Celebrating Ten Years of Post-Katrina, New Orleans Charters– And You Are Not Invited
December 26, 2014
In modern America, when it comes to selling a product, the question of whether the product actually works as promised becomes irrelevant. The narrow concern for the profit-driven ends with effectively marketing the product.
Sales result from effective marketing– not the least of which is repeatedly telling the consumer that the product works.
Tell consumers that the product works. Tell them repeatedly.
They then mistake repetition for truth, and voila! the product moves off of the retailer’s shelf.
This is the story of the now-all-charter Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans: It is an inferior product that continues to be pushed as a nationwide model of charter school success, yet it is a failure. A flop. Nothing more than marketing hype.
And certainly no miracle.
RSD Backdrop
Contrary to what many believe, RSD did not originate following the August 2005 devastation of New Orleans via Hurricane Katrina. RSD was formed pre-Katrina, in 2003 via Act 9, and it was a statewide district. Former Governor Kathleen Blanco supported Act 9. Based upon the legislated criteria set to determine a 2003 “failing” school as any that had a school performance score below 60, RSD only garnered five former Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) schools pre-Katrina. At the time that the hurricane hit, OPSB still operated 117 schools.
OPSB’s retaining so many schools was not supposed to happen.
The hidden agenda behind formation of RSD was for the state to assume control over all OPSB schools and convert OPSB into an all-charter district. To this end, Act 9 in 2003 was not enough.
The powers that be who wanted to “solve” the OPSB “problem” with under-regulated market forces would find their moment to strike within two years.
When Katrina destroyed New Orleans in August 2005, those eyeballing the New Orleans schools for complete charter conversion–not the least of whom was the late State Superintendent Cecil Picard– urged former Governor Kathleen Blanco to push the Louisiana legislature for Act 35. Former BESE member Leslie Jacobs isCelebrating Ten Years of Post-Katrina, New Orleans Charters– And You Are Not Invited | deutsch29:
