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Argumentative Essay On Education Reform

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Sometimes it takes a tragedy to remind us what’s important — and what not to take for granted. Nowhere is this more obvious for the education reform movement than in New Orleans.

Before Hurricane Katrina, 62 percent of students in New Orleans were enrolled in failing schools. Half didn’t graduate from high school. Today, three quarters of kids are graduating on time, and the percentage of students testing at grade level has skyrocketed by 77 percent. The difference? More than 90 percent of students are enrolled in charter schools, many of which were created by the state of Louisiana and education reformers to help fill the void left in the wake of Katrina.

For education reformers — the people who dreamed not only of remaking schools, but also reimagining school districts and entire education systems — New Orleans reminds us of what’s possible. Parents, regardless of their means and their ZIP code, finally got to choose what worked best for their children. The fact that schools had autonomy and parents had choices helped make the entire city a hotbed of innovation — from training to technology to curricula. …show more content…

During his campaign for governor last year, John Bel Edwards promised not to meddle with the Big Easy’s innovators. Now, he works with teachers unions and legislators to limit the very independence and innovation that school choice programs represent. Indeed, in the name of “local control,” the fate of the charter sector was thrown to an institution — the Orleans Parish School Board — which has historically opposed giving any power to schools or autonomy to individuals. This is the same structure, by the way, which doomed New Orleans students to violent and chronically failing schools before

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