Louisiana

Since 2010, the Education Law Center has published national report cards on how states are (or aren't) investing in their schools and students. "Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card" released Wednesday, paints a worrying picture. In most states, ELC has found that public funding for schools is both unfair and inequitable: that is, not only are schools not receiving the funds they need, the schools that need funding the most are the ones with the most dramatic shortfalls.

Today is #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. Grassroots organizations are working hard for — and winning — serious victories for public school children in communities across the country. But they can't continue without gifts from people like you.

Under a beautiful October sky on the edge of the French Quarter, 700 people from around the country converged on New Orleans. Students, parents, teachers, community activists, labor organizers, policy experts, and advocates of a multitude of issues came together for a weekend of education, collaboration, and engagement.

Organized by the Schott Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers, with more than a dozen co-sponsoring local and national organizations, our key theme was community and labor organizing together for racial justice.

Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and displaced hundreds of thousands of its residents. Now a new site by the Advancement Project and the group Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) has shown that although the city may be rebuilt, its recovery has not been an equitable one. In fact, they demonstrate how post-Katrina policies worked to push out Black families and communities from their homes, their schools, and their government.

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has a very different educational landscape, and it's one that many students, parents, and educators are unhappy about. A recent conference sent out a strong warning to other cities that "relinquishment" reform policies, in which the state takes over local school districts and replaces "failing" public schools with chartered ones, hurts children and communities—and, unfortunately, these takeovers are spreading rapidly across the country.

A new report from The Center For Popular Democracy highlights numerous issues with the current accountability systems in place for charter schools in Louisiana that leave them vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

A new study of charter schools in New Orleans illustrates how the city's "school choice" system has allowed administrators to selectively pick students and side step the central tenet of our nation's public education system: that schools are open to and serve all students.

While debate around the reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act has focused mainly on issues like standardized testing, school accountability and funding, an op-ed by Louisiana education organizer Gina Womack raises another important issue for federal policymakers: addressing the discriminatory impact of harsh school disciplinary policies.

Part 2 of the ongoing series "A Perfect Storm: The Takeover of New Orleans Public Schools," chronicles how the city's struggling public schools were seized by the state following Hurricane Katrina and handed over to private, charter school operators. Now, in the nation's first all-charter school district, New Orleans parents and students must contend with the failures of this massive experiment in "school choice."