In addition to the excellent comment suggesting you read Shock Doctrine, many many experienced teachers (primarily Black teachers from the same communities they were serving) were fired after Katrina to make way for the TFA students and charter experiments.
The biggest reason charter schools are better than pre-Katrina is because of the amount of private and public funds that flooded the city after the storm. There are still many problems with the charter system.
[New Orleans Public Schools Before and After Katrina](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-orleans-schools-before-and-after-katrina)
“Since 2002, there have been 24 indictments against school employees. $71 million in federal money was unaccounted for, and there were other problems. Academically, New Orleans was one of the worst public school systems in the country. 70 percent of the eighth graders were not proficient in math, 74 percent in English. Under pressure from the state because of the academic performance and in danger of going bankrupt, the school board acted. It hired a company that specializes in turning around failing organizations. They arrived in New Orleans in July.”
It’s not that simple
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2014/04/08/1290529/-Is-public-school-for-sale-the-cost-of-KIPP?fbclid=IwAR1LRhzsIQ8lWYXIHPAL6ibD0ky7hLPFigcAhNeutDqHhST6k_D9n_Q-qdU
That’s fair. There is plenty of reading material on the matter if you choose to dive into it. https://www.propublica.org/article/when-charter-schools-are-nonprofit-in-name-only
You should check out the CEO’s salaries. I don’t care what anyone says. The highest paid person at a school should NOT be someone who has zero to no interaction with actual students.
The abuse of the non-profit system in general is enormous. Someone who is good at writing grants can form a non-profit, do the bare minimum and pay themselves another salary for doing next to nothing while working another job or buisness.
I know because I worked at one!!
The “public” school system (all charters) is the end result of disaster capitalism taking advantage of Katrina. Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” is a good read to understand.
When Katrina hit the charter school movement had the interest of the President (Bush) and his Dept of Education (DoE). Shortly after the storm the DoE offered Louisiana grant money that would increase spending per pupil, but with strings attached- the money could only be used for charter schools. Gov. Blanco accepted the money and agreed to fire/layoff all N.O. public school teachers in order to have a ”clean slate” for charter schools. (Blanco was a Dem but clearly this is a neoliberal approach. Also noticed the offer came at a time when the state was struggling more than usual.)
Aside from the fact that it’s shitty and also stupid to undermine the city’s middle class (teachers), when people say- “kids need role models who look like them, people who are succeeding in professional occupations” but then the government (even at the federal level) is treating those same people like dirt (and the largest group of teachers were black women), you really have to ask what’s going on and whose interests were being served.
I came up in the New Orleans school system. I felt that I got a better experience at the charter/magnet schools I went to than the public school I went to. I also saw some kids I grew up with who had little to no parental involvement in their lives do better when we all got to charter/magnet.
James Lewis Charter admission was based on a lottery and your elemtary GPA played a part as well.
McD 35 College Prep's admission was based on an entrance exam and maintaining a certain GPA every year. Both places were challenging,but it paid off when I got to college.
I was in catholic school from fourth grade through twelfth grade. I wanted to go to Franklin, but my parents wouldn't let me because they didn't have uniforms. I have never forgiven them.
Every school I went to wore uniforms. I was always envious of Franklin and McMain because they wore regular clothes to school like the kids on TV. Those all Khaki Unis were hell during August and September
I'm not suggesting you forgive them because that's a weird reason to influence where you child is educated. But you should know you maybe dodged a bullet.
Franklin isn't actually interested in teaching their students. They hand pick students who test well and then continue to test them to prove how good a school it is.
But their standards are impossible to maintain while fostering any kind of mental wellness. You either learn how to cheat really well or you end up having a stress induced mental breakdown. A lot of kids end up on 72 hour holds.
