ERIC ED490922: The Future of Public Education in New Orleans. After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the "New" New Orleans

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by  ERIC

After Katrina Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity
into the New New Orleans
THE URBAN INSTITUTE January 2006

The Future of Public Education in New Orleans
Paul Hill and Jane Hannaway
W
e see an opportunity to do something yet to resume the teacher salary payments it
incredible.” These were the words of was forced to suspend. To date, only a few
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco as she dozen teachers have returned to the city. The
signed legislation in late November allowing superintendent and top administrators have
the state of Louisiana to take over most of returned, as have school board members.
New Orleans’ schools. And she just may be Thus, New Orleans is like a rotten borough in
right. Education could be one of the bright England: nobody lives there, but there are still
spots in New Orleans’ recovery effort, which some pickings for the political class to work
may even establish a new model for school over.
districts nationally. This is not to say that the The New Orleans parochial school system,
current education situation in New Orleans is which educated 40 percent of New Orleans’
not dire; nor should it suggest that the district students, was also devastated. Although
has a history as a lighthouse of excellence. Catholic schools have reopened in some of the
Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of New highest and driest neighborhoods and some
Orleans’ public education system. In the damaged schools elsewhere are reopening, it is
central city’s Orleans Parish schools, fewer not clear whether or when all the flooded
than 20 of approximately 120 school buildings schools will open. But because the archdiocese
remained usable. The storm also largely includes all the parishes in New Orleans, not
destroyed the state and local tax bases from just Orleans Parish, many of the students in
which the school district draws its revenues. the hardest-hit schools were reassigned to
All students, teachers, and administrators were other schools outside the central city. The
forced to evacuate, and the school district has New Orleans archdiocese also set up satellite
Long before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina or the chaos of evacuation, New Orleans’ social
infrastructure was failing. News coverage of the overcrowded Superdome and the city’s flooded streets
exposed the poverty and vulnerability of many residents, especially African Americans. As New Orleans
begins to rebuild, can the city avoid the mistakes of the past, instead creating more effective social support
for low-income and minority residents? Innovation and experience from other U.S. cities offer promising
strategies for reducing the risks of poverty and opening up opportunities for economic security and success.
This essay is from an Urban Institute collection that addresses employment, affordable housing, public
schools, young children’s needs, health care, arts and culture, and vulnerable populations. All these essays
assess the challenges facing New Orleans today and for years to come and recommend tested models for
making the city’s social infrastructure stronger and more equitable than it was before Katrina.
2100 M Street, NW • Washington, DC 20037 • [phone] • http://www.urban.org
schools in other cities to serve its displaced their families behind at least temporarily.
students. Overall, 79 percent of Catholic Moreover, some adults might choose to work
school students have returned to class. in New Orleans during the rebuilding boom
Catholic schools, including schools in Baton without intending to stay.
Rouge, have been instructed to take in as At some point, the availability of public
many displaced public school students as schools will determine whether families locate
possible, with or without support. in New Orleans. But in the first three years or
If large numbers of school-age children so after the hurricane, K–12 education in New
were to return to New Orleans this year, the Orleans will be a trailing phenomenon,
state and city probably could not afford to dependent on how fast the economy and
provide schools for them. However, few are housing are rebuilt. The public school
likely to return quickly. Most city children population might also be much smaller and
now attend schools elsewhere, and no one differently composed in the future if, for
knows whether parents will want to uproot example, a building boom attracts large
them yet again. Certainly, families will be numbers of Latino workers and families. In
reluctant to expose children to molds, toxic short, the location, size, and instructional
dust, bad sanitation, and the other health orientation of schools will depend on
hazards menacing most flooded developments in the economy and housing.
neighborhoods. The relatively few parents The time is ripe to consider transforming the
who return to the city to take jobs and to school district in ways appropriate for the
restore houses are likely to leave their children demands it faces. Unfortunately, the district’s
in safer places. The city’s poorest former history provides few guideposts.
