By Dr. Andre Perry
Guest Columnist
But what will it take to keep improving education?
It’s time to change the image of education reform as a mere takeover and start
bringing NOLA schools back under elected, local control.
Last week, a Louisiana bill that could help enact this change came one step closer to fruition. If made
into law, the bill would return schools that were placed in the Recovery School District after Hurricane
Katrina to the Orleans Parish School Board, provided the schools are no longer failing.
The potential return of schools in New Orleans offers other U.S. takeover districts – like Detroit’s
Education Achievement Authority and the Achievement School District in Memphis – a blueprint for
return. Return is ostensibly something states don’t think through very well. Supporters of state takeover
districts nationwide consistently make the mistake of seizing low-performing schools without having a
clear end game or exit strategy for schools that recover or fail under state stewardship.
Opponents of the Louisiana measure say the board isn’t ready for the transfer of non-failing schools.
But if truly recovered, Louisiana charters that would return under the legislation should feel safe going into
a system that allows schools to run themselves.
We shouldn’t worry about the board’s ability to “monitor” autonomous schools.
The Orleans Parish School Board has an impressive pre- and post-storm history of letting autonomous
schools draft their own attendance zones and set their own academic criteria for entry. (Nine eligible
schools choose not to participate in OneApp, the centralized
enrollment system.)
I managed four charter schools in the Recovery School
District, and I know my counterparts in the Orleans Parish
School Board enjoyed freedoms that I simply couldn’t. Different
rules between schools create confusion for families and
inequities between professionals.
It’s time for a return, but if we want an equitable, transparent
and consistent system with real rules, then the superintendent
and board members need to install them.
First things first: New Orleans schools can and should have
greater autonomy, but the board should vigorously set the limits
in which those freedoms can exist. In doing so, the board should
understand they are a policy driven body, not one that operates
schools. What that means in the policy world is that the board
must shift much of its attention to becoming a quality authoriz-
er – “the organizations designated to approve, monitor, renew,
and, if necessary, close charter schools.”
In addition, the Orleans Parish School Board has the opportuni-
ty to create a platform for parents and students across the landscape
of self-directed schools to air their concerns with the system(s).
Finally, the board can maximize dollars for the classroom by
encouraging more schools to share services like transportation.
Improvement should be embedded in the return process. But
school leaders shouldn’t be afraid of the board.
Claims that the Orleans Parish School board isn’t ready to
take on stable schools fall flat. Give them credit; the board man-
ages successful charter schools and its finances well, and the
district is the second-highest performing in the state.
Pointing to political rumbling and corruption as reasons not
to return are also feeble. As a former charter leader and board
member, I can tell you that political shenanigans and fiscal mis-
management happen. (Remember the $660,000 stolen by a char-
ter school administrator?)
There are real doubts and questions regarding a return to elect-
ed, local control, and they have remained since before the great
breaches in the levees: how can a traditional district turn around
failing schools and what are the limits of state intervention?
Right now, Republican hypocrisy is becoming a glaring lim-
itation as a Republican-dominated House is forced to square its
votes against conservative drives of wanting less bureaucracy
and more local control.
Individual members of the GOP have to feel the hypocrisy of
supporting state takeover in education while running on plat-
forms against government encroachment in health care and
taxes. Then again, many Republicans have found it easy to vote
against their principles when it comes to a majority-Black,
Democratic New Orleans.
It would have been nice if newly installed Supt. Henderson
Lewis worked with the New Orleans delegation to propose the
return legislation. Being backed into such a major restructuring
isn’t the most strategic way to garner public support for the
return. However, based on how the schools were taken from the
district after Katrina, forcing a return from the state may be a
case of the chickens coming home to roost.
There is a subtle cowardice and clear disingenuousness in say-
ing ‘we’re not ready.’ New Orleans wasn’t ready for the system
we have now – we made ourselves so. Saying we’re not ready is
really belief in status quo. New Orleans shouldn’t consider
bringing schools back to a district as a return to the past. We
should boldly make ourselves better for the future.
This opinion piece originally appeared in The Hechinger
Report, a nonprofit, independent news website focused on
May 18 - May 24, 2015
Page 4
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Since 1925
Remember Malcolm
Tuesday, May 19, 2015, will mark
the 90th anniversary of the birth of
Malcolm X, one of the world’s most
committed and visionary freedom
fighters.
This year also marks the 50th
anniversary of his assassination in
New York City.
