from Sophmom on the last post:

47 schools is a lot of schools to tear down. It did seem to me like the article in your link indicated that these mid 20th century buildings left much room for improvement.

Am I foolish and naive to think that we could be embarking on a period of flowering amidst rebuilding?

From me:

Yeah, there is room for improvement. The question is whether or not it will actually get DONE. Enlisting Parsons on a major rebuilding endeavor such as this one is does not bode well for the future of the facilities under the RSD.

Make no mistake - I WANT there to be a flowering. Most signs, however, do not point in that direction. And, as for these schools left to rot, they are, in most cases, sitting on more than enough land on which to make additions and improvements. The portable classrooms were longtime stopgaps for what should have been done in the first place to these schools. What contributed to their sorry states before the floods was the mismanagement of money that was well-documented in the film Left Behind.

What is missing here is, STILL, that accountability.

Oh, and for more school idiocy, head for AshMo's. Who says the charters are immune to administrative idiocy?

Quick history lesson: Lusher is supposed to be one of the best schools in the city. Parents love it, the students love it. Historically, Lusher drew about half of their students from a geographic district (gif map here, kml map here), and about half tested in. The racial makeup of the school mirrored the racial makeup of New Orleans.

Enter Katrina and the Federal Flood. Scott Cowen, President of Tulane, rightfully thought that to bring Tulane employees back, they would need the incentive of a good school for their children. So he got Tulane to blackmail donate a vast amount of money to Lusher.

In return, all Tulane employees can send their kids to Lusher, regardless of test scores, race, or where they live.

Problem: now, too many Tulane employees are taking advantage of Cowen's blackmail the Tulane Lusher benefit.

What does this mean? Too few slots, too many kids that want to go there.

What happens now?

The Tulane parents still can get their kids in there, no problem.

The geographic district pays the price. And God help you if you have to test in.