The New Orleans Imperative

Public Money, Private Control: Inside New Orleans’ Charter School Overhaul - Big Easy 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 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.

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.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING The National Reckoning on Race, Inequity, and Class: Will Policymakers Change the Course of New Orleans' Historic Systemic Inequitable Public Education System 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...

Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Raynard Sanders - Network For Public Education WATCH NPE President Diane Ravitch and Raynard Sanders discuss Raynard's book, The Coup D’état of the New Orleans Public Schools.

New Orleans: The Other Side of the Story 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…

https://pv4ps.org/sixteen-years-after-katrina-new-orleans-parents-are-still-demanding-a-voice/

Sixteen Years after Katrina, New Orleans’ Parents Are Still Demanding a Voice - Public Voices For Public Schools I’ve never stopped advocating for the children of this city and I never will. I can’t. I have two kids in this system.

Our Schools Aren't Better Yet! No, It Aint My Fault . . . - The New Orleans Tribune 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...