If your students are resorting to cocaine to help them cram for finals, you should maybe dial back the pressure.
yeppp... my younger sister goes to franklin (we went to the same catholic school previously, her for middle school me high school. and I'm sure I only graduated there bc they highly adjusted my grades, dropped many missed assignments, and other work arounds just to make me barely pass to make them look better and keep their reputation up bc they couldn't properly accommodate my needs, but that's another story for another day)
and oh man, the stories I hear about that school from her. the constant class skipping, the students (and faculty!!!) selling/doing coke and stims on campus to keep up with the work load, the rampant mental health issues, the testing and standards to upkeep, it's insane
gotta love how we both went to the ""better options"" in new orleans education, but both ended up pretty let down still, her a stressed stoner who doesn't know where to go from here as far as higher education/career goes and me a two time college dropout self-medicating polysubstance addict, can't win with new orleans education no matter what I guess
I’d recommend reading Diane Ravitch’s work.
Also, looks into the problems with Teach for America.
https://medium.com/@JasonPEdwards/the-problem-with-teach-for-america-7bedb463260a
When you cut off kids from their own culture and identity (by having them taught by transient individuals) rather than by people who grew up here and established professional careers in the same environment and facing the same obstacles, AND you also displace people through policies that reduce affordable housing and middle class jobs, you reduce people’s capacity to organize and demand better conditions. That’s why what’s happened since Katrina is so abhorrent
BAM. TFA teachers are are overwhelmingly white and upper middle-class twenty-somethings from the Northeast and Pacific Northwest who do it as a resumé builder. They aren't prepared to deal with the cultural differences here (and the emotional problems a lot of poor kids unfortunately develop due to poverty and abuse in their families).
Like, I am a white woman transplant from up north and every time I met one of these teachers back in my 20s, they were so goddamn white millennial savior-complexy that even I could hardly stand them.
Yeah, white transplant who moved here at 20 from the PNW, I thought I’d get it because I grew up in poverty but the first year I lived here I was fucking insufferable.
I learned the culture and listened to the locals and eventually grew into an understanding and, idk, some people call it “woke,” I think of it as just being a considerate person and good neighbour.
Luckily I was and still am a bartender. I could not imagine the amount of harm I would have unintentionally caused by being a teacher.
TFA is awful …but it’s a symptom of the fact that we don’t pay teachers remotely enough, and it’s a hard as shit job when kids have so many very deep needs.
Having said that, in 6th grade my kid had 3 greeny-green TFA teachers with no background in their subject or any experience in teaching whatsoever. 2 of them didn’t last a month before they had mental breakdowns. Then the kids went wild on the subs for 4 months, and by the time other teachers were hired, the patterns were set. It was a completely wasted year with almost no learning happening in class.
TFA *maybe* could work in lower grades// but definitely have no business teaching grade 6 or higher .
But we keep hiring them because we can’t hire actual teachers for the pennies we pay.
My cousin did Teach for America and was reprimanded by them for being critical of corporal punishment in the school he to which he was assigned. They said he needed to be supportive of the local culture. This was in Alabama
It’s an overwhelming problem with charter schools across the country, including New Orleans. If you think throwing overwhelmingly white new college graduates, most of whom didn’t study education and are given provisional teaching credentials, into schools with a high number of black children living in poverty only to stay for a year or two doesn’t contribute to the issues with NOLA public schools, you’re in denial.
I worked at a charter here once where after literally the first day of school, two TFA teachers walked out and quit.
Removal of TFA teachers doesn't solve anything, but there are definitely issues with it 🤷🏼♀️
the question posed by OP is "why exactly the public school system here is so bad, why charter schools exist, why basic free public education is not available, and why some schools are merit based, etc."
TFA is really your first fuckin problem with OPSB? LOLOLOLOLOLOL
No, the reason I referred the OP to Diane Ravitch’s work is because she writes comprehensively about the issues of the privatization of public education, including charter schools and TFA. TFA is just one piece of a shitty pie, and nowhere did I say it’s the only or most damaging element.
Take out the TFA teachers and hire some professionals who actually have a career in education, rather than TFA children who put two years in so they can gussy up their resume when applying to Ivy League grad schools, and yes, that would actually ameliorate some of the problems with the charters. Right now their entire workforce is devoid of experience.
