New Orleans School Privatization – a warning for us all

Editors Note: While mass public school closings,withpublic funds diverted towardprivate charter schools,isrelatively new to many cities, thishas been going on in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, eight years ago. A report entitled,“New Orleans Education Reform: A Guide for Cities or a Warning for Communities?” (Grassroots Lessons Learned, 2005-2012), berkeleyreviewofeducation.com/journal-issues.html, offers a glimpse into the future for the rest of the country. The People’s Tribune’s Joseph Peery, interviews DJ Markey, Director ofPyramidCommunityParent Resource Center in New Orleans, aleading advocate in the fight for equal quality education in Louisiana, and one of thecoauthors of the report mentioned above.
People’s Tribune: New Orleans is so important because of the number of schools that have become charters, and that they took advantage of Katrina to do it. It’s important that people know the lessons in your report.
DJ Markey: The report is something that we undertook because there has been so much misinformation put out. We tried to make the case that so called reform wasn’t doing what they were saying. New Orleans has become the first charter district in the country. Close to probably 85% of the students here are in charter schools.
PT: Tell us more about problems with corporate brand education.
DJ: The big thing going on is a by product of the privatization of public education. The first thing that goes is democracy. We still have the Orleans Parish School Board operating. But above that is the RSD (Recovery School District), the state entity establishedafter Katrina thatbasically took over most of the public schools. When the state came in and took over the system, they wanted to change everything. They wanted to get rid of the teachers unionand privatization became the vehicle they used. In the brochures that come from the Federal government, they all say that charter schools are public schools, but in reality they’re not, because they’re not run by the public. There was no real transition, there was a take over and installation of a private system that really doesn’t care about democratic principles. It is set up for profit and that’s about it. We work with kids with disabilities, and the plight of the kids with disabilities is outlined in the lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center.The one thing we are sure about is thatkids with disabilities are short changed dramatically.
PT: What is the cause of the problem?
DJ: Katrina gave the state the opportunity. Its not like they hadn’t thought about it before. I think it’s obvious that in New Orleans the plan was to create charters and privatize the system, and the state legislature went after it. When we go back and look at it . . . especially in areas with high minority populations in the district, the schools were under resourced. You have high poverty in these schools. You certainly had all kinds of problems in them. But at the same time, privatization is not about education, it’s about somebody making a profit. The incentives, the money, all that is tied up in whatever school you seek to create here has to be a charter school to get off the ground.