Education Report Card

Is the New Orleans education system a fertile training ground for the talented, skilled, and innovative workforce of the New Economy? While educators say local universities such as Tulane and Louisiana State University pass with honors, they also agree that the current K-12 public education system doesn't make the grade. Many academics say the steadfast answer to education reform lies with the tough leadership of Colonel A.G. Davis, the new superintendent of New Orleans Public Schools.

[Barbara MacPhee]
New Orleans has a very strong parochial school system, so there always have been educational alternatives for people who can afford them. About 30 percent of all the school-eligible citizens in New Orleans go to parochial schools. Public education has been under-funded here for a very long time. But there is a genuine community feeling that we, as a city, cannot survive unless we work together to reform our public schools. We're very concerned about improving the reading rate among all students. We get many students at the New Orleans Center for Math and Science who lack the basic skills like multiplication, subtraction, and division. We are working to remedy that, and figure out how we can provide our students with experiences that will help them learn basic skills. We started a math power summer camp, which is markedly improving their skills. We also have a very dynamic superintendent, Colonel Alphonse Davis, who is a military man. I sometimes feel like divine intervention brought him here. He is a dynamic, strong leader who will stress the importance of fundamental rules like attendance and punctuality. For a long time, we had even given up on such basics as an achievable goal.

[Bob Gayle]
I've seen a lot of state-level education changes, but I still think we're behind other states. The technical education system has existed in North Carolina since the 1960s, and that area also has the Research Triangle Park, which was just a pasture when I served in the chamber of business in the Carolinas. Education reform was taking place in other states well before New Orleans made it a priority. Finally, we've come to realize that citizens cannot ignore the public schools simply because their children don't attend them. The public schools prepare and groom New Orleans' future workforce. New Orleans' workforce-related initiatives include an outstanding school-to-career program sponsored by MetroVision, which is an economic development partnership affiliated with the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. This education and school-to-career program is a major development in seven parishes in the New Orleans region. It's been in existence for two years and is considered a model program in the country.

Louisiana is in the midst of a total public education reform for the grades K-12. Despite reform efforts, citizens must keep in mind that Louisiana has one of the highest poverty levels in the U.S., and New Orleans is in the same category. Preparing the future workforce must start even before kindergarten. When students complete high school, the state must ensure that graduates leave with a high-caliber education that will prove useful in the workforce or in higher education. We have a major challenge ahead of us. However, the new state standards should help produce the kind of high school students that Louisiana needs in its workforce. Down the line, those education initiatives will benefit the business environment. If a city can set itself apart by offering high-quality, customized training, then it can be more competitive. That is currently in the works here. Specifically, we are developing an outstanding school-to-career initiative that encourages students to follow a career path in the ninth or tenth grade. Those students' interests are reinforced through internships and jobs in the community. We want to give them hands-on experience with teachers who have worked in the business community and who can relate that world to the classroom.

[Carla Fishman]
I have never been more encouraged about the future of Tulane, and the future of Louisiana. I have seen so many good things happen in the last couple of years. I'm convinced that we are really positioned to take off as a region. We've created living and learning communities where groups of students who live together in common areas of a dormitory can share some main interests. The first community was centered on the urban theme because Tulane wanted to be much more a part of the community. The second one will focus on international topics and allow interaction among students who want to go into international business or major in a foreign language.