New Orleans schools: A nexus of poverty, high expulsion rates, hyper-security and novice teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

John, an eighth grader at the time, gives another student on school grounds a candy bar. He is spotted by a security guard and told he now faces suspension. Frightened, John runs, getting caught twice and slapped with handcuffs as many times, acquiring bruises along his wrists in the process. A jacket his grandmother purchased is torn during the scuffle with the much larger security personnel.

“Knowing how my dad has been in and out of jail his whole life and always had handcuffs on… I promised myself it would never happen to me,” John says. “I’m a kid, and kids shouldn’t have handcuffs on them. It disgusts me putting kids in handcuffs and jail.”

Another student, identified as Chris, is handcuffed to a radiator in the central office of the school after completing an out-of-school suspension. He’s shackled for three hours, and not even the protestations of a teacher, and finally his mother, lead to the release of the boy.

“They just kept handcuffing me. Even other students got handcuffed,” shares Chris. “One kid was in special-ed and he would holler and cry when they handcuffed him.”

more . . . http://washingtonindependent.com/113277/new-orleans-schools-a-nexus-of-poverty-high-expulsion-rates-hyper-security-and-novice-teachers

[xchrom]

1. You seem to have collected some Unrec groupies. Nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. And they are quickly outnumbered

Fuck you, Frank!!

Had to acknowledge my groupies. LOL

[Starry Messenger]

2. :(

[sakabatou]

3. WTF?!

:wtf:

[femmocrat]

4. Are these charter or public schools?

I read the article twice and could not find a direct statement. The article does clearly blame the high turnover rate among teachers. Most of the teachers have only a year or two of experience. It also states that the charter schools set their own rules and their discipline methods are the most severe.

I do know that many formerly public schools in NO are now charters. I didn't understand the part about Baton Rouge taking over the NO schools, though. Can anyone explain?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. All public schools in NO are charters

[EFerrari]

8. BookTv is running the Harlem Book Fair this weekend

and it's been pretty good. But last night, the leader of the United Negro College Fund gave a key note that was a 20 minute ad for privatization and I almost puked. I'm guessing he got a grant from Mr. Gates or something because a man of his education should know that privatization of our public institutions is a disaster all around.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. The privatization folks in NYC are doing a PR number on African Americans

It's pretty damned sad.

[femmocrat]

9. Thanks!

What a gawd-awful way to "educate" children.

[JackDragna]

12. There are still non-charter public schools in NO.

Not that it matters much, given the desperate circumstances there - circumstances the charters exacerbate considerably.

[cbayer]

13. This is not accurate. While over half of the public schools in NOLA are currently

charters, 37 are not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Sorry. Going by what I was told by teachers in LA.

I figured they'd know. I apologize if I am wrong.

[cbayer]

20. No worries. It is not information that is easy to obtain, as there are at least two

supervising bodies and the school board's website doesn't clarify it at all.

:hi:

[mzteris]

19. & New Orleans Parish School board & Louisiana Recovery School District??

admins many of the schools in NO - so even though they're "charters" - their oversight is by school boards.

New Orleans Parish School board: Our Mission

The mission of the New Orleans Public School System is to provide quality learning environments that promote academic excellence and engage the family and community in the support of student achievement.



and then there's the Louisiana Recovery School District: The Recovery School District is a special school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform them into successful places for children to learn.


from wiki: "Fifty three public schools opened in New Orleans for the 2006-2007 school year. This number included schools run by the OPSB or the RSD, or schools chartered by the OPSB or the RSD. By November 2006, the district was approaching half of its pre-Katrina enrollment, with 36% of the students enrolled in independent charter schools, 18% in the Algiers Charter School Association charter network, 35% in the state-run RSD, and 11% in the few remaining district-run schools."

[SharonAnn]

11. Baton Rouge = state of Louisiana. It's the capitol. The state took over the school district.

[woo me with science]

7. K&R nt

[madfloridian]

14. As Arne famously said...Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans' schools.

Arne Duncan, hurricanes, and charter schools

"The hurricane reference was made while he was in New Orleans Friday.

“I see the progress here in New Orleans and I ask, 'Why not Detroit?' We don't need to wait for a hurricane before we can reform schools. I even think Detroit can leapfrog New Orleans.”


AND here is what he said about New Orleans.

"ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans" because it gave the city a chance to rebuild and improve its failing public schools.

In an interview to air this weekend on "Washington Watch with Roland Martin" Duncan said "that education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better."

[Rex]

18. God I hate that man!

Obama should be ashamed of himself for having Arne in his stable.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Amen.

I'd take Rod Paige back in a heartbeat.

[snot]

15. New Orleans was among the first big US targets for "Disaster Capitalism" re-molding

a la Iraq; and the public education was high on their list of re-do's.

Again, conservatives strategists know that their top 3 priorities must be to take over the media, the voting, and the schools, because once they do that, they can control everything else.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. And the Democrats are right there with the GOP on education.

This is not a partisan issue. Most of the wealthy deformers are Democrats.

[snot]

21. Correct; thanks!

[Odin2005]

22. Habituating our kids to Fascism.

:puke:

[cbayer]

23. To be fair (and as a parent who raised three children in NOLA), the school system

there was an unmitigated disaster prior to Katrina. I haven't seen any studies, but I would be interested to know whether things are, in fact, better or worse. Anyone have any info on that?

The major reason for the tragedy that is the NOLA school system is the preponderance of parochial schools. The vast majority of people with any kind of money send their kids to parochial schools, leaving the other schools with the poorest, least cared for members of the communities.

While there have always been a few superior magnet schools, most of the schools are grossly underfunded and under-supported. In many communities they act more like juvenile detention centers than schools and this is what the article reflects. They are often scary places just to visit, so the likelihood of someone just dying to work there is pretty low.

[suffragette]

24. Results of the "Shock Doctrine" in action

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/excerpt

One of those who saw opportunity in the floodwaters of New Orleans was the late Milton Friedman, grand guru of unfettered capitalism and credited with writing the rulebook for the contemporary, hyper-mobile global economy. Ninety-three years old and in failing health, "Uncle Miltie", as he was known to his followers, found the strength to write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal three months after the levees broke. "Most New Orleans schools are in ruins," Friedman observed, "as are the homes of the children who have attended them. The children are now scattered all over the country. This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity."

Friedman's radical idea was that instead of spending a portion of the billions of dollars in reconstruction money on rebuilding and improving New Orleans' existing public school system, the government should provide families with vouchers, which they could spend at private institutions.

In sharp contrast to the glacial pace with which the levees were repaired and the electricity grid brought back online, the auctioning-off of New Orleans' school system took place with military speed and precision. Within 19 months, with most of the city's poor residents still in exile, New Orleans' public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools.

The Friedmanite American Enterprise Institute enthused that "Katrina accomplished in a day ... what Louisiana school reformers couldn't do after years of trying". Public school teachers, meanwhile, were calling Friedman's plan "an educational land grab". I call these orchestrated raids on the public sphere in the wake of catastrophic events, combined with the treatment of disasters as exciting market opportunities, "disaster capitalism".


edit for typo