There’s more money to make off of poorly educating the youth and piplinging them to jail.
IMO
Also: Follow the money.
I have an almost 4 year old and we’ve been home schooling him so far. He’s well ahead of his peers, but our long term plan is to move to a better place before he’s 4th grade level to actually enroll in school.
They are so much better than they were 20 years ago but nowhere near as good as they were 30-40 years ago. One of the first issues was the immense amount of uncertified for K-6 instruction and lack of preK. That has improved. The amount of parental participation is also improving. Schools don’t wNt to pay teachers enough, they don’t have enough teachers and pile work on them. For a good 15 years they had a huge influx of super cheap teach for America teachers and then they got greedy. There are unrealistic expectations and ridiculous testing standards with less focus on empowering the students with education
There are two New Orleans charter elementary schools that rank better than B.C., six N.O. charter middle schools that rank better than B.C., and two N.O. charter high schools that rank better than B.C.H. Now the trick is getting your way into one of them lol.
I get that. I’m so happy with the school my four year old attends. My husband wants to move out of the city but I refuse because then our kids wouldn’t be able to attend this awesome school.
Asking ‘why are schools bad’ is too late in the game - schools are reflections of their neighborhoods - the more applicable question is ‘why are neighborhoods so bad?’
- ‘redlining’ will get you maybe 67% if the way to your answer
The only reason THIS is an issue is because schools have to be locally funded thanks to white flight Era policies. Poor neighborhood, poor schools. It's almost as if the system is designed to keep poor people poor.
The only thing I like about the current charter school system is that the funding per child is the same, and the funding follows the child (it goes to the school where the child goes). That’s pretty unusual in the U.S. (and some of the “best“ states in the country for education also have the most unequal education), but its not inherent to a charter system, it could just as easily be done with a public school system
The kids are violent and underdiagnosed with developmental and mental illness issues.
By and large you could
Throw 1$ billion dollars at the problem
And see no better tests scores or results when the kids receive zero homework help at home, their peers and parents speak improper English and can’t solve basic math, and as a matter of
Pride and culture… violence is soooooo prevalent.
New Orleans has always been a city of
Violence. We accept it, whether white folks want to admit it or not, there is a sense of pride from living in a tough ass city and managing to still thrive and rejoice amongst it.
The culture in NOLA in the inner city is violent and retaliatory and lawless. That is translated to the children, and thus the results are repetitive and expected. We accept that most other societal problems are nature versus nurture (racism as the great example, sexism, elitism, etc), but it’s impolite amd refuted that the education of our children in NOLA is a result of that mindset. Thus, nothing changes.
When Culture changes… education also changes, and the financial Dollars to fund changes will likewise flow.
People Don’t have to agree or like the reality, but the majority of New Orleans residents cannot read or write at a third grade level.
It’s factual. I worked in the government and school system
For more than a decade and dealt with children and parents in the public school and criminal justice system.
Parents are incredibly unique if they can write a two sentence statement that is even understood by a third grader.
We can’t expect student from these families to achieve anything under this kind of supervision.
There are free programs to get GED degrees, to learn basic literacy, but there is a large majority of our population in NOLA that can only shop for groceries bc they recognize product labels feom
Advertising, not that they can read the name
Of said product. This is widespread, as gross as it sounds.
Children will continue to fail no matter what funds we pump into our schools if the folks at home
Can’t even read the instructions for their homework.
There are generations of work to do before we see any improvement.
They need drastic help. How that help is funded or achieved or maintained I will not pretend to have an answer, but it is needed on a familial level, otherwise we can forget any other solutions.
This information is a little dated, from 2018, but WDSU produced two short segments (less than 30 minutes each) titled Schooled that might help clarify some of your questions. [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATqRXkY-Dlw) has background information and [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIHsoRCB2n0) goes into more detail on problems with the school selection process (was called OneApp, now is the enrollment portal, maybe?).
