Charter Schools Propaganda -- New Orleans Schools Resurgence

Photo From NPR

Don't believe the hype ~ Public Enemy

A few days ago, the country reflected on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; one of my first blog entries discussed how the storm was a blessing in disguise for the school system in New Orleans. Leading up to the somber milestone was several reports published from various media outlets such as Newsweek, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Huffington Post; that, for the most part, praise New Orleans as an experimental breeding ground for education reform tactics. While most of these articles acknowledge the school system still faces many challenges ahead, its progress so far was worth noting and more evident that these reform tactics actually work. With the latest news on a hasty push for implementation of these tactics, the story of New Orleans public schools' resurrection is ammunition for education reform supporters.

However, as with any story, there are at least two sides.

NPR recently reported how there is a major diversity problem within these schools. According to its report, bad habits are hard to break. Many of these charter schools are predominately black, which was the case pre-Katrina. Although these schools have made some achievement gains, they were significant enough to lure white families to send their children to these charter school. Instead, many white school children still attend private schools.  Prior to Katrina, many families -- white and black -- opted to send their children to private schools because the public schools at that time were beyond horrible. Now, even with the so-called resurgence in New Orleans public schools, to many white families, they are still not good enough.

Then the Black online magazine, The Root, published a recent report exposing some misconceptions about this so-called resurgence in New Orleans public schools. After careful review, this report revealed some interesting findings:

• These schools do not accept students with disabilities nor have the federally-mandated resources to accommodate these students
• Pre-Katrina students test score gains are greater than Post-Katrina's
• Little to no evidence exist proving these reform tactics produce substantial academic growth; in fact Education Week reported on the missed opportunities to further explore the effectiveness of these reform tactics in these schools.
• Most of these schools have little to no pre-Katrina school personnel in their current staff
• The number of poor and disabled children has decreased since Katrina, skewing the picture of successful progress in these schools
• During the 2008-09 school year, only five of these schools exceeded the state average school performance score
• Despite this media blitz of success and hope for reform in New Orleans public schools, the state of Louisiana failed -- twice -- to win one of the RTTT grants.

Don't celebrate too fast, reform advocates! The jury is still not out on this yet! Time will surely tell. As a New Orleans native, I am happy that the schools there are receiving the outside attention and support they desperately needed. However, charter schools -- like every other education reform tactic, in my opinion, are a quick fix to a larger problem. Some charter schools are better than others. Now say they don't work; they alone are not the answer to a complex problem. But, the so-called education experts tell the media and politicians otherwise; then, they all feed the masses propaganda that can and will haunt them later.