One size fits all?

Today, New Orleans stands as the only school system in the country that consists of all charter schools. Remarkably, since Katrina, the city has lost all of its neighborhood public schools. In 2005, the state of Louisiana issued a hostile takeover of 107 “failing” neighborhood schools out of a total of 125 when the Recovery School District (RSD) transformed the majority of public schools to charters. The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) followed suit, inheriting these converted schools, then outsourcing the remaining schools to charter operators or CMOs (private charter management organizations).

OPSB went through a radical makeover: It has repurposed its mission from one of governance to mostly administrative tasks—licensing, relicensing, and most consequently, closing so-called underperforming charter schools, only to reopen under a new operator, head of school and in some cases, an all-new teaching staff.

Assigning all of the historically configured neighborhood schools to charter operators that “take children out of their zip codes” putatively lifts student achievement, rockets them out of poverty into college, and ultimately uplifts their status as members of the middle class. These laudable goals may, over the long term, provide devastating unintended consequences. It will deprive our students of culturally-engaged teachers. It will rid them of a curriculum that once passed on long-standing cultural traditions in the African-American, Latino, and Asian-American communities.

This extreme makeover has come at great cost to neighborhoods and local communities. It has rid the system of schools that were once places where children could walk to, rather than board a bus. The state of Louisiana (enabled by OPSB) shuttled public schools that historically served as anchors in the local community. These schools (or a few “magnet” schools) included William Franz Public School, which made history when it admitted (with the aid of federal marshals) Ruby Bridges, the first Black child into an elementary school; McDonough 15, a school with well-developed arts programs and a 50-50 black-white population; McMain High and McDonogh 42. McMain implemented the nationally recognized program “Students at the Center” (SAC) that initially began at Nicholls High. Writer Jim Randels and poet Kalumu ya Salaam co-founded SAC. Also, word on the street in the 80s was that Fortier High School sent the most athletes to the NFL than any school in the state.

The nationwide movement of Black Lives Matter has sparked a call for digging deep into the historical factors of systemic racism, current protocols and practices such as the use of “chokeholds” by police that threaten black lives, and a tone-death sensibility that shuts down—institutionally —the voices of oppressed minorities in their calls for freedom of expression, and the recognition of their humanity. Not to push this point too far, but the recent display of insurrection by white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists, nostalgic for better days when their privilege status reigned supreme, is sufficient reason to pause the rhetoric of “let no zip code” stop student success by continuing to shut down each and every charter school that fails for (yet another) charter operator, head of school, and perhaps an altogether different cast of teachers.

New Orleans needs to rethink this “one size fits all” system. OPSB need not close every charter school when it fails to meet performance standards. Instead, OPSB should seriously consider opening – or reopening — a neighborhood school that is engaged with, and responsive to, their local communities.

– Luis Mirón, Ph.D.
– Donaldo R. Batiste, Ph.D.

This article originally published in the March 22, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.