residents, many of whom have found housing
and income support elsewhere, probably will A System with Shaky Underpinnings
not return until their current arrangements
New Orleans Parish’s public school system
expire. Even then, given the uncertain status of
was arguably one of the worst in the country
public services and welfare payments, the poor
before Hurricane Katrina. In the 2004–2005
can be expected to weigh the risks and
school year, only 44 percent of fourth graders
rewards of returning to New Orleans very
proved proficient in reading and only 26
carefully. percent in math.1 Eighth graders performed
Teachers are unlikely to return in large
even worse. Twenty-six percent were
numbers until jobs are available, and many proficient in reading and 15 percent in math.2
who have found posts elsewhere will never
Nearly three-quarters (73.5 percent) of the
come back. Most of New Orleans’ legal and
schools in the district had received an
financial communities have relocated to Baton
academic warning or were rated “academically
Rouge, and though most of these sectors’
unacceptable” in the 2003–2004 school year
workers will be eager to return to New
by the state. Thirty-five percent of the schools
Orleans, they and the many jobs they generate
did not make adequate yearly progress in
are not likely to return in large numbers until
2005, according to the No Child Left Behind
the electronic, transportation, public health,
Act.
and public safety infrastructures are in full
The school district, facing a $25 to $30
operation. The numbers of utility workers and
million deficit for 2005–2006, was famously
people working at hotels and the seaport will
mismanaged and corrupt (e.g., phantom
grow, but news reports confirm the logical
employees). New York–based rescue firm
expectation that many wage earners will leave
2 After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans
Alvarez and Marshal, hired to reconstruct city, and how much money will be available to
financial and human resource systems and to serve them? Without knowing, why should the
control hiring, firing, and business functions in city commit to a fixed group of teachers and
the central office, was just getting started administrators, or to rebuilding a central office
before Katrina hit. to maintain a system built for a profoundly
Everyone recognized the sorry state of the different situation?
Orleans Parish schools and the need for drastic It is difficult to imagine the former
remedies. The state board of education had Orleans Parish public school system emerging
already seized control of five schools, again anytime soon or, possibly, at all. For the
reopening them as charters, and had expected foreseeable future, the city will need to
to take over many more within two years. The operate amid uncertainty about how many
state declared the district in academic crisis in students it needs to educate and how they will
2004. In the spring of 2005 Mayor Ray Nagin, be distributed across the city. The size,
working with business leaders, proposed that location, and composition of the student
the city take over 20 of the lowest-performing population is likely to shift from year to year,
schools in the district from the local school as neighborhoods are rebuilt and different
board and operate them as charter schools.3 parts of the local economy revive. At most
In short, the Orleans Parish school district 10,000 students are expected to enroll in the
had plenty of trouble well before anyone had district this year, compared with over 65,000
heard the name Katrina. last year. Housing and employment patterns
Like all urban school districts, New that emerge in the first years as the city is
Orleans’ school district was not built to handle being rebuilt are likely to change and with
the kinds of uncertainties created by the them the composition of the school
storm’s wrath. The existing system was based population. Right now, all is uncertain.
on certain assumptions—a student population For the remainder of the 2005–2006
of a predictable size and neighborhood school year, the number of children returning
distribution, and nearly stable funding for each is unlikely to exceed the capacity of open
student. Thus, there was some reason for the schools. These include two district-run public
district to own school buildings and commit to schools, five charter schools in the Algiers
lifetime employment contracts with teachers section of the city, and up to ten parochial
and administrators. (More questionable is schools—all located in the least-ravaged parts
whether these arrangements were ever of the city. Tulane University has also opened
efficient.) It also made sense for the district to a new K–12 charter school in January 2006 in
centralize hiring, service provision, federal an existing public school building for children
and state grant administration, and other of Tulane staff and other New Orleans
routine and predictable functions, even if it did residents, and another nine charter schools
not perform them well. across the parish are slated to accept students
However justifiable once, these before the academic year ends. By next
arrangements no longer make sense for New September, many more children might have
Orleans. Most of the buildings are gone and so returned, and at some point in the city’s
are many of the neighborhoods. There is grave redevelopment the numbers of school-age
uncertainty about students: How many will children might grow very rapidly. How will
there be? With what social and economic New Orleans prepare for all the eventualities?
characteristics and with what academic needs?
How will students be distributed across the
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans 3
Demography Will Be Destiny professionals and empty nesters, and
housing costs will be high.
The size and composition of the school-age
population may grow in fits and starts, and • New Orleans will be resettled with the
might not stabilize for years. We can envision same or very similar residents as before
at least three different scenarios, each moving Katrina, and the school-age population
from the short term (the present to September will reflect it. The school population will
2008) to the long term: grow gradually. While it may never reach
• New Orleans will go through two quite the pre-hurricane enrollment, it will look
different development cycles: The first— as it did in the 2004–2005 school year—
rebuilding—will attract many transient over 95 percent minority, primarily black,
workers and their families, most of whom and poor, with more than 75 percent of all
will live in temporary housing and leave students receiving free or reduced-price
for construction jobs elsewhere when the lunches.
housing stock and businesses are rebuilt.
