New Orleans schools' recovery depends on increased federal involvement, report says | New Orleans Metro Education News - - NOLA.com

New Orleans schools' recovery depends on increased federal involvement, report says New Orleans Metro Education News - - NOLA.com:

"'That money has been spent, and there's no more in the pipeline,' said Steve Suitts, the foundation's vice president and an author of the report.

Overall, the report says, progress has been made in New Orleans, the only city in the country where a majority of public school students attend charter schools, which are publicly financed but more privately run. It says the federal government has an obligation to continue supporting the rebirth of the city's schools for two main reasons.

First, it says, the federal government was complicit in the destruction of schools, and the unprecedented trauma and dislocation endured by its children, because of its failure to maintain and construct levees properly or respond quickly in the days after they failed.

Also, it says, New Orleans will serve as a crucial test of whether an education system composed primarily of autonomous charter schools can succeed in the long term."