By Jesse Sharkey

A nightmare mix of right wing politicians, corporate consultants, and educational fortune-seekers are set to take advantage of the crisis caused by Katrina and wipe out public schools in New Orleans.

On a separate but parallel track, the Education Committee of “Bring New Orleans Back” — a post-disaster government planning agency — has devised a plan that would reduce the operation of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB, which operates New Orleans Public Schools) down to just eight. As the school board’s consulting firm, Alvarez and Marsal, states bluntly in a November 14 report, “It is possible that OPSB could in the short term resemble a liquidating entity…” Alvarez and Marsal, a New York company, bills itself as specializing in “debtor management and advisory services to companies in crisis or those in need of performance o in specific financial and operational areas.”

For its part, the Bush Administration, through the U.S. Department of Education, has offered the struggling city a $20.9 million dollar grant to be used exclusively for the development of charter schools.

Meanwhile, the city has yet to re-open a public school, despite calls to reopen schools from parents and a lawsuit from the teachers union (United Teachers of New Orleans, UTNO) which alleges that the city is purposely dragging its feet on re-opening schools. The lack of public schools for New Orleans children, even in areas that were not flooded during the levee breaks after Katrina, is being cited by more and more working class people as a reason why they cannot return to the city.

At the state level, politicians in Louisiana see the disaster in New Orleans as a kind of political opportunity. The depopulation of New Orleans means political equilibrium has shifted towards the rural areas of the state. According to press reports, Governor Kathleen Blanco, who is championing the school takeover legislation, has overseen $500 million in budget cuts, cuts which effect essential services — while somehow finding room in the budget to cut taxes on for oil companies.

Karen Carter, of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, told the LA Times that Louisiana has offered tax breaks to oil companies. “They don’t need relief right now,” she said. “To offer them something more when we are making cuts in central services makes absolutely no sense.”

On the local level, school rebuilding efforts have attracted a Who’s Who list of assertive educational ‘reformers’ motivated by a sense of opportunity and ready to launch an ideologically directed mass experiment on working-class children’s education

The education steering committee — which is directing the educational changes in New Orleans — is comprised of 19 people, according to documents which are available on-line. These include representatives from IBM, the Gates foundation, and Alvarez and Marsal — but no members of the New Orleans teachers union. The Catholic Archdiocese is represented, as is Teach for America, representatives of charter schools, and education grad programs — but no teachers, parents, or other school workers.

This goes beyond kicking the schools when they are down, a growing number of parents and teachers are pointing out. The right is salivating over the prospects of its version of “school reform” in New Orleans. Katie Newmark, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, gushes: “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many have blamed the New Orleans government for the city’s poor preparedness — and rightly so. But let’s also give credit where credit is due: the city government is making good decisions about restoring New Orleans public schools.”

According to the plan, some 25,000 of the school district’s anticipated 44,000 students will be part of the ‘Recovery District’ by September of 2006. There is currently no plan or public discussion of who will run these charters, what curriculum they will follow, what conditions will be like for teachers — in other words it is a blind leap into the free market.

Nor is there any evidence to suggest that charters will improve education in New Orleans. According to a US Department of Education study last year (which looked at charters in five states), charter schools were less likely to meet state education goals than public schools. The Education Department data were largely ignored until the American Federation of Teachers brought them to public attention and a major media debate began.

In addition to the outsourcing of schools, Alvarez and Marsal recommend outsourcing “key operational functions including, payroll, food services, transportation, and maintenance.” So New Orleans may become the first major American city without a public school system, a city in which the one hundred plus schools will be kept running by an assortment of sub-contractors answering to charter operators, who in turn are directed by state level right wing political hacks.

As the plan was unfolding in late November, it sounded like a dream scenario for corrupt profit-seeking and ideologically-driven abandonment of public education, while creating a nightmare for children, parents and teachers.

Trust a corporate consultant to sell such a travesty as opportunity: Alvarez and Marsal’s report concludes, “New Orleans will evolve from one public school district pre-Katrina to systems of schools, offering parents and children city-wide choice as to which school they will attend.”

Importantly, the right wing agenda for New Orleans school is not the only vision for the future that exists. The UNTO has produced a document which not only tells the other side, but which puts forward a plan which could revitalize New Orleans schools. It is worth quoting at length:

“As the 60,000 students and their families, and the 8,000 employees and their families — together equaling perhaps one-third or more of the city’s population — sat shocked in shelters and in the homes of relatives, friends, and strangers, Hurricane Katrina swept through and engulfed their city, extinguishing much of what they had known of their lives they were living just days before. For most, all that was familiar – homes, friends, neighborhoods, jobs — vanished or were a long way from recovering. All that was left to sustain them was hope and a determination to return and rebuild their lives…

“…the situation was not hopeless. Large sections of the city – including the West Bank and Uptown – had been spared the ruinous flood waters. Almost immediately, hotels and restaurants began working to restore their businesses. Business owners took out ads seeking news from their employees about their whereabouts and safety, and in many cases, offering reassurance to them that they would not be abandoned.

“For the 68,000 students and employees of New Orleans Public Schools, however, the story was different. Instead of their own sustaining hope being reinforced by their leaders, they were sent a discouraging word: Schools would not reopen for the entire school year. For them, that meant a return to the city would be impossible, regardless of the fate of their homes.

“As dispiriting as it was, the lack of a far-seeing leadership is something New Orleans students and employees had become used to, especially in the last five or six years – a period which just happens to coincide with the tenure of the longest serving school board members, and during which New Orleans Public Schools has experienced its greatest crisis of leadership ever, with at least eight superintendents – permanent, acting, interim, or other – having stood at the helm.

“…Time has come for those most closely and intimately involved in education, those whose lives are most affected by it – the givers and receivers – to say that no longer will we stand around waiting for leaders to rescue us from the metaphorical rooftops where we find ourselves now.

“Today, United Teachers of New Orleans is calling for a renaissance of the public schools of New Orleans. To achieve this, we recommend that the district do the following:

1. Immediately begin the process of reopening schools.

2. Establish a teacher, parent, and administrator committee at each school as it reopens to assess the complete needs of the school and its students.

3. Continue with the academic programs that have brought steady, demonstrable academic progress over the last two years.

4. Implement real reforms known to lead to academic progress, including research-based programs and smaller class sizes.

5. Commit to providing modern facilities for students and maintaining all facilities in optimum condition and appearance.

6. Offer after-school instruction and social support for those who need it and an abundance of extra-curricular activities for all students to be able to choose from.

7. Establish a broad-based, citywide committee to address NOPS’ future.

8. Adopt a code of ethics and demeanor for all elected and appointed leaders.

What’s remarkable is that the people who are most affected by the crisis in the New Orleans schools have the clearest and most effective vision of what will fix their schools. But they are reeling — the people of New Orleans are dispersed around the country and the right wing in on the offensive. The teachers unions, defenders of public education, and opponents of the right will need to take action.