Normally, I wouldn't link to the left wing, loony CounterPunch. It's not a publication I would read regularly, if at all, except to follow a link. But when they run an article called, "Fighting for the Right to Learn in New Orleans," I was intrigued.
It was written by Bill Quigley who is described as a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.
The pettiness of the Left is particularly ugly to watch or read. Most of the time their righteous indignation is amusing if the topic wasn't so important.
Read the article and form your own opinion. This seems, however, to be the main contention.
Of the public schools operating at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year, educating 57 percent of public school students, were charters.TT - The main complaint? Charter schools are competition for the miserable pre-Katrina school system in New Orleans that mired children and adults in poverty and crippled them with ignorance. That winning combination makes for a compliant constituency with no real ability to judge the worthiness of their candidates. They remain captive constituents when welfare tethers them to the swamps of mediocrity, corruption, and chronic unemployment.
This makes New Orleans the urban district with by far the highest proportion of publicly funded charter schools in the nation. Dayton Ohio has the second highest concentration of charter schools involving 30% of its 17,000 students.
This experiment has resulted in a clearly defined two-tier public school system.
Why else would anyone vote for, let alone, re-elect Ray Nagin except someone who worked for him? With a turnout of 113,591 (final) votes, Nagin got 59,460** and with 32,000 people who work in healthcare and social assistance in New Orleans, it's not only possible but probable, if you count the employees, their families and relatives.
** 66,787 actually voted against him and for some other candidate in the April primary.
Then follow links at this site. HERE HERE HERE
SchoolMatters (from Standard and Poors) Observations on the Orleans Parish School Board. (Note: their data is from school years 1999-2000 to 2004-2005)
