“Free Mr. Clark! Free Mr. Clark!” Blackboard Wars was
originally cast as a show that would display a Lean on Me-like turnaround for a dangerous, failing academic
institution in New Orleans, Louisiana. That it wasn’t, however! A cultural icon
never emerged. John McDonogh Senior High School, the charter high school
operated by the Future Is Now, which gained fame as the focus of Oprah
Winfrey’s Blackboard Wars, is closing. The news story (found here)
reported several reasons for the school’s closure. Most of all, the story
emphasizes the academic woes of the school. Apparently, the school turned in a
dismal school performance score, a score that placed the school’s performance
as the worst in the state of Louisiana – even lower than the scores of
alternative schools.
Charter
schools arrived in New Orleans in a different package than they arrived in some
other cities. Charter schools were hardly about community engagement in the New
Orleans area although some charter schools have made efforts at engaging the
community. In fact, it appears that charters are only granted for schools in
the New Orleans area when those charters are supported by large-scale charter
management organizations (seemingly the opposite of local community control).
Charter schools in New Orleans, the now epicenter of the charter movement, are
about school accountability. Traditional public schools were routinely closed
to make room for charter schools that would ultimately turn in better academic
performance than the traditional public schools.
There is
something hypocritical about the accountability movement, which is disguised in
the charter school movement. While traditional public schools in New Orleans
are shuttered for a lack of performance, charter schools are hardly shuttered
for similar reasons. In a recent conversation with a Louisiana Department of
Education worker, the worker attempted to assert that many New Orleans area
charter schools had been closed for failure to meet the academic promises of
the schools’ charters. This assertion is little more than a fib. Of all the
charter schools that have been shuttered in the New Orleans area, I can’t
remember one charter school that was closed solely because of academic performance. Most, if not all, closed
charter schools have been closed due to financial woes. The Future Is
Now-operated charter school at John McDonogh is yet another example of an
academically failing charter school that is closing because of financial woes
more than academic failures. It is notable that the school ran financial
deficits of more than a million dollars for two years straight, which is
probably the state’s reason for closure more than the school’s academic
problems.
The truth
of the matter is something had to happen in New Orleans Public Schools. As a
graduate of the fledgling school district, I was aware that people were
laughing at the school district and not with the school district. Although I
don’t agree with the extreme accountability – based nearly completely on test
scores – I understand the desperation of parents in New Orleans. Schools had to
become accountable for failing generations of students. My problem is the
double standard. Why are some schools closed for failure to meet standards of
adequate academic progress, but other schools are only closed when they fail to
meet adequate academic progress and
a host of other problems plague the school? This is nothing short of hypocrisy,
and parents in New Orleans deserve better! They deserve true and evenly
distributed accountability that holds all schools responsible for failing to
satisfactorily educate students.
