The Times-Picayune reports that, after more than a decade of oversight by a state-run education agency, most of the schools in New Orleans will move back into the Orleans Parish school district over the course of the next two or three years.
No other school system in the country has as large a share of students in public charter schools, with more than nine in 10 students attending. There is no school assignment based on geographic location, like in most public school districts. Instead, families choose schools using a common enrollment system that covers schools in both the Orleans Parish district and the state-run district.
The change in oversight passed in a narrow state House vote Thursday. The bill already passed the state Senate, although it is expected to pass a bill with a few technical changes. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has said he will sign the bill.
Once the schools move back under Orleans Parish School Board oversight, they will remain public charter schools. The public charter schools have their own independent boards, and will still have control of their school calendars, personnel, contracts, curriculum and any collective bargaining that may or may not happen. But the schools will still have to meet benchmarks set by Orleans Parish.
Most of the schools in New Orleans were transferred into the state-run Recovery School District in late 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. The district directly operated some of the schools, until all of them gradually became public charter schools. In the years after Hurricane Katrina, schools under Orleans Parish operation took years to open, while many charter schools were able to open faster thanks to the independence of their operations.
Although this set-up was controversial, the academic results have been incredible. The graduation rates have risen by about 25 percentage points. Two-thirds of New Orleans students attended a failing school before Katrina, now only 7 percent do.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
