New Orleans finally has control of its own schools, but will all parents really have a say?
Can a locally elected school board bring true accountability to the city’s diffuse network of charter schools, or will the corruption and favoritism that plagued the city’s school board before Katrina return, giving an upper hand to savvy, well-connected parents and communities?
NEW ORLEANS — Frank Rabalais had big plans for the school just around the corner from his house in Gentilly Terrace, a leafy neighborhood that is one the most racially and socioeconomically diverse corners of the city. In 2016, Rabalais, a well-connected, self-described charter school proponent, had learned that the Gentilly Terrace Elementary School would be closing its doors at the end of the school year — making the campus a blank canvas for a new kind of school.
The charter school that was closing was 98 percent black. Rabalais dreamed of a diverse campus that would cater to his diverse neighborhood and draw kids from across the racial and economic chasms that have long divided New Orleans.
He wanted a school in which he, a white, middle-class New Orleans native, would feel comfortable enrolling his young children.
But there was a big problem. The state-run Recovery School District, which assumed control of nearly every public school in the city during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, already had its own plans for the Gentilly Terrace campus. The state agency wanted to use the campus to expand a successful program for children with severe emotional and mental health needs.
It seemed that if Rabalais was going to get the school of his dreams, he’d have to change the minds of officials at an organization that many felt ruled by fiat, with no democratic obligation to listen to what locals wanted. For years, residents with concerns about how their schools were being run had to appeal to a statewide board on which only one of 11 members was chosen by New Orleans voters.
Rabalais remembers that his friends and family would listen intently and nod politely, but clearly didn’t think he could pull it off.
“The problem with the Recovery School District is that they are used to telling us what’s going to happen,” Rabalais explained back in CONTINUE READING: Can NOLA's return to a locally run district curb charter school corruption?