From Colleen Kimmett for In These Times, an investigation of post-Katrina New Orleans schools. Under new management, most New Orleans public schools are now charter schools. The schools operated by the state-run Recovery School District represent the first all-charter district in the nation. The results so far? Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up. But discipline is strict, leading to high expulsion rates. What else is lost: community control, African-American teachers, special needs students, and neighborhood-centered schools.
[Reporting sponsored by The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.]