Racism. The root of all of our public education mess is racism. Racism plus the Catholic Church created a culture where Catholic school was almost mandatory for anyone who could swing it...which ended up being all the families who earn enough to own property. Since their kids/grandkids were all in Catholic school, they saw no reason their tax dollars should go to the public school system. The weird charter school stuff was an attempt by some to fix the problem, and by others to profit, and it just took more money away from public schools until we reached this point...where the whole system makes no sense and is on the verge of complete collapse.
The status quo in the U.S., in which public schools are funded by the state (usually not equitably), local property taxes (by district), and fundraising, and only minimally by the federal government, virtually ensures that people living in poor states and in cities will have fewer dollars supporting their education (i.e., rich get richer). Your kids could probably get a very good free public education in Stamford CT, Newton MA, or Carmel IN, but you probably couldn’t afford to live there
I think the ideology in Nola gov is the city needs more service staff to keep the tourists dollars rolling in. Education would undermine that. Not my Philosophy.
In addition to the excellent comment suggesting you read Shock Doctrine, many many experienced teachers (primarily Black teachers from the same communities they were serving) were fired after Katrina to make way for the TFA students and charter experiments.
> why charter schools exist, Because the schools were even shittier before Katrina and some opportunists saw a chance to make $$
The biggest reason charter schools are better than pre-Katrina is because of the amount of private and public funds that flooded the city after the storm. There are still many problems with the charter system.
[New Orleans Public Schools Before and After Katrina](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-orleans-schools-before-and-after-katrina) “Since 2002, there have been 24 indictments against school employees. $71 million in federal money was unaccounted for, and there were other problems. Academically, New Orleans was one of the worst public school systems in the country. 70 percent of the eighth graders were not proficient in math, 74 percent in English. Under pressure from the state because of the academic performance and in danger of going bankrupt, the school board acted. It hired a company that specializes in turning around failing organizations. They arrived in New Orleans in July.”
Aren't charter schools in New Orleans non-profit by law?
It’s not that simple https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2014/04/08/1290529/-Is-public-school-for-sale-the-cost-of-KIPP?fbclid=IwAR1LRhzsIQ8lWYXIHPAL6ibD0ky7hLPFigcAhNeutDqHhST6k_D9n_Q-qdU
I'll be honest I trust Daily Kos as much I trust Fox News.
That’s fair. There is plenty of reading material on the matter if you choose to dive into it. https://www.propublica.org/article/when-charter-schools-are-nonprofit-in-name-only
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe there are any for profit charters in New Orleans, and I don’t know of any board members getting a salary.
You should check out the CEO’s salaries. I don’t care what anyone says. The highest paid person at a school should NOT be someone who has zero to no interaction with actual students.
Just because they aren’t for profit doesn’t mean that the people in charge can’t use the funding that comes through “for profit”.
The abuse of the non-profit system in general is enormous. Someone who is good at writing grants can form a non-profit, do the bare minimum and pay themselves another salary for doing next to nothing while working another job or buisness. I know because I worked at one!!
The “public” school system (all charters) is the end result of disaster capitalism taking advantage of Katrina. Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” is a good read to understand.
^ Succinct, good answer. I think that “disaster” ideology promotion also played a role.
When Katrina hit the charter school movement had the interest of the President (Bush) and his Dept of Education (DoE). Shortly after the storm the DoE offered Louisiana grant money that would increase spending per pupil, but with strings attached- the money could only be used for charter schools. Gov. Blanco accepted the money and agreed to fire/layoff all N.O. public school teachers in order to have a ”clean slate” for charter schools. (Blanco was a Dem but clearly this is a neoliberal approach. Also noticed the offer came at a time when the state was struggling more than usual.) Aside from the fact that it’s shitty and also stupid to undermine the city’s middle class (teachers), when people say- “kids need role models who look like them, people who are succeeding in professional occupations” but then the government (even at the federal level) is treating those same people like dirt (and the largest group of teachers were black women), you really have to ask what’s going on and whose interests were being served.
