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11 Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. 285 (2009-2010)
After Katrina: Poverty, Politics, and Performance in New Orleans Public Schools

handle is hein.journals/loyjpubil11 and id is 291 raw text is: AFTER KATRINA: POVERTY, POLITICS, AND PERFORMANCE IN NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC SCHOOLS Nghana Lewis* Roughly two months after Hurricane Katrina hammered the nation's Gulf Coast, the Louisiana legislature passed, and former Governor Kathleen Blanco signed into law, a bill establishing the Recovery School District (RSD).I The bill gave the RSD authority over the majority of public schools that opened in New Orleans after Katrina. It had been contemplated and debated for several years prior to the storm, because of chronic problems plaguing all but a handful of the 117 schools in the Orleans district, including underperformance, political infighting, graft, financial • 2• waste, and mismanagement.3 Indeed in concert with section 17:10.7 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, which provided for the formal transfer of * Nghana Lewis is Associate Professor of English and African & African Diaspora Studies (ADST) and Director of ADST at Tulane University; she is also an independent contractor with the 401h Judicial District Court Public Defenders Office, Felony, Office of Community Services (OCS), and Juvenile Divisions. Research for this article was completed with generous support from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. 1. LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 17:1990A(1) (2005) provides: The Recovery School District, referred to as the 'school district' or the 'district', is hereby established to provide an appropriate education for children attending any public elementary or secondary school operated under the jurisdiction and direction of any city, parish, or other local public school board or any other public entity, referred to in this Section as 'the prior system', which has been transferred to its jurisdiction pursuant to R.S. 17:10.5 or 10.7. 2. Michele Norris, Disastrous State of Public Schools in New Orleans, NPR: ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, May 25, 2005. 3. Specifically, LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 17:10.7A(l) (2005) provides: Each elementary or secondary school that participates in a Spring cycle of student testing and has a baseline school performance score below the state average and each alternative school, established pursuant to R.S. 17:100.5, that provides educational services to students a majority of whose test scores are reported back to such an elementary or secondary school under a uniform statewide program of school accountability established pursuant to rules adopted under authority of law by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, referred to in this Section as 'the state board', that is a school in or granted a charter by a city, parish, or other local public school system that has been declared to be academically in crisis pursuant to R.S. 17:10.6, and that has at least one school eligible to transfer to the Recovery School District pursuant to R.S. 17:10.5, shall be designated a failing school and shall be transferred to the jurisdiction of the

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