This experiment has gone too far. There is not adequate oversight or quality controls in place. Many New Orleans communities do not know what is going on in charter and RSD schools in our own areas. RSD has been systematically keeping its non-charter schools unstable by continuous personnel and campus changes, “dumping” students, shorting supplies, unethical management and cronyism, fiscal mismanagement, and heavy-handed discipline that expects every New Orleans child to quickly become a college-bound factory model student. Families are left to fend for ourselves with no more neighborhood schools, and an ‘if you don’t like it you can leave’ attitude from the charter boards, far from the accountability the charters are supposed to deliver. Teaching conditions are very difficult with amateur charter boards, no oversight, and no job security whatsoever. It is known in the community that both RSD and charter schools will fire you if you so much as attend a meeting that questions them, or challenge the managers in any way. In the way it has been implemented in New Orleans, the idea of “charter based reform” is meaningless because educators, students, and families have no security in a feedback loop that could create changes in our education system that would meaningfully better our lives.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 16:47:48 +0000