Education reform is working in New Orleans – just like white privilege
Education reformers are not some monolithic group of privatizers, aiming to purchase the voices of black folk.
Overwrought critiques of New Orleans education after Katrina actually do more to erase the positive contributions of black educators. The critical conflagration of New Orleans reform burns the folks who are doing positive work and uplifting real communities. Having a critique of education reform should never make black folk invisible.
While I constantly push for inclusion in education reform, I persistently state that real gains have occurred as a result of reform. The breaches in the levees only exposed the public policy disaster that was decades in the making. Black folk need public systems to radically change.
White critics of education reform should especially include themselves in the power structure. Yes, the neo-liberal, market-driven, corporate anti-reform critique isn’t the only frame that robs black people of their voice.
I wish white folk would hear me when I say the pro-/anti-reform frame doesn’t work for black folk. If anything, our position in the social world makes us reformers. Black folk never had the luxury of defending status quo. New Orleans needed to make radical changes in education as part of larger hurricane preparedness plan. Getting a college degree is the kind of protection black people need. Cynicism isn’t protection.
I co-authored the upcoming paper, The Transformation of New Orleans Public Schools, published by The Data Center of New Orleans as part of a series of updates for the 10th anniversary of Katrina.
Because college degree attainment is the real preparedness poor folk need, we have to always examine how many are attending and succeeding in college. We found that approximately 60 percent of the class of 2014 enrolled in college both in- and out-of-state in the fall of 2014. Before 2012, the Louisiana Department of Education only reported on students who went to college in-state. From the respective in-state reports, 48 percent of public high school graduates from the class of 2014 enrolled in in-state colleges and universities in the fall of 2014 as compared to 37 percent in 2004. That ten point jump is real opportunity, but it’s not enough.Education reform is working in New Orleans – just like white privilege - The Hechinger Report:
