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5 Charter Schools Open in N.O.

Posted on: Thursday, 29 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

5 charter schools open in N.O.

NEW ORLEANS Five public schools that had been shut down since Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29 re-opened Wednesday as charter schools, run independently of a city school system that has long been criticized as bloated, inefficient and corrupt.

It was the latest development in what parents and education officials in Louisiana hope will be a disaster-inspired renaissance for public education in New Orleans, which was home to most of the states worst schools before the hurricane shut down the entire system.

Parents who brought their children to one of the schools, Alice Harte Elementary, seemed encouraged.

Everythings going to be all right, said Nikisha Wade as she escorted her son Brandon Bell, 5, to his first day of kindergarten.

The five schools are all on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, a part of the city relatively unscathed by Katrina. The parish School Board voted in October to re-establish the schools as charter schools, in part because it would make them eligible for millions in federal aid earmarked for charters. Backers of the charter concept say it frees the schools from the bureaucracy of the school system, giving more authority to teachers and principals.

I think were going to have the authority to do what we need to for the kids of this school. Thats exciting, Henry Hank Shephard, principal at Harte, said.

The charters two high schools and three elementary schools are all open-enrollment schools, meaning students from anywhere in the city can register to attend.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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