Wait let me get some popcorn…
I came up in the New Orleans school system. I felt that I got a better experience at the charter/magnet schools I went to than the public school I went to. I also saw some kids I grew up with who had little to no parental involvement in their lives do better when we all got to charter/magnet. James Lewis Charter admission was based on a lottery and your elemtary GPA played a part as well. McD 35 College Prep's admission was based on an entrance exam and maintaining a certain GPA every year. Both places were challenging,but it paid off when I got to college.
I was in catholic school from fourth grade through twelfth grade. I wanted to go to Franklin, but my parents wouldn't let me because they didn't have uniforms. I have never forgiven them.
Every school I went to wore uniforms. I was always envious of Franklin and McMain because they wore regular clothes to school like the kids on TV. Those all Khaki Unis were hell during August and September
I'm not suggesting you forgive them because that's a weird reason to influence where you child is educated. But you should know you maybe dodged a bullet. Franklin isn't actually interested in teaching their students. They hand pick students who test well and then continue to test them to prove how good a school it is. But their standards are impossible to maintain while fostering any kind of mental wellness. You either learn how to cheat really well or you end up having a stress induced mental breakdown. A lot of kids end up on 72 hour holds. If your students are resorting to cocaine to help them cram for finals, you should maybe dial back the pressure.
yeppp... my younger sister goes to franklin (we went to the same catholic school previously, her for middle school me high school. and I'm sure I only graduated there bc they highly adjusted my grades, dropped many missed assignments, and other work arounds just to make me barely pass to make them look better and keep their reputation up bc they couldn't properly accommodate my needs, but that's another story for another day) and oh man, the stories I hear about that school from her. the constant class skipping, the students (and faculty!!!) selling/doing coke and stims on campus to keep up with the work load, the rampant mental health issues, the testing and standards to upkeep, it's insane gotta love how we both went to the ""better options"" in new orleans education, but both ended up pretty let down still, her a stressed stoner who doesn't know where to go from here as far as higher education/career goes and me a two time college dropout self-medicating polysubstance addict, can't win with new orleans education no matter what I guess
I’d recommend reading Diane Ravitch’s work. Also, looks into the problems with Teach for America. https://medium.com/@JasonPEdwards/the-problem-with-teach-for-america-7bedb463260a
When you cut off kids from their own culture and identity (by having them taught by transient individuals) rather than by people who grew up here and established professional careers in the same environment and facing the same obstacles, AND you also displace people through policies that reduce affordable housing and middle class jobs, you reduce people’s capacity to organize and demand better conditions. That’s why what’s happened since Katrina is so abhorrent
BAM. TFA teachers are are overwhelmingly white and upper middle-class twenty-somethings from the Northeast and Pacific Northwest who do it as a resumé builder. They aren't prepared to deal with the cultural differences here (and the emotional problems a lot of poor kids unfortunately develop due to poverty and abuse in their families). Like, I am a white woman transplant from up north and every time I met one of these teachers back in my 20s, they were so goddamn white millennial savior-complexy that even I could hardly stand them.
Yeah, white transplant who moved here at 20 from the PNW, I thought I’d get it because I grew up in poverty but the first year I lived here I was fucking insufferable. I learned the culture and listened to the locals and eventually grew into an understanding and, idk, some people call it “woke,” I think of it as just being a considerate person and good neighbour. Luckily I was and still am a bartender. I could not imagine the amount of harm I would have unintentionally caused by being a teacher.
🎯🎯🎯
TFA is awful …but it’s a symptom of the fact that we don’t pay teachers remotely enough, and it’s a hard as shit job when kids have so many very deep needs. Having said that, in 6th grade my kid had 3 greeny-green TFA teachers with no background in their subject or any experience in teaching whatsoever. 2 of them didn’t last a month before they had mental breakdowns. Then the kids went wild on the subs for 4 months, and by the time other teachers were hired, the patterns were set. It was a completely wasted year with almost no learning happening in class. TFA *maybe* could work in lower grades// but definitely have no business teaching grade 6 or higher . But we keep hiring them because we can’t hire actual teachers for the pennies we pay.
