In case you aren’t engaged with what’s been happening in New Orleans public education for the past 19 years, all but two of our public schools are now privatized, which means their operations are contracted (or “chartered”) to private, nonprofit organizations. These 72 schools are run by 37 private operators – some subsidiaries of national charter school groups, some homegrown. Each charter operator has a board of directors.
These boards are not publicly elected. Charter operators have near full autonomy over the way their schools are run. They don’t have to listen to us – they are not directly accountable to voters, parents, students, teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, cooks or the community. Part of the design of this all-charter system is to create distance between democracy and “public” education.
The presidential race, important as it is, is not the only election on the ballot in New Orleans this year. In fact, we are one of the few parishes in the state that holds our school board races the same year as we vote for our president. Because turnout in years like this is historically greater than 60% in Orleans Parish, we have an extraordinary opportunity for engagement on our local races to determine who the members of our school board will be.
I talk to a lot of people who work in education and who care about education. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “So what does a publicly elected school board do in an all charter city?”
Until now, the answer was largely to ensure that all our public schools transitioned to operate as charter schools (which was completed in 2020), to set local education policies where Act 91 of 2016 allows, to oversee charter schools, to act as a landlord to many charter school operators, and to decide what to do when a charter school’s contract expires — which is usually to renew the charter agreement, find a different charter operator or close the school. As of this year it also includes the power to replace some or all of a charter operator’s board of directors.
But something else is different this year. For the first time in many years, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) voted to open a school that it would directly operate: the Leah Chase School. This is a potentially seismic shift to the landscape of education in New Orleans. (The only other public school in the city that is not run by a nonprofit charter board or contractor is the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, which is run by a public board of directors authorized by the Louisiana State Legislature.)
Does this represent the beginning of a shift to once again having a school board that intends to directly run more and more schools? Well, the answer to that question depends entirely on who we, the voters of New Orleans, choose as school board members.
And as if this all weren’t enough, our new governor (who was elected last October, when turnout among Orleans Parish voters was 27%) and legislature wasted no time in passing a flurry of new laws that affect students and school employees in horrible ways:
- Act 326 requires teachers to perpetuate white supremacy.
- Act 676 requires the promotion of Judeo-Christian religion in schools.
- Act 681 forces openly LGBTQIA+ students and teachers back into the closet.
- Act 680 enables bullying of both students and school employees by legalizing deadnaming and misgendering.
- Act 247 promotes nativism and xenophobia by outlawing alternative pathways to graduation that could open doors of opportunities for our students who have just migrated to the United States.
- Act 686 removes requirements that teachers and school employees receive training on trauma-informed education, classroom management, bullying, and suicide prevention.
Before this year’s regular legislative session, the Orleans Parish School Board set the following goal: “By June 2028, at least 90% of student survey respondents will indicate they feel safe and supported at school.” How will the board meet and exceed this goal in the face of the many attacks on belonging that are coming from Baton Rouge, while also keeping educators safe from persecution, prosecution, and potentially devastating lawsuits?
The answer is: it’s up to us. We need the best Orleans Parish School Board members we can get. We need fighters, who will go to Baton Rouge and speak truth to power, who will work to overturn these laws that move us backward, who will enact policies and advocate for laws that move us forward. We need people who will ensure the Leah Chase School is a successful, sustainable community school – and not sabotage it to preserve the all-charter system previous board members shepherded in. We need leaders who will be eager to build on the success of the Leah Chase school and open more direct-run public schools.
To do this, we all need to get educated about the candidates, who’s funding their campaigns, and who will be on our side. And then, most importantly, we need to vote on November 5 like the future of public education in New Orleans depends on it–because it does.
This piece originally appeared in Verite News as "Let's put the public back into public education" on September 19, 2024.