Under all these scenarios, the demand for
These families will not resemble the
public education will be much smaller in the
former residents. In the second cycle—
next few years and then grow. In all but the
resettlement—families will move
third scenario, student populations and their
permanently to New Orleans. Many of
locations will change dramatically over time,
those returning may resemble families that
but at an unpredictable pace.
lived in New Orleans before the hurricane,
To provide instruction for students who
but the size and composition of the
turn up, the city will need to attract high-
permanent population is largely uncertain.
quality school leaders and teachers and to
All that is certain in this scenario is that
manage schools and instructional programs
the long-term situation will differ from the
adaptable to changes in student numbers,
short-term situation.
characteristics, and locations. What can the
• New Orleans will be resettled, but the city of New Orleans (and the state of
school system will be smaller and the Louisiana, the federal government, and
student population will be more evenly national philanthropies) do to ensure the
balanced socioeconomically and racially following?
than before Katrina. Many of the poorest • Children who turn up in New Orleans can
blacks with little reason to come back will attend school as soon as they arrive.
not return, and a Latino population
• The mix of schools and instructional
brought by the construction boom will
programs available will match the needs
take root in the general metropolitan area.
of the changing student population.
(In southeastern Florida, the Latino
population reportedly increased by 50 • Schools and teachers hired will be
percent after Hurricane Andrew.) The city excellent despite the potential hardships
will become a financial and entertainment and uncertainties they can expect.
center with little industrial base, attracting • The district will not invest in buildings in
both white-collar and service jobs.
the wrong places, or commit itself to
Central-city New Orleans will become
instructional programs and people whose
largely an adult city, like San Francisco,
skills might not be needed later.
populated mainly by single urban
4 After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans
Coping with Uncertainty While to house schools; attracting quality school
Providing Quality leaders and teachers; making sure families
know how to find schools; placing children in
The legislation proposed by Governor Blanco
schools not too far from home or their parents’
in November allows the state to take over any
work; linking children with schools that can
New Orleans school that falls below the
meet their needs (especially children who have
statewide average on test scores and place it
missed a year of instruction or do not speak
into the state’s Recovery School District.
English); and rapidly adapting the number,
Under this low standard, management of 102
location, and instructional specialties of
of the 115 Orleans Parish schools operating
schools as the school population changes size
before Katrina would be transferred to the
and location.
state. The governor sees it as an effort to grasp
No large city has had to deal with such
what she called a “golden opportunity for
fundamental issues before, a task made more
rebirth.”
challenging by the districts limited capacity.
In the short run, state officials could run a
While New York City enrolls over 50,000 new
few schools directly, but the state lacks the
students in some years, thanks to domestic
manpower and expertise to run a large number
migration and international immigration, this
of schools. State leaders have no choice but to
number represents less than 5 percent of the
work through third parties, and if they have
city’s school population and the city’s mixture
already decided not to organize the new school
of schools is rich and adaptable. Dade County
district in the mold of the old ones, chartering
schools have adapted to several large influxes
or contracting are the only options.
of Cuban and Central American students, but
The Bring New Orleans Back
the district was well organized and had
Commission has also developed a plan for
amassed experience with previous waves of
New Orleans schools called the Educational
immigration—it had a good idea of what new
Network Model. In this model, multiple
children would need and how they would
providers would also operate individual
progress year by year.
schools that would band into networks based
Louisiana’s and New Orleans’ response to
on some similarity such as provider,
the challenge must be aimed at two key
neighborhood, or school mission. Network
objectives: adaptability and quality. The many
managers would monitor schools and facilitate
unknowns discussed here make it obvious why
the exchange of best practices. The district
adaptability is important. The importance of
office would be kept lean and focus on overall
quality is also clear: any student who moves to
strategic issues, not school management. It
or back to New Orleans as families seek
would also oversee services districtwide where
economic opportunities could be at risk of
there are true advantages to scale and
academic difficulties. Such children need
integration, such as student information
more than ordinary schooling. In addition,
management systems and accounting.
reemerging or new businesses will be able to
The real challenge for New Orleans will
attract high-caliber workers only if the schools
come in September 2006, when the number of
their children can attend are good.
