Praising New Orleans’ charter schools, policy expert calls district-run school a ‘mistake’

By Marie Fazio

Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com

October 11, 2024

A prominent public policy expert argued during in an event in New Orleans Thursday that the city’s decentralized system of public charter schools is a vast improvement over traditional school districts.

David Osborne, an author and consultant who has focused on public government and education reform, celebrated the city’s nearly all-charter school system during the keynote address at an annual luncheon hosted by the Bureau of Governmental Research, a New Orleans-based nonprofit. He argued that the system, established after the state took control of New Orleans’ schools following Hurricane Katrina, is more nimble and accountable to the public than the old school district.

Instead of a traditional school system hobbled by bureaucratic red tape and few incentives for good performance, the system of independently operated charter schools gives parents freedom to choose where to send their children and frees the superintendent to tackle the bigger picture, he said. 

Notably, Osborne said that it was “a mistake” for NOLA Public Schools to re-open a failed charter as a traditional public school — the city’s first permanent district-run school in nearly two decades. He argued that the district should focus its efforts on overseeing charter schools, and questioned whether the district would hold its own school to the same standards as charter schools.

“The answer in our experience in this country is absolutely not,” he said. “Politically it’s just much tougher to close a school for your employees than it is to close or replace an independent charter.”

This month, the NOLA Public Schools Superintendent is expected to present the Orleans Parish School Board with a plan for how the district would feasibly take on more schools. A spokesperson for NOLA Public Schools who attended the event on Thursday declined to comment.

Osborne, who has authored several books including one on the New Orleans school reforms, was a longtime fellow of Reinventing America’s Schools, a project of the Progressive Policy Institute that promotes charter schools. He now chairs the advisory board for that project and also recently produced a documentary about the New Orleans school system that will be released next year.

Osborne framed New Orleans’ charter system as largely an improvement from the district before the 2005 hurricane, when the Orleans Parish School Board was “broke” and looking for a $50 million loan just to meet payroll. He cited higher graduation rates, fewer failing schools and more students enrolling in college.

NOLA Public Schools’ superintendent is freed from typical district duties of dealing with crises from buses to student fights and roof leaks and is left to focus on “steering the district,” Osborne said. He argued that charter schools face consequences for poor performance, noting that nearly 40 schools have closed in New Orleans since Katrina. Since parents are not limited to sending their children to neighborhood schools, parents can switch schools and bring state funding with them.

“The parents can literally shrink a school, get it to the point where it has to close or is closed,” he said. “They have that power.”

When asked about the district rebuilding its capacity to operate schools — and whether it could take over closing charter schools — Osborne said that another charter organization, even one from outside the city, could step in and do the same. He expressed concern that New Orleans’ superintendent could become bogged down with duties of running a school. 

“One school may not be a problem, but will they stop at one?” he asked. “Will they go to two or three or four?”

Though test scores have improved, parents often express frustration with New Orleans’ charter system, including the process for enrolling at schools. Others complain that the city’s elected school board has little control over individual schools’ curriculums and budgets.

Several candidates running for Orleans Parish School Board say the district should take over more failing schools.

“Instead of inviting new charters to come, we’re directing the superintendent to bring back district-run schools,” board member Donaldo Batiste, who is seeking re-election, said at a recent candidate forum.

During Thursday’s speech, Osborne said that the same massive change seen in the school system could be replicated in city government.

He said the “single most important thing” would be to elect a mayor who “understands what it takes and has the courage to get it done.”

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