It should go without saying that Hurricane Katrina caused nearly unprecedented problems in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Of course, problems can lead, if one is lucky, to opportunities.\u00a0 One problem\/opportunity to befall New Orleans was\u00a0the\u00a0\u00a0complete destruction of the New Orleans public school system<\/a>.\u00a0 Although given the system’s performance before the hurricane, “destruction” was a pretty relative term:<\/p>\n According a New York Times report, New Orleans public schools were \u201camong the most abysmal in the nation before the storm”. In the 2004 Louisiana General Exit Exams (GEE) for high school students, 96 per cent of New Orleans public school students scored below \u201cbasic” in English and 94 per cent scored below \u201cbasic” in maths. The public school district was corrupt and debt-ridden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The NOLA Schools, presented with an unprecedented “clean slate”, literally had to start over.\u00a0 One of the key initiatives was to allow, indeed promote, the formation of charter schools.\u00a0 These schools\u00a0are public schools, \u00a0funded with each attending student’s share of public money allotted to them, which are “chartered” by the local school board\u00a0or the state department of education or some other governing body depending on the state’s charter school law\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Five years later, PBS reports on the experiment<\/a>; this is a transcription of a “NewsHour” piece by PBS’ John Merrow.<\/p>\n In March, President Obama sent Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to New Orleans, which some consider the national laboratory of the charter movement. Leading the city’s charter transformation is Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n PAUL VALLAS, Superintendent, Recovery School District: Well, I’m a believer in schools having the freedom and autonomy to make decisions that are in the best interest of the children. And so I support charter schools, because charter schools are a vehicle for achieving that type of freedom. The report touches on one of the big advantages of charter schools; notwithstanding the slanders<\/a> of some of their critics<\/a>; the accountability loop between student, parent, teacher, principal and board is usually within one building, and decisions happen almost immediately, as opposed to the months (and sometimes years between School Board elections) at the sclerotic public districts.\u00a0 Parents are not only a simple phone call from their locally-elected board\u00a0members – they are much\u00a0more likely to be on <\/em>the board than at any big public district, especially at a big, politicized urban district. \u00a0SHARON CLARK, Principal, Sophie B. Wright Middle School: As principal of a charter school, you are responsible for everything. I make sure instruction is in place, and its effective, and its aligned with the state standards. I make sure that the budget is balanced and that we have money for payroll. I make sure that we continue to register kids and that our attendance works.<\/p>\n JOHN MERROW: Principal Clark has used her power to make some significant changes.<\/p>\n Where are the boys?<\/p>\n One of her first decisions was to separate the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades into single-sex classes.<\/p>\n MALE STUDENT: At this age, boys get distracted. So by us being all boys, we’re more focused on our work.<\/p>\n FEMALE STUDENT: When you have boys in your class, you got to be, like, trying to impress them, but if you just in school with some girls, you’re just not worrying about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Try to pull that off in a public school without having to tangle with a big, Union-owned, “elected” city-wide board, a dozen special interest groups (who only tangentially have the kids’ interests at heart, if at all); you’ll be wrangling with lawyers until your kids’ grandkids are in school.<\/p>\n But it was the right thing to do.\u00a0 It got done.\u00a0 And the kids are better off for it.<\/p>\n FEMALE STUDENT: At the beginning of the year, I was going to Marshall. And it was like the principal couldn’t control his students. There was fighting. So I told my mama I didn’t want to go there.<\/p>\n When I came here, I felt like it was much better. The teachers were showing you a lot of attention, make sure you understand your work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This parallels my experience almost perfectly.<\/p>\n Remember the debate on “merit pay” for good teachers, to encourage great staff to do great work, and which the Teachers Unions have bottled up and delayed, in every case, since I <\/em>was in high school?<\/p>\n Done deal!<\/p>\n JOHN MERROW: Principal Clark rewards her best teachers with bonuses of up to $5,000. Darlene Rivers teaches math.<\/p>\n DARLENE RIVERS: With my first year with the test, my fifth-grade students scored the highest in the district. Your test scores have to be in the 90th percentile, and you get a monetary award, and I have received that. Yes, I have, I received that, and it really came in handy.<\/p>\n JOHN MERROW: Principal Clark does all the hiring. And if it doesn’t work out?<\/p>\n SHARON CLARK: If they don’t have the mission that we have in mind as part of their mission, we are free to what I call freeing up a teacher’s future.<\/p>\n JOHN MERROW: She means she fires teachers who don’t measure up. Clark’s authority seems to be making a difference.<\/p>\n SHARON CLARK: Our school is performing in the top 10 of the city. We are actually performing higher than some of the magnet schools that have selective admissions, and we don’t.<\/p>\n JOHN MERROW: In fact, 9 of the 10 top performing schools in the district are charters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Amazing what a little actual empowerment, local control, and reward for effort as opposed to mere seniority can do.<\/p>\n There are, of course, downsides; charter schools are excellent places for the vast majority of students.\u00a0 But they are frequently very small, working with very low budgets; they don’t have access to local education levies, and they can’t float bonds for facilities (at least in Minnesota), so rent comes out of most schools’ allotments.<\/p>\n And that means some of the services that some parents counted on in the big, public districts are harder to come by:<\/p>\n
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\nAs principal of a charter school, you are responsible for everything. I make sure instruction is in place, and its effective, and its aligned with the state standards. I make sure that the budget is balanced and that we have money for payroll.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nThe change has been immense:<\/p>\n