students needing schools is likely to be much
Aside from the few groups operating the
larger. Before then, someone must solve a lot
handful of public and private schools now
of problems—finding competent groups to run
open, New Orleans has no reservoir of
schools (whether within the district system, as
organizations capable of starting a high-
charters, or as contractors); finding buildings
quality school. It must attract school providers
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans 5
from other parts of Louisiana and the rest of Conversely, New Orleans cannot afford to be
the country. One pool of leaders for new a magnet for weak school providers, teachers,
schools might be displaced principals and and principals who have failed elsewhere.
teachers from the city’s former public and How can these imperatives and constraints
parochial schools. Another might be university be reconciled? We make a number of linked
educators temporarily displaced from their suggestions.
jobs at local universities—Tulane, Dillard,
1. Attract quality school providers and
Xavier, the University of New Orleans, and
screen out poor ones.
Louisiana State. To attract school providers
with national reputations and track records for • Appeal directly to Aspire, KIPP, and other
developing functioning schools quickly, the national charter and contract school
city might turn to the likes of KIPP, Edison, providers. Offer them access to publicly
Aspire, and National Heritage Academies.4 rented space and significant freedom in
(How New Orleans can both attract potential spending and teacher hiring. Promise them
school providers and screen them for quality is the opportunity to create multiple schools
discussed below.) in New Orleans if the first school they
New schools will need exceptionally good offer attracts students and can demonstrate
principals and teachers and unfortunately, effectiveness.
New Orleans’ instability and financial
• Appeal to university faculty throughout
problems will make it difficult to recruit and
the South and to public and private school
keep the best educators. Moreover, the
principals and assistant principals
incentives many school districts use to attract
formerly based in New Orleans to
and keep proven teachers—life tenure,
consider taking charters or contracts for
generous government pensions, guaranteed
new schools. Offer four months’ salary to
assignment to a school they like, control over
develop a specific school proposal.
work assignments, strict limits on working
hours, and small classes—might be • Create a screening mechanism for new
counterproductive in New Orleans. The city school proposals. Work with the National
need not make life commitments to people Association of Charter School Authorizers
whose skills it might not need in the future, and the New Schools Venture Fund to
and it cannot guarantee educators their choice establish proposal review criteria that
of places of work, the nature of work consider the quality of instructional and
assignments, or class sizes over the long term. financial plans. Ask public and private
New Orleans might need, for example, to run school and system administrators from
some very large classes until the numbers of localities with high-performing schools
students and teachers can be matched in (e.g., Clayton, Missouri; Bellevue,
particular places, and some schools may have Washington; Evanston, Illinois) to read
to run on odd schedules to accommodate and review proposals for a fixed stipend
parents’ work and commuting times. (e.g., $100 per proposal). Reject the
In general, New Orleans needs to attract lowest-rated third of all proposals, request
quality school providers, teachers, and revisions on the middle third, and enter
principals who value diverse work into contracts with the top third.
assignments and who will at least consider • Issue a new request for proposals every
teaching in one school for a while and then
three months until the supply of schools
moving to another school (or even city).
6 After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans
has caught up with the need or no new 3. Screen individual applicants carefully.
proposals are forthcoming. • Establish an applicant-screening center
• Guarantee individuals who write winning that reviews paperwork, checks
proposals a minimum of 2 years’ salary. If references, and interviews applicants.
their school is forced to close for any • Require every applicant to take at least a
reason other than their own misconduct,
verbal ability test, similar to the SAT. Ask
make them first in line when the
applicants to provide evidence of teaching
opportunity to open or work in another
effectiveness, including (wherever
school emerges.
possible) achievement gains in classes
they have taught.
2. Attract a large, talented pool of
• Usher all candidates after an initial
applicants for jobs as teachers and
applications screening through a rigorous,
principals.
multifaceted selection process (perhaps
Though charter schools will do their own
with the help of Teach for America and
hiring, they will need help attracting good
the New Teacher Project) that attempts to
teachers and administrators to New Orleans in
identify perseverance, flexibility,
the first place. To attract a strong professional
leadership, and other difficult-to-measure
labor pool, the same agencies that charter
attributes that contribute to success in
schools can try the following:
challenging teaching situations. This
• Offer high salaries for teachers and
process could be waived for National
provide portable pensions with immediate
Board Certified teachers.
vesting, including generous health and life
insurance without preexisting condition • Do not permit hiring of substandard
exclusions. applicants, even if it means temporarily
operating schools with larger class sizes
• Recruit teachers nationally with messages
than intended.
stressing service, adventure, selectivity,
and opportunity for high pay. • Allow teachers who have worked together
successfully to apply as teams.
