Debate in New Orleans focuses on school governance
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Once a symbol of political fractiousness, failure and corruption, the school board in New Orleans was stripped of its authority over most of the city's schools after Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005 gave state officials an unprecedented opening to seize control and set up a system of schools relying heavily on independent "charter" organizations — private groups granted authority to run public institutions.
More than five years later, debate is growing in the city on how, when and whether to turn local schools back over to the current Orleans Parish School Board, which has none of its old members but, still has the public relations baggage.
"We haven't had any indictments or convictions. We're overcoming multiple years of things that boards were doing that were completely unethical and wrong," board member Woody Koppel said in a recent interview. "You're not going to be able to turn that image around overnight."
Questions include whether the old system, even with a new cast of characters, can really work, and whether the new system of mostly state-supervised schools is as good as its supporters say it is.
That current system has drawn widespread praise from various education experts, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Still, while it has resulted in
