The Privatization Of Charter Schools In New Orleans

When Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it devastated everything in its wake. This included the public school system. Many schools were left empty and teachers found themselves unemployed. Ten years after the destruction of the infamous hurricane, schools are performing better than ever. With the relocation of the occupants of New Orleans, the cleansing of faculty in schools, and the changing-of-hands of school owners, New Orleans has surpassed the expectations from ten years prior. Katrina was responsible for billions of dollars of physical damage, which made most of the city inhabitable for quite some time. In conjunction with the physical damage, but it also took an emotional toll on its occupants; a common hurt felt around the state, which …show more content…
The school board has done much to ensure that the children of this rebuilt educational system are provided with the best education available. In the privatizing of schools, most have become charter schools. Charter schools, like public schools, are free to attend. The funding for the charter schools comes from the government and they are held to certain government standards. If these charter schools fall short of their expectations, the charter school can be shut down. The concern with the charter schools is the standardization of the curriculum. The parents of the students want to know that their children are getting the same education that every other school is providing. The other issues surround how confusing choosing a school can be; especially when the school the parent wants their child to attend has no openings. Charter schools only have so many vacancies for students. Many of the public schools in New Orleans are still struggling. Those who cannot afford to attend a private school or could not enroll in the charter school ends up at public school. Even ten years after Katrina, the school system is still in a rocky, limbo. Despite the education system not being absolutely perfect, it has improved by leaps and bounds in the last ten years. More schools will start to emerge in New Orleans, that will be the model schools for the other charter, private, and public avenues of education. The changing-of-hands from the government to the privatized sector is working. They are closing the achievement gap and not only creating model schools for themselves but also for the rest of the United States. This approach to education reform might not work everywhere in the U.S., but it has to have it’s own place in other