• Provide teachers and principals free or
subsidized housing until privately owned • Use an intensive summer-school program
rentals become readily available. to provide extra stipends for teachers and
give students a head start in school, and to
• Provide opportunities for talented
further screen potential teachers by
educators to bring new ideas and to have a
observing performance.
say in running the schools, by being open
to new ways of teaching and organizing
4. Define rigorous hiring terms for teachers
instruction.
and principals.
• Negotiate with higher-performing districts
• Make the hiring of fully screened
elsewhere to allow their teachers to work
applicants contingent on a school or
in New Orleans for one to three years
school provider’s decision to hire them.
without losing any seniority when they
return home. • Allow schools to offer contingent tenure
to the best teachers, assuring them a job at
the school as long as it stays open.
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans 7
• Avoid creating any tenure commitments 6. Make the system adaptable to changes in
outside individual schools; allow other students’ location, demography, or needs.
schools to consider hiring displaced • Avoid investing prematurely in school
educators, but do not pressure them or
facilities; at least wait until neighborhoods
offer incentives.
and student population needs are well
• Welcome back teachers who worked in established.
the city’s public and parochial schools, but • Rent classroom space in mixed-use
offer them a new employment deal: they
buildings whenever possible.
will work for individual schools and their
• Allow students to establish school-
work assignments will shift from time to
attendance eligibility in Orleans Parish
time with trends in the school population
schools through either residence or
and school providers’ needs. They will
parents’ employment in the parish, thereby
also have to go through the same rigorous
both reducing student mobility as families
selection process as other teachers.
settle and promoting a heterogeneous
student population.
5. Make it possible for individual schools to
hire teachers and provide attractive Taken together, these arrangements might not
salaries, benefits, and working conditions. prove to be enough. But at least they are steps
• Put virtually all public education money in the right direction—toward attracting
substantial numbers of school providers and
into the schools on a per pupil basis, with
educators to run and staff new schools for the
all state, federal, and local funding
city’s children. To make these arrangements
(including facilities and maintenance
possible, federal, state, and local governments
accounts) combined and transferred to the
must act in unaccustomed ways and
school a child attends.
philanthropies must provide new forms of aid.
• Let schools buy the goods and services
they need on the national market. Resist Financial and Institutional
developing a central office that would tax Arrangements
schools for services, and allow schools to
An adaptable, high-quality set of schools in
develop their own buying co-ops.
New Orleans requires the following:
• Allow schools the flexibility to enhance Money to make one-time investments in
teachers’ salaries, to develop innovative new school start-ups. Although most public
staffing plans (including instructional school systems spend little or nothing on
coaches, team leaders, aides, etc.), and to finding and screening new educators and
adjust class sizes and establish other school providers, those functions are
instructional conditions, such as use of indispensable in New Orleans and they must
technology, that best meet their needs. be funded.
• Allow schools to give their employees One possible funding source is the
foundations—among them the Bill and
already-established benefit packages,
Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family
perhaps with an additional 401(k)-style
Foundation, and the Broad Foundation—that
pension benefit.
have rushed to the city eager to help rebuild
public education. These foundations are
comfortable with the idea of charter and
8 After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans
contract schools and have already invested situation is more difficult to predict and
substantially in school providers and such depends on the broader economic recovery
quality-control organizations as the National and the emergence of a new tax base. At a
Association of Charter School Authorizers. minimum, the state and federal governments
Foundations could pay stipends for individuals should continue to provide the per capita share
preparing to open new schools and fund some of costs they have in the past (covering about
of their own current grantees (e.g., the two-thirds of the total revenue), including
National Association of Charter School amounts appropriated for capital expenditures.
Authorizers and the New Schools Venture The federal government should combine all its
Fund) to screen potential school providers and categorical aid programs into one lump sum to
others (e.g., Teach for America, the New afford local flexibility; it could also replace
Teacher Project) to help screen potential the lost local taxes (which paid about $1,200
teachers and administrators. Foundations per pupil) with special aid, perhaps an
could also sponsor a national conference for extension of the Impact Aid, to cover any
possible providers on opportunities to start returning public and parochial students. This
schools in New Orleans. federal support would continue until local
In addition, the federal government has sales and property tax revenues grew to some
provided $20 million to states to help charter per pupil share, maybe 50 percent, of pre-
schools serve students affected by the hurricane levels.
hurricane. Funds can be used for school start- State and federal funding for enhanced
up and expansion, among other purposes. The teacher salaries. Starting with a 50-percent
federal government has also provided another premium, this would attract enough applicants
$100 million to Louisiana for help with so that a top-flight cadre of teachers could be
restarting school operations in areas identified identified and schools could have some choice
as disaster areas as a result of Katrina and about whom they employ.
