Teach for America exec running for BESE post

10th October 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

In a year where most competitive state elections feature solely Republican-on-Republican contests, perhaps the most competitive multi-parish election is the predominantly Democratic contested District 2 race for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Kira Orange Jones seeks to unseat fellow Democrat Louella Givens in a race that also includes Democrat Ferdinand Wallace Jr. Independent Pam Matus.

Kira Orange Jones, as executive director for Teach For America’s New Orleans office, played a massive role in the recovery of the education system after Hurricane Katrina.

And it was during her tenure as local head for Teach for America, that the non-profit managed to drastically increase the number of teachers that it funded — through federal grants and private contributions — and place in the Recovery School District, the Charter System, and the Orleans System—from 57 in early 2007 to over 400 today.

BESE, once a board with limited power over parish-based public education, emerged in 2005 with supreme authority over schools that consistently failed to meet the state average in testing standards. It could seize control of those schools, fire administrators and faculty, and either run the campus itself or charter the school to an educational non-profit.

These statutory powers, given by the legislature just prior to the storm, were strengthen after Hurricane Katrina, leading BESE to take control of the majority of the schools in Orleans Parish. Over the subsequent six years, BESE has assumed control of failing schools in parishes across the state.

That growing authority and the consequent ability to charter schools on its own has emerged as the main subtext in the increasingly two-person race between Orange Jones and Louella Givens. While desirous of the restoration of local school board authority, Orange Jones has defended the right of BESE to take over consistently failing schools. On the other side, Givens has stood as the greatest critic of the RSD and Charters on the BESE board, and has repeatedly defended local school board control of even the most consistently non-performing schools as an issue of local community authority versus state standards.

In many ways, most of the BESE board elections have boiled down to ideological battles on the future and nature of school reform, but nowhere as sharply as the District 2 contest. As such, Kira Orange Jones agreed to meet with The Louisiana Weekly for an interview outlining her perspectives.

When asked if she foresaw BESE planning any more school takeovers around the state, she replied, “If necessary yes, but I would hope not, because it would mean that a school has been failing for four consecutive years and that the school board responsible for that school could not or would not (including rejecting an MOU) make the changes necessary to provide those students with the education they deserved.”

As to just how long will the state continue direct control of the recovery school district schools in Orleans, Orange Jones was not terribly specific. “Each school in the RSD was failing prior to takeover. Every school system in this country is searching for a successful model to address the challenges of educating children from low income families. For the most part RSD schools (with the blended charter model ) are showing remarkable improvement. This model is however still evolving and fragile.

We need to be sure it is sustainable, that we fully understand the components that make it successful and that we can ensure that those components are incorporated into the local district. The local school district must ultimately be responsible for these schools however.”

As to the role of Charters in this reform, the Teach for America executive explained, “[W]e are still learning the best formula to turn around schools and charters have certainly played a major role, but there are many very successful traditional schools around this state. We must be open to any model that will provide the best education for the students.”

Nor did Orange Jones reject a role for private scholarships, ie vouchers, in districts that experience state takeovers. “We sho­uld be providing parents and students with the best opportunities for an excellent education — period. Vouchers, and charter schools, give parents more choices and increase the chances that their children can get an excellent education.”

It is not an idle question. Almost 2,000 schoolchildren in Orleans receive private school scholarships funded by the state, and there is a widespread expectation that Gov. Jindal will push for an expansion of the program. Some voucher advocates hope that BESE will allow the money that now follows children to Charter schools to be equally authorized to follow them to private and parochial schools that adopt state LEAP requirements. The next BESE board member will be at the center of that controversy.

Critics complain that BESE is trying to create a parallel state school system that would eventually and permanently operate along side local school districts. Orange Jones feels that those fears are somewhat overblown. She does see a long-term role for BESE in encouraging magnate and arts schools, for example, but sees that the future of Charter schools likely will come from Charters approved by school boards. “It is possible that there may be some Type 5 charters [state governed multiparish specialty schools], but much more likely that most districts would have either traditional or see Type 1 charters fill that need.”

In fact, she specifically rejected calls that BESE mandate a magnate school in every parish. Nor would she comment on controversies by the implementation of a NOCCA Prep charter in the Faubourg Marigny. Some argue that the renovated Colton School, currently under reconstruction, should be used for an arts purpose, over the KIPP Charter which has been promised the location. Orange Jones demurred an opinion, saying simply, “I am currently learning more about both of these situations.”

Despite her flexibility, Orange Jones remains an advocate of high-stakes testing, like LEAP, in elementary and secondary education over the long term. As she explained to The Louisiana Weekly, “The purpose of the LEAP is to school systems accountable for student achievement results and to provide an objective measure of performance for students across the state.”

The election is October 22, 2011, with a runoff in November if no candidate earns 50 percent in the primary.

This article was originally published in the October 10, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper