The New Orleans Imperative

The New Orleans Imperative The New Orleans Imperative, which began broadcasting in March 2009, focuses on public education in New Orleans. It airs every Monday at 10:00 AM CST

The show presents to the citizenry of New Orleans the critical issues related to the most important community function: a quality public education system. Post Hurricane Katrina the public school district landscape changed drastically as state officials began an experiment that took control of most of the public schools to create the first all charter public school district; with that New Orleans has the largest percentage of charter schools than any city in the country. This experiment has been lauded by state education officials and the main stream local media as a success with unprecedented student achievement. However just a cursory examination of the data reveals a much different reality, the schools taken over by the state in this experiment perform worst academically than any school district in the state of Louisiana. While the original intent of charter schools were to be inclusive entities that served all children, many charter schools in New Orleans are exclusive entities that selects students by class and race in a market driven system that ignores the fundamental value of public education; collective responsibility.

07/03/2025

New Orleans became a national model for charter reform after Katrina. Two decades later, who really benefited—and who was left behind?

The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public Schools explores and criticizes the contemporary educational reforms of the Ne...
06/13/2024

The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public Schools explores and criticizes the contemporary educational reforms of the New Orleans public school system. The New Orleans education reforms implemented after Hurricane Katrina, using the cor- porate model approach, have been an academic failure with charter operators making millions of dollars while reestablishing a segregated school system based on race and class-all in the name of school reform.

06/06/2024
Charter schools once promised a path towards educational equity, but as the authors of this powerful volume show, market...
06/04/2024

Charter schools once promised a path towards educational equity, but as the authors of this powerful volume show, market-driven education reforms have instead boldly reestablished a tiered public school system that segregates students by race and class. Examining the rise of charters in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York, authors Raynard Sanders, David Stovall, and Terrenda White show how charters—private institutions, usually set in poor or working-class African American and Latinx communities—promote competition instead of collaboration and are driven chiefly by financial interests. Sanders, Stovall, and White also reveal how corporate charters position themselves as “public” to secure tax money but exploit their private status to hide data about enrollment and salaries, using misleading information to promote false narratives of student success.

11/05/2022

by Dr. Raynard Sanders On May 25, 2020, America witnessed the horrific murder of George Floyd under the knee by a Minneapolis Police Officer. While this kind of police brutality and murder of Black men occurs periodically, Floyd’s murder galvanized millions of Americans and citizens around the wor...

11/05/2022

WATCH NPE President Diane Ravitch and Raynard Sanders discuss Raynard's book, The Coup D’état of the New Orleans Public Schools.

11/05/2022

I recently interviewed Raynard Sanders, a veteran educator in New Orleans, about his new book The Coup D’etat of the New Orleans Public Schools: Money, Power, and the Illegal of a Public Scho…

09/16/2021

By Dr. Raynard Sanders Some years ago, Rebirth Brass Band recorded “No it Ain’t My Fault”. It went on to become standard for New Orleans Brass Bands. That song comes to mind when reading Patrick Dobard’s, former New Orleans Recovery School District Superintendent, op-ed in The Advocate on Au...

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