The story of the public schools is yet another story of race in New Orleans. In the 1960's racial integration came to the New Orleans public schools. By the 1980's a new type of segregation had established itself. The NO Public Schools were overwhelmingly black, 95% or more in most schools. White students had either left New Orleans for the surrounding parishes or were enrolled in private and parochial (Catholic) schools.

You might think that with such a massive shift in demographics the money would depart the school district as well. It didn't. In 2001 the NOPS budget was a staggering $588 million for 59,000 students. That's $9,966 per student per year which is far above the tuition charged by all but the most exclusive local private and parochial schools. The people have been willing to pay for quality education, they are just not getting it.

November 2006 update....27,000 of the public school students are back at 53 public schools and enrollment  continues to grow by 150 students per week. More schools will open next year. Enrollment is 90% black and 75% are enrolled in a reduced price lunch program based on needs testing.

2007 sees 32,000 kids back in the Orleans public schools. Thats over half of the prestorm population.

Post Katrina the New Orleans Public Schools were the slowest  to reopen. By December 1st Orleans had reopened only a couple of its schools that were undamaged by the storm. In comparison, by that date the local Catholic school system had reopened all but a few of its schools including Jesuit High School which had taken six feet of flood water.

The public school board, totally reconsititued by 2004 elections, moved to charter many of its schools before reopening. This effectively ended centralized control over the schools.  The State of Louisiana then moved in and took over all the NO Public Schools scoring below the state average on the LEAP tests. This left 8 schools under NOPS control, five will operate in 2006/7.

That leaves the New Orleans School Board, its Superintendent, staff and turnaround consultants scratching their heads about what they should be doing. There is still unresolved debt from prior operations and the prospect that the 111 schools taken over by the state will be returned in five years. You can expect that they will fight to keep their jobs and pay rates.