NYT: Outlines Emerge for a Shaky New Orleans

There is a so-so, ho-hum article in today's New York Times (registration required). I only mention it because Bill Borah and Jenel Hazlett are both quoted in the piece--and I respect both of them and their opinions. And John McIlwain of the Urban Land Institute has his usual doom and gloom of a future New Orleans consisting of mostly abandoned, broken neighborhoods. The school system gets the usual status quo treatment from the NYT: the system was miserable pre-KTMB and only 56 of 128 public schools are currently re-opened/ing with the newly-converted charter schools being hailed as the potential savior. There is absolutely no mention of the city's private schools, all of which are open and most in fact conducted a full Spring 2006 semester and in some cases some even had an at least abbreviated fall semester after the storm. Yes, we need adequate and the best public schools possible, but not even mentioning the presence of the private school system (the Archdiocese on New Orleans has fourteen high schools within the City of New Orleans alone--eleven additional ones in the suburbs) doesn't provide an accurate account of the current primary and secondary education situation in New Orleans. And unlike other places, the private schools within New Orleans are not solely the domain of the wealthy elite as most of these schools (especially the parochial schools) are predominately middle class.


TAGS: Katrina, New Orleans, NOLA, ULI, Education, Louisiana