Missing, Still
Sam sent me the link to Is there room for black leadership in New Orleans’ charter school movement?: Jarvis DeBerry and my response to her became what you see below, edited for clarity and cheap shots:
In 2005, many of the black faces in education were fired, labelled categorically as deficient or fraudulent or incompetent, one and all. They were largely replaced by white 20-somethings who were non-unionized, perhaps opposed to such or believing that education cannot improve if teachers have collective bargaining rights, rapidly-trained and often committed no matter what happened or didn’t happen. They are replaced often by another set of white 20-somethings. It is still, in 2011, hard for a certified teacher to get a job in the NOLA area. Teach for America maintains a steady supply of semi-temporary labor, and they are predominantly, no matter how many Kira Orange Joneses are presented, white and privileged in one or more ways.
It is not surprising that black faces are missing.
Areas that had predominantly black populations, and especially where the black middle class lived, Gentilly,
In 2005, many of the black faces in education were fired, labelled categorically as deficient or fraudulent or incompetent, one and all. They were largely replaced by white 20-somethings who were non-unionized, perhaps opposed to such or believing that education cannot improve if teachers have collective bargaining rights, rapidly-trained and often committed no matter what happened or didn’t happen. They are replaced often by another set of white 20-somethings. It is still, in 2011, hard for a certified teacher to get a job in the NOLA area. Teach for America maintains a steady supply of semi-temporary labor, and they are predominantly, no matter how many Kira Orange Joneses are presented, white and privileged in one or more ways.
It is not surprising that black faces are missing.
Areas that had predominantly black populations, and especially where the black middle class lived, Gentilly,
