Lucy Spearman

The United States education system is a topic that has been heavily debated, politically charged, and has sparked controversy in the conversations of many Americans since its inception more than two centuries ago. A city centered in this debate is New Orleans. 

Public, private, or charter? For many American families, this is a crucial question that parents must ask when deciding where to enroll their children in school. However, most families do not have the luxury of truly choosing where their child will pursue their education. For instance, private schools are automatically ruled out for many low-income families as they simply cannot afford private tuition. Based on where a family lives, they might be forced to send their child to a low-rated public school simply because of its proximity and because they have no other means of transporting their child to a school that is far away. Other families try to enter their children into charter school lottery systems but often, their children do not get accepted. Parents who have little say whether their child goes to a private, public, or charter school, are those who live in New Orleans. 

This is because schools in New Orleans are 100 percent charter schools, a statistic that makes the city unique compared to any other city in America. New Orleans schools transitioned all into charter schools due to Hurricane Katrina. Every school in New Orleans is a charter school because of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which required that all schools be brought up to a more proficient educational standard. If this standard was not met, then the school would be asked to re-organize or be turned into a charter school. 

A charter school is a school that is publicly funded but privately owned. Some ways that they differ from traditional schools is that charter schools are allowed to pick their own curriculum, textbooks, and are allowed to hire and fire their own staff. Brook Grant, a Professor of Practice in the Teacher Preparation and Certification Program at Tulane University explains the structure of the charter school system and the processes that New Orleans parents must go through when trying to enroll their students into one of these schools. Grant explains that charter schools are all run by individual Charter Management Organizations (CMOs). “You can see that some of the CMOs run multiple schools, and some only one. A process called NCAP (New Orleans Common Application Process) determines what school a child will attend. A parent lists 12 schools they would like their child to attend. And the schools list preferences that they have for students. Based on that, an algorithm determines what school a child will attend,” says Grant in a written statement. 

Both parents and teachers have disputed the fairness of this application. For many families, engaging with the New Orleans Common Application is an extremely laborious task. Even the site itself is difficult to navigate. More concerningly, the application “relies on the user not only having access to technology, but access to internet ability, and English-speaking capabilities” says Annie Richards, a former School Operations Coordinator and current middle school teacher for Dorothy Height Charter School. According to The New Orleans Data Center, 39 percent of New Orleans children live in poverty, which is 17 percent higher than the U.S average. While poverty continues to be an outstanding issue for the city of New Orleans, little support is given to citizens who do not have access to the resources necessary to enroll their children in school. For families from low socioeconomic backgrounds, Richards details how the only solution for these families is to physically visit the New Orleans Public School Office. This forces guardians to take time off work in order to meet the office’s strict hours, further stressing them financially. Richards goes on to explain how the process requires many documents from the families. “With many of the families in New Orleans being immigrants or having suffered major natural disasters, these documents may be missing or destroyed. The process of replacing these documents is quite extensive, but without them, families are not able to complete enrollment,” says Richards. It seems ironic that a system designed to help struggling families after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina fails to aid those who have lost their documents due to other natural disasters. Even when and if these families are able to complete the enrollment process, few spots are left open for students in the more prestigious high-ranking schools forcing parents to enroll their children into struggling and less desired schools. 

Grant also explains reasons why this system disadvantages minority families. Because CMOs and charter boards that run these schools are not elected, they can establish school policy with little public say. Grant notes that the thinking behind this is that “if a parent does not like it, they can go to another school. But changing schools is not as simple as choosing a grocery store.” Most of the issues of the charter school system seem to originate from the fact that charter schools are privately run and thus, set their own policies. According to Grant, this often leads to corruption. For example, one policy that Grant explains charter schools can enact, is that they can choose not to provide buses for students. “This disadvantages families that can’t get to the school on their own. There are students who spend hours a day on public buses getting to and from school,” says Grant. Another issue with privately run charter schools is that the schools do not have to hire certified teachers. This often leads to a high teacher turnover rate. In addition, with the teacher shortage that is rampant across America, Grant explains how “schools tend to hire more uncertified teachers or loosen the regulations to become a teacher. This lowers standards for everyone.” These policies are not in the best interest of the students that they are supposed to serve but instead, are in the interests of the schools themselves. For Grant, she believes that many of the schools are run like a business and are a result of disaster capitalism. She states “The children of New Orleans are spectacular and deserve spectacular schools. I think that the NCAP and the whole charter process should be changed, as currently families do not have a say in their school system.”

An inside perspective of New Orleans charter schools comes from teachers like Mary Hingle, an elementary school teacher of Visual Arts for The Willow School New Orleans and Annie Richards. Hingle explains how the results of the teacher shortage have personally affected her and exacerbated the issues within the New Orleans charter school system. She details that she knows two of her colleagues who have left the school and explains how she has weekly conversations with her colleagues about “being burnt out”. “Though rewarding, I personally find teaching to be incredibly draining. I think that coupled with low wages and lack of raises to compensate for the increased cost of living deters a lot of people from remaining in the profession,” says Hingle in a written statement. Richards attributes teacher burnout to high rates of violence occurring around New Orleans youth and their experiences of traumatic events. “As teachers, we are assumed to not only take on the role of a teacher, but also a therapist… the demands in and out of the classroom are becoming unmanageable” says Richards. Similar to how little support is given to low-income guardians, charter schools also neglect not only teacher’s salaries, but also, the emotional burdens that come along with their profession. Teachers like Richards are “expected to follow rigorous pacing guides to meet state standards all while trying to navigate through secondary trauma.”

Hingle agrees with Grant that the charter school system in New Orleans is devoid of “much of the school choice that it purports” and feels as though it is “not an equitable system”. She also wonders how many choices there are for families with children who have disabilities and “what the percentage of charter schools are that are truly open enrollment” as opposed to The Willow School New Orleans which has testing/admissions requirements. 

In conclusion, the charter school system in New Orleans serves as a unique marker for understanding American education as a whole. A perspective missing from this piece comes from students who are enrolled in these charter schools. It remains uncertain what other forms of corruption go on within these charter schools. With little support given to teachers and parents, what type of aid is given to students: especially those who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds? Although the charter school system in New Orleans suggests that it grants families more freedom and choice, it seems to do quite the opposite. Its structure disadvantages minority families and has begun to exhaust educators. For schools that are publicly funded but privately owned, whose responsibility is it to make sure that educators, parents, and students are provided for and presented with an equitable school system?