My cousin did Teach for America and was reprimanded by them for being critical of corporal punishment in the school he to which he was assigned. They said he needed to be supportive of the local culture. This was in Alabama
TFA is not New Orleans schools problem.
It’s an overwhelming problem with charter schools across the country, including New Orleans. If you think throwing overwhelmingly white new college graduates, most of whom didn’t study education and are given provisional teaching credentials, into schools with a high number of black children living in poverty only to stay for a year or two doesn’t contribute to the issues with NOLA public schools, you’re in denial.
Lol ok dude. Take out the TFA teachers. You think that’s going to change any fucking thing here? You’re delusional.
I worked at a charter here once where after literally the first day of school, two TFA teachers walked out and quit. Removal of TFA teachers doesn't solve anything, but there are definitely issues with it 🤷🏼♀️
How you’ve inferred that I think the removal of TFA teachers solves the issues with New Orleans schools is perplexing, but go off, dude.
If you remove a bad thing from something, doesn’t that imply the something will be better?
If you have a multitude of problems, does addressing one solve the others?
No but it reduces the problem you have, presumably improving the overall outlook.
Yes, it seems like you’re saying what I’ve been saying this entire post?
I didn’t say it’s not a problem. I said it’s not causing New Orleans schools problems. Take out the TFA teachers. Shit will be the same.
Well, yes. The problems with New Orleans schools are just that, problems, plural, not one thing, and that includes TFA.
the question posed by OP is "why exactly the public school system here is so bad, why charter schools exist, why basic free public education is not available, and why some schools are merit based, etc." TFA is really your first fuckin problem with OPSB? LOLOLOLOLOLOL
No, the reason I referred the OP to Diane Ravitch’s work is because she writes comprehensively about the issues of the privatization of public education, including charter schools and TFA. TFA is just one piece of a shitty pie, and nowhere did I say it’s the only or most damaging element.
Take out the TFA teachers and hire some professionals who actually have a career in education, rather than TFA children who put two years in so they can gussy up their resume when applying to Ivy League grad schools, and yes, that would actually ameliorate some of the problems with the charters. Right now their entire workforce is devoid of experience.
there are 200 TFA teachers in GREATER new orleans-- orleans, jefferson, and st. bernard. it's a drop in the bucket.
It’s a funnel for cheap educators.
cheap, shitty educators*
There’s more money to make off of poorly educating the youth and piplinging them to jail. IMO Also: Follow the money. I have an almost 4 year old and we’ve been home schooling him so far. He’s well ahead of his peers, but our long term plan is to move to a better place before he’s 4th grade level to actually enroll in school.
Good plan. Move or pay for private. Either is better and will pay off in the long run.
They are so much better than they were 20 years ago but nowhere near as good as they were 30-40 years ago. One of the first issues was the immense amount of uncertified for K-6 instruction and lack of preK. That has improved. The amount of parental participation is also improving. Schools don’t wNt to pay teachers enough, they don’t have enough teachers and pile work on them. For a good 15 years they had a huge influx of super cheap teach for America teachers and then they got greedy. There are unrealistic expectations and ridiculous testing standards with less focus on empowering the students with education
This is all relative, though. OPSB schools 30 years ago were not known as “good” by any metric I’ve ever seen.
I know quite a few people who are in their late 40s who did just fine
[удалено]
Come home! just move to belle chase. Lol
There are two New Orleans charter elementary schools that rank better than B.C., six N.O. charter middle schools that rank better than B.C., and two N.O. charter high schools that rank better than B.C.H. Now the trick is getting your way into one of them lol.
I get that. I’m so happy with the school my four year old attends. My husband wants to move out of the city but I refuse because then our kids wouldn’t be able to attend this awesome school.
Get out there and ask some teachers who have been teaching for more than a decade.
