Louisiana RSD Charters Victim of a “Legislative Raid”?
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We have an interesting situation in Louisiana regarding the now-permanent Recovery School District (RSD):
On May 6, 2015, the Louisiana House education committee passed a bill requiring schools that are no longer “failing” to return to the local districts from whence they came, House Bill 166.
HB 166 also states, “all rights and responsibilities of ownership regarding all land, buildings, facilities, and other property that are part of the school being transferred shall also be returned to the local public school board.”
RSD was never meant to be permanent. Even pro-charter Cowen Institute declared as much in its 2003-2011 report:
Intended as a mechanism for restructuring and reform, the RSD was never meant to be a permanent part of the public school governance landscape in New Orleans. Instead, the RSD was meant to take control of and turn around chronically failing schools for an initial period of five years. After that time, and assuming adequate school improvement, schools would be released from the jurisdiction of the RSD and returned to their local school board.
In 2010, then-state superintendent Paul Pastorek came up with the idea to allow “high performing” schools to remain in RSD. The state board (BESE) passed this plan in December 2010. The plan also included the possibility of schools leaving RSD if they were still “failing” after five years. However, such transfer would require BESE approval.
In short, Pastorek’s proposal virtually guaranteed RSD stability and permanence in the Louisiana education landscape and provided the means for a charter-friendly BESE to create a 100-percent RSD New Orleans charter district, consisting of 73 schools in 2014-15.
HB 166 threatens to diminish the state’s power over schools that are determined as “no longer designated as a failing school”– though the language of HB 166 does not include the specifics on such designation.
The author of the bill, Representative Joseph Bouie, believes this number to be now at 46 schools, as noted in a May 6, 3015, nola.com article:
“We have 46 schools that should be back under the local board,” said HB 166’s sponsor, Rep. Joseph Bouie, D-New Orleans. The charter boards would continue to run the schools, but they would be overseen by the local authority, not the state.
Charter boards “being overseen by the local authority” could mean a greater possibility that these schools are thoroughly and regularly monitored and audited– something that has yet to happen in comprehensive, systemic fashion to those Louisiana RSD Charters Victim of a “Legislative Raid”? | deutsch29:
