., Scott J., Lubienski, C., and Jabbar, H. (2014). Intermediary Organizations in Charter School Policy Coalitions: Evidence From New Orleans. Educational Policy, 28(2), Retrieved from: http://epx.sagepub.com/content/28/2/175
• [Photo]. Retrieved December 18, 2014, from: http://bese.louisiana.gov/
• [Photo]. Retrieved December 8, 2014, from: http://apps.npr.org/the-end-of-neighborhood-schools/