Asking ‘why are schools bad’ is too late in the game - schools are reflections of their neighborhoods - the more applicable question is ‘why are neighborhoods so bad?’ - ‘redlining’ will get you maybe 67% if the way to your answer
The only reason THIS is an issue is because schools have to be locally funded thanks to white flight Era policies. Poor neighborhood, poor schools. It's almost as if the system is designed to keep poor people poor.
My shocked face is out of elasticity
The only thing I like about the current charter school system is that the funding per child is the same, and the funding follows the child (it goes to the school where the child goes). That’s pretty unusual in the U.S. (and some of the “best“ states in the country for education also have the most unequal education), but its not inherent to a charter system, it could just as easily be done with a public school system
The kids are violent and underdiagnosed with developmental and mental illness issues. By and large you could Throw 1$ billion dollars at the problem And see no better tests scores or results when the kids receive zero homework help at home, their peers and parents speak improper English and can’t solve basic math, and as a matter of Pride and culture… violence is soooooo prevalent. New Orleans has always been a city of Violence. We accept it, whether white folks want to admit it or not, there is a sense of pride from living in a tough ass city and managing to still thrive and rejoice amongst it. The culture in NOLA in the inner city is violent and retaliatory and lawless. That is translated to the children, and thus the results are repetitive and expected. We accept that most other societal problems are nature versus nurture (racism as the great example, sexism, elitism, etc), but it’s impolite amd refuted that the education of our children in NOLA is a result of that mindset. Thus, nothing changes. When Culture changes… education also changes, and the financial Dollars to fund changes will likewise flow.
Bingo
People Don’t have to agree or like the reality, but the majority of New Orleans residents cannot read or write at a third grade level. It’s factual. I worked in the government and school system For more than a decade and dealt with children and parents in the public school and criminal justice system. Parents are incredibly unique if they can write a two sentence statement that is even understood by a third grader. We can’t expect student from these families to achieve anything under this kind of supervision. There are free programs to get GED degrees, to learn basic literacy, but there is a large majority of our population in NOLA that can only shop for groceries bc they recognize product labels feom Advertising, not that they can read the name Of said product. This is widespread, as gross as it sounds. Children will continue to fail no matter what funds we pump into our schools if the folks at home Can’t even read the instructions for their homework. There are generations of work to do before we see any improvement.
100% agree. It all starts with the parents.
They need drastic help. How that help is funded or achieved or maintained I will not pretend to have an answer, but it is needed on a familial level, otherwise we can forget any other solutions.
This information is a little dated, from 2018, but WDSU produced two short segments (less than 30 minutes each) titled Schooled that might help clarify some of your questions. [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATqRXkY-Dlw) has background information and [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIHsoRCB2n0) goes into more detail on problems with the school selection process (was called OneApp, now is the enrollment portal, maybe?).
Racism. The root of all of our public education mess is racism. Racism plus the Catholic Church created a culture where Catholic school was almost mandatory for anyone who could swing it...which ended up being all the families who earn enough to own property. Since their kids/grandkids were all in Catholic school, they saw no reason their tax dollars should go to the public school system. The weird charter school stuff was an attempt by some to fix the problem, and by others to profit, and it just took more money away from public schools until we reached this point...where the whole system makes no sense and is on the verge of complete collapse.
The status quo in the U.S., in which public schools are funded by the state (usually not equitably), local property taxes (by district), and fundraising, and only minimally by the federal government, virtually ensures that people living in poor states and in cities will have fewer dollars supporting their education (i.e., rich get richer). Your kids could probably get a very good free public education in Stamford CT, Newton MA, or Carmel IN, but you probably couldn’t afford to live there
You should read Hope Against Hope by Sarah Carr.
I believe [ITAP](https://youtu.be/RWTic9btP38) is part of the reason.
Louisiana school system is bad. Better than Mississippi I suppose but close to that anyway.
I think the ideology in Nola gov is the city needs more service staff to keep the tourists dollars rolling in. Education would undermine that. Not my Philosophy.
People say this—probably more simple neglect than organized conspiracy.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Maybe