Even five decades after his death,
Malcolm continues to provide a sterling
example to young brothers trying to
find their way out of the maddening
darkness that too often defines the lives
of Black men in America.
Malcolm had every reason in the
world to give up but never did. He
endured domestic terrorist attacks on
his family by white supremacists in
Omaha, Nebraska and Lansing,
Michigan; the brutal murder of his
father, Earl Little, a Garveyite follower;
an emotional breakdown by his mother,
Louise Norton Little, and the dissolu-
tion of his family by social workers.
In spite of it all, young Malcolm
Little managed to continue to excel
academically, graduating at the top of
his junior high school class. He might
have gone on to become a lawyer if
one of his favorite teachers hadn’t
killed that dream by telling him that
such a vocation was “no realistic goal
for a n*gger.”
Soon thereafter, his decline began, as
often happens today in the lives of
many children of color. After dropping
out of high school, Malcolm worked a
series of dead-end jobs before turning
to a life of petty crime.
Later in life, he made no secret of his
involvement with drugs, illegal gam-
bling, prostitution and burglary.
One of his burglary jobs landed him
behind bars in 1946 where he began to
turn his life around, thanks to the many
books he read and the ennobling teach-
ings of Nation of Islam leader Elijah
Muhammad. By the time he was
paroled in 1952, Brother Malcolm had
rejected the slave name “Little” and
replaced it with an “X” to represent the
African heritage stolen from him and
other Africans in America by their
European oppressors.
He evolved from being a bonafide
menace to society to becoming one of
Black America’s most respected and
committed
freedom
fighters.
Although he only had an eighth-grade
education, his time behind bars gave
him an opportunity to slow down and
feed his mind.
Those seeking to uplift communities
of color today can learn from that
aspect of his story today. Malcolm’s
ability to read and his hunger for
knowledge and truth enabled him to do
battle with white supremacists and
accommodating Blacks alike. He never
backed down from an intellectual chal-
lenge and always held his own in
debates because he had truth, knowl-
edge and conviction on his side.
When he was wrong or mistaken
about some aspect of the plight of
Black people in America, he was the
first to admit it. While his assassins
may have taken his life, they could
never kill his revolutionary spirit. That
spirit lives on today in the men, women
and children who carry on in the libera-
tion struggle.
Listed below are some of the things he
said about race relations in the U.S. and
the struggle for liberation and justice:
• “I believe that there will ultimately
be a clash between the oppressed and
those that do the oppressing. I believe
that there will be a clash between those
that want freedom, justice and equality
for everyone and those who want to
continue the systems of exploitation.”
• “Education is our passport to the
future, for tomorrow belongs to the
people who prepare for it today.”
• “If you’re not ready to die for it, put
the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabu-
lary.”
• “I for one believe that if you give
people a thorough understanding of
what confronts them and the basic caus-
es that produce it, they’ll create their
own program, and when the people cre-
ate a program, you get action.”
• “I believe in the brotherhood of
man, all men, but I don’t believe in
brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t
want brotherhood with me. I believe in
treating people right, but I’m not going
to waste my time trying to treat some-
body right who doesn’t know how to
return the treatment.”
• “If violence is wrong in America,
violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong
to be violent defending Black women
and Black children and Black babies
and Black men, then it is wrong for
America to draft us, and make us vio-
lent in defense of her. And if it is right
for America to draft us, and teach us
how to be violent in defense of her, then
it is right for you and me to do whatev-
er is necessary to defend our own peo-
ple right here in this country.”
Malcolm’s contributions have never
been as widely celebrated as the annual
Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
But they are every bit as important and
should be remembered and celebrated
in some meaningful way each year.
The thing is, we don’t need the gov-
ernment to give us permission to cele-
brate and honor the memory and legacy
of Malcolm X.
Every time we get disillusioned about
conditions in the city’s public schools
and corruption in the school system, we
should remember Malcolm’s mantra
about achieving our goals and objec-
tives “by any means necessary.”
Every time we get frustrated about
fighting for a livable wage, affordable
health care, decent education and things
that others take for granted, we should
remember Malcolm and all the others
who never stopped fighting for us.
Every time we grow weary from
policing the police and holding elected
officials’ feet to the fire, we should
remember Malcolm, Marcus, Martin,
Medgar and all the freedom fighters
who didn’t know what it meant to quit.
Every time we get tired or discour-
aged about fighting an uphill battle for
our children’s future, we should
remember Malcolm and all he sacri-
ficed because he loved us so.◊
PERRY
New Orleans needs to
run its own schools