Rita. With respect to compensation Louisiana
A scholarship plan under which all New schools now rank 46th, with an average
Orleans students, no matter where each went teacher salary of $37,123, according to the
to school previously, can take a set amount of 2004 American Federation of Teachers survey
money to any local school. This amount of salaries. The average teacher salary in the
(including funds for facilities rental) could country is $46,597, nearly $10,000 more. And
come from a combination of state and federal while the average Mississippi salary is similar
aid. Far more than a voucher plan, the idea is (ranked 47th, with $36,217), the Texas
to prompt the private sector to open more average is $40,476. A 50-percent premium
schools and thus promote school quality, as would bring New Orleans salaries in line with
discussed below. The federal government has those in Connecticut—the top-paying state
made $645 million available from the with an average salary of $56,516—and
Emergency Impact Aid program for the probably attract enough good applicants to
current school year for displaced students, staff the New Orleans schools. The premium
even students attending private schools. This would help compensate teachers for difficult
amounts to over $5,000 per student in federal living conditions and the lack of job security.
money alone and presumably would be Louisiana also pays National Board Certified
available to returning New Orleans students. teachers $5,000 extra annually, so this
A state-federal partnership to fund the additional incentive could help attract these
scholarships. In the longer term, the funding select teachers to New Orleans. Additionally,
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans 9
teachers could be offered a two-year guarantee operations plans from a wide variety of
of employment. potential providers. It is critical that this body
The increased salary cost could be covered commence work as soon as possible to make
partly by a reallocation of the school district’s judicious decisions about school providers and
funds. Classroom instruction (including adult, ensure that New Orleans is ready for a
special, and vocational education) historically possibly large influx of new students in
represented only about 55 percent of the September 2006. The firm of Alvarez and
district’s expenditures, and total instruction, Marshall should be retained to manage the
which included pupil support programs routine financial and human resources
(guidance counselors, librarians, etc.) and management and information systems, so as
instructional staff services (professional not to distract the authorizing agency from its
development and curriculum staff), important educational work.
represented only a little over 60 percent of the Initially, at least in elementary schools,
budget. The model we have proposed should reading and math triage schools would receive
result in significant savings in other high priority. The authorizer would also
expenditure categories, allowing a larger share administer state tests to all students at all
to be devoted to school-level instructional schools and publish the results. Focused on
effort. If a rough approximation of at least such basics, schools would not be required to
regular classroom instruction assumes 10,000 cover other aspects of the state curriculum for
students, an average class size of 25, and an two years. Schools would be required to admit
average salary of $60,000, the per student cost students by lottery but could set standards for
for classroom teachers would be $2,400 per student attendance and deportment. The
student. With a benefit package of, say, 40 authorizing agency would encourage
percent, the total classroom-level instructional developing specialized schools for students
expenditure would be $3,360 per student. who need special interventions.
Certainly there would be other costs, but The local school-authorizing agency
the point here is that if classroom instruction would also audit schools’ books and withdraw
had first draw on resources, the amounts school licenses for fiscal and academic
necessary to fund a high-caliber instructional nonperformance. The agency would
staff are well within the realm of possibility. continually control quality by routinely
The state could simply follow its current reviewing both academic and financial
funding formula, but the federal government performance. The agency’s head would serve
would have to extend aid until the local tax a five-year term and could be removed only by
base grew sufficiently, as we suggested unanimous agreement among the governor,
earlier. mayor of New Orleans, chair of the state
A new local school-authorizing agency school board, and maybe the archbishop of
should be created; it alone would be New Orleans.
authorized to permit a group to run a school A facilities authority capitalized by the
with public funds. This agency, headed by a federal government with about $150 million
state-appointed superintendent and staffed by to lease space in commercial buildings that
5 to 10 other administrators, would be meet codes and enter contracts with
supported by state appropriations (at 1 to 3 developers who are building or rehabbing
percent of the combined operating budgets of mixed-use buildings. This authority would
all functioning New Orleans schools) to accept sublease to schools, which would pay rent
applications detailing educational and from their per pupil stipends.
10 After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans