Was Katrina Really The Best Thing for NOLA Schools? by Paige Chandler

Day 4, NOLA

"What has happened since the disaster, however, is redefining urban public education. Instead of simply rebuilding the old district, based on the old institutions, policy leaders in New Orleans and Baton Rouge decided to start from scratch, fashioning a public education system based on new ideas and promising models of reform from around the country. From the wreckage, New Orleans is emerging as a bold experiment in what a city school system can be."

As you can see in this excerpt from the article entitled "The Sc- hools that Katrina Built" there is a true belief that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that has happened to the public education system in New Orleans. Even the title of the article makes that message clear, however there does not seem to be much input from the New Orleans community themselves on what they would like their education system to be like. And when I say community I mean parents, families, students, teachers, staff, and everyone else who has a stake in the education system in New Orleans.

It cannot simply be the "education leaders" and corpor- ations that are making all of the decisions about what the education system should look like in New Orleans. Also, having people not from New Orleans making all of the conclusions is very dangerous, you have these people who are not natives making all of the plans for the natives, people who did not go through the tragedy that Hurricane Katrina caused telling the people who did what is best. These "education leaders" need to be open to the opinions of the real community because otherwise this new experimental education system in New Orleans is going to look seriously close to subjugation.