In reforming New Orleans, have charter schools left some students out?
JUDY WOODRUFF: That brings us, appropriately, to our look at what’s happened to New Orleans’ schools over the course of the past decade and the big changes that they have undergone.
It’s a story we have reported on closely throughout.
Tonight, John Tulenko of Education Week, which produces stories for the NewsHour, has our report.
JOHN TULENKO: As you can see, in parts of New Orleans, life seems to be getting back to normal 10 years after Katrina. But many folks are wondering about the public schools. For the last 10 years, they have been engaged in what some have called the most ambitious experiment ever in public education. And whether or not it’s working depends on whom you ask.
WOMAN: I do see improvement in the kids and in the schools.
JOHN TULENKO: Is it working?
MAN: No.
WOMAN: The charter system has done tremendously well for the local kids here.
WOMAN: It’s working for those who have their money, their hand in the cookie jar.
MAN: I think they are better than they were 10 years ago.
JOHN TULENKO: Ten years ago, New Orleans’ public schools were headed for rock bottom. Fewer than a third of eighth graders could pass a reading test. And corruption was so deep, the FBI had set up an office inside the school administration building.
Patrick Dobard, who oversees the schools today, remembers those days.
PATRICK DOBARD, Superintendent, Recovery School District: Orleans Parish School Board at that time, unfortunately, it was really academically and in some instances morally and financially bankrupt.
And then Katrina came. When you have a catastrophe like that, it is an opportunity to start anew, because a lot of the institutional barriers, both real and perceived, were literally and figuratively, unfortunately, washed away.
JOHN TULENKO: Seizing the moment, the state took control of the city’s failing schools. Pink slips were sent to all 5,000 teachers and the state set out to remake New Orleans as a city where nearly all the schools would be independently run charters. Local school officials were no longer in charge.
MAN: I will know you’re ready because your eyes will be just on me. Thank you so much.
JOHN TULENKO: Some charters split up the boys and girls. Others focused on the arts. Most introduced uniforms and strict rules, and all were to be held accountable for Have charter schools left out some New Orleans students?:
