Students at Walter L. Cohen High School Walk Out to Protest Firings of Teachers

From a press release from students and their allies at Walter L. Cohen High School:

See below for the students' demands - written by the students on October 7, and revised by the students on October 10.

See video from protest at Recovery School District offices here.

Students at Walter L. Cohen in New Orleans began a walk out/protest on October 4th, 2012 when their teachers and administrators were dismissed and the announcement was made that Future Is Now Charter (Steven Barr, formerly of Green Dot in California, and Gideon Stein) would be taking over the governance of the school.

This is against the firing of Cohen teachers and administration and the take-over by Future is Now (FIN) charter. Decisions about the governance of the school, including New Orleans College Prep being housed in Cohen's building, must be reversed and remade to include students and parents of Cohen. Cohen students and parents must be made a part of all decisions about Cohen.

Press Conference
Monday, October 8, 3:00pm
Walter L. Cohen High School
3520 Dryades Street, New Orleans, LA
Contact:  Elizabeth Jeffers at 504.237.3741 or Katrena Ndang at 504.701.8783

Official Demands Written by Walter L. Cohen Students on October 7, 2012 (edited to reflect changes made on October 10):

1. Resources and Building repair for Walter L. Cohen High School.
- Photos of building providing evidence of different conditions between NOCPREP and Cohen

2. Graduate Exit Exam (GEE) and End of Course (EOC) waivers given caused by disruption learning.
Students must not be penalized for missing seat time until our demands are met.

3. Students cannot be bought and sold. This situation is very frustrating and opinions should have
been considered, and not done behind closed doors. Walter L. Cohen students and parents
demand real “CHOICE” to determine the governance of the school. Any previous decisions made
determining the governance of Cohen should be reversed and required to go through parent/
student/teacher/administrator committee. If the decision is to return the school to Walter L.
Cohen under Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), New Orleans College Prep students will be
welcome. All current students graduate from Walter L. Cohen.

4. This type of hostile take-over did not just begin with Cohen; it has been going on since the weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

5. The Recovery School District (RSD), Future is Now Schools (FINS), and New Orleans College Prep Charter School (NOCP) do not have our best interests at heart. These administrators have their
educations, and yet when we are so close to completing high school, they decide to make this
unexpected decision.

6. ALL Teachers, administration and faculty must be retained. Any faculty member from school
year 2012-2013 fired must be reinstated. We need written documentation demonstrating why
any faculty members were dismissed. We need written documentation of any reprimands of
faculty members. In the future, if a faculty member is to be dismissed, written documentation
and a plan must be created and followed.
ALL teachers and administrators must be fully certified by the state of Louisiana (which
must be documented online at TeachLouisiana.net). Out of State Certifications are
acceptable.

7. Data from New Orleans College Prep, Cohen, and Future is Now Schools must be made available concerning the following information:
- Student testing history
- Suspension / expulsion data
- Police reports
- Attrition rates for students and teachers
- Graduation rate data
- Post-secondary data (admission statistics for graduated seniors)

We, the students of Walter L. Cohen Senior High School, need the RSD, FINS, and NOCP to listen to us. This is a crisis, and everyone should listen. This is real, and it is happening to us right now.

New Orleans cannot be a city with all charter schools. Charter schools do not admit or keep all students.

No unnecessary suspensions and expulsions for students in New Orleans. We need official handbook with policies concerning retention of students developed by parents, students and teachers citywide.

Image above: A handwritten list of demands by Cohen students posted to the school wall Monday afternoon. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Obama, Romney, and Race(less De)Baiting , By Rosana Cruz

Reprinted from the Bridge The Gulf blog:

While Romney and Obama dance around race, the Gulf Coast continues to suffer devastating racial disparities, worsened by the government's inaction

New Orleans finally came up this week in the presidential contest – in a soundbite about race and the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But before anyone gets too excited – the soundbite won’t do a thing to support our struggles for justice, equality, and safe, healthy communities on the Gulf Coast. It won’t help us build affordable housing, it won’t strengthen our struggling school systems, and it won't help reform our corrupt police departments. Our brief reemergence in national prominence won’t address other regional challenges that could desperately use national concern and intervention – not damage from Hurricane Isaac, the staggering mass incarceration of African Americans in Louisiana, coastal land loss, nor the ongoing health disaster wrought by BP’s oil.

Instead of talking about these very real and pressing racial disparities, the presidential campaigns on both sides have turned talking about race, and (barely) acknowledging racism, into the political version of the cooties.



We watched Obama-opponents use Katrina as a political football this week. A conservative website “released” a video from a 2007 speech by then-Senator Obama, in which he said things that most of us on the Gulf Coast don’t find too scandalous – that the federal government’s response to Katrina “tells me that the people down in New Orleans, they don’t care about as much.” But because the message was delivered to a Black audience and because it displayed the slightest acknowledgement that racial injustice is a national problem, conservatives used it, two days before the first presidential debate, to reiterate their idea that in "post-racial" America, any and all talk about race is divisive (especially when coming from people of color).




On Wednesday, we watched President Obama take the “post-racial” bait in a “post-racial” debate. In a 90-minute debate about the economy, neither the President nor Mitt Romney made a single mention of race, let alone discuss a plan to address the yawning economic and racial disparities in America.

While both parties take a cowardly and opportunistic approach to talking about race, the entire Gulf Coast, especially poor communities and communities of color, bear the brunt of very real racial disparities, which we need our next President to acknowledge, talk about, and fight.

Here’s just one conversation we can't have if our President won't talk about race: A conversation about the Stafford Act, which legislated how the government responded to Hurricane Katrina, and how it responds to all national disasters. In the supposedly inflammatory 2007 video of Obama talking about Katrina, he implies that the federal government applied the Stafford Act unequally – by waiving the requirement that local governments match a percentage of the federal funds after 9/11 in New York, but not on the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

What Obama didn't say is that the Stafford Act, even when it is upheld and used to the full benefit of disaster victims, still falls short. Survivors have no rights to the most basic emergency medical care or food. The government has total discretion whether and how to spend funds in the wake of a disaster. As Advocates for Environmental Human Rights has been arguing since Katrina, disaster survivors in the United States would have many more rights and protections if we adopted principles used by the United Nations which ensure the right to recovery for people in similar situations in foreign countries. Adopting a rights-based approach to disaster recovery would benefit all communities in the U.S., not just communities of color.



Obama wasn’t saying any of this in that 2007 speech. He wasn’t calling for what we really need - a change in the Stafford Act. He was simply calling for the equal application of the Stafford Act. Now, in this 2012 political contest, even that position is being recast as extreme. This is the dynamic of how we talk about race. Over the past few decades, real conversations about race have been pushed underground. It’s gotten even worse in “post-racial” America, when even the most basic calls for racial equity made by Senator Obama of 2007 are being cast as extreme for President Obama of 2012.

 This public discourse on race is incomplete and dishonest, and it doesn't bring us closer to a more democratic and inclusive America. On the Gulf Coast, it doesn't bring us closer to justice or recovery.



Until 2008, we had never had a President who could have seen himself reflected in the faces of people stranded on roof-tops after Katrina, or in the bodies shot down on the Danziger Bridge. When Senator Obama voiced his anger over the Stafford Act and the government’s response to Katrina, he showed he was someone who could empathize with our experience in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast. Since 2008, our President seems be too hamstrung  to do much with that empathy, and he has shied away from even talking about racial equity. In 2012, empathy and understanding are just too politically risky.



Ultimately, it’s on us to push both candidates to be more honest, and it starts with being honest ourselves. We must tell our stories – about our lives, our experiences, and how they've been shaped by racial inequity and injustice. We must acknowledge people's suffering and anger, and insist on remedies that address root causes.

In New Orleans, on the Gulf Coast, and in communities across the country that were excluded or ignored in the debate this week – we can’t let our experiences be reduced to soundbites for someone else’s political gain. That means saying we still have a race problem, and that problem continues to fester each day we, our elected officials, and the media, buy into the fantasy of post-racialism.

Rosana Cruz is Associate Director of VOTE (Voice Of The Ex-offender). Previously Rosana worked with Safe Streets/Strong Communities and the National Immigration Law Center. Prior to joining NILC, she worked with SEIU1991 in Miami, after having been displaced from New Orleans by Katrina. Before the storm, Rosana worked for a diverse range of community organizations, including the Latin American Library, Hispanic Apostolate, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans, and People's Youth Freedom School. Rosana came to New Orleans through her work with the Southern Regional Office of Amnesty International in Atlanta.

Jasmine Groves Invites Community to Memorial For Victims of Police Violence

This letter from Jasime Groves comes via the New Orleans Independent Police Monitor:

From Tragedy to Triumph: Advocating for your family and community after a Police Shooting

Kim Marie Groves Homecoming Memorial


Greetings!

You are cordially invited to the 18th Annual Memorial for Kim Marie Groves and Families of People lost to law enforcement excessive force. In 1994, my mother was brutally and senselessly murdered for speaking out against police corruption, but I know she is one of many others who have not seen the justice as my family has. Len Davis is on death row, but how many other families never got their day in court or even an explanation of what happened to their deceased loved one?

We all deserve better and I believe we have the power to win better treatment for ourselves, our loved ones and our entire community. Every year, I hold a public memorial to honor my deceased mother, Kim Marie Groves, on the date of her death. My relationship with the Independent Police Monitor has inspired me to expand that memorial to remember the hosts of others lost. Also, I think we can do more than just remember our loved ones. We can change the rules of the game so that others won't have to suffer as we have.

Join us at Forstall Park (on the corner of Lizardi and Marais) on Saturday October 13th from 1:00- 5:00 PM. We will enjoy performances from local artist and the Red Hawk Hunters as well as hear from the family members of people like Henry Glover, Ronald Madison, and Adolph Grimes.  Come out and  Remember our lost loved ones, Celebrate their lives and Empower ourselves to build a safer, stronger community.  A flyer is attached. If you have any questions, please call me at 504-645-7690.

Thank you in advance for your leadership and support.

Sincerely,
Jasmine Groves

Local Artists Truth Universal and Mos Def Among Contributors To New CD Raising Awareness of Extrajudical Killings of Black People in US

From a press release from Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:

In 2012 the police kill a Black man, woman, or child every 36 hours!

In July, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee (MXSC), issued “Every 36 Hours: Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of 120 Black people”, that documented this tragic and disturbing fact. The report can be found at www.mxgm.org.

To reach a broader audience and further inform and educate the public about the findings and implications of this report, MXGM and Nu Afrika Entertainment produced the “Every 36 Hours CD Project”. The CD project features artists Jasiri X, Zayd Malik, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Chuck D, Killer Mike, Ife Jai, Truth Universal, Tongo Eisen-Martin and more! The project can be found at bandcamp.com, or iTunes.

"Hip Hop is our biggest and best means of communication with our people and we intend to use it as a weapon to defend ourselves, when in the immediate past, it has been used to destroy our community”, states Zayd Malik, who is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Executive Producer of the CD Project. “The Malcolm X grassroots movement has allowed for the opportunity to make this fact a reality in the eyes of our community, and as artists' we must paint a picture of revolution in an effort to save lives in the face of authoritative figures such as police officers, security guards, and neighborhood watchmen”.

The Every 36 Hours CD Project is a promotional tool for the No More Trayvon Martins Campaign for a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice and Self-Determination that MXGM is advancing. Some of the demands of this campaign include an immediate end to police brutality, the end to racial profiling, the redirecting of resources from the police and military to essential social services, and the institutionalization of local police control boards.

Kali Akuno, of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement states, “These extrajudicial killings must stop. The government has to address the crisis being confronted by Black and Latino people. A national plan of action to address racism and issues like police brutality and murders would be a good place to start”.

For information on the petition visit ushrnetwork.org.

Neither Candidate: Fifteen Issues this Election is Not About, By Bill Quigley

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.

Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.

Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.

Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.

Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”

Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage.  In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour  – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.

Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.

Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.

Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.

Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.

Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.

Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.

Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry.  In fact both support expansion.

Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and is Associate Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.  You can reach him by email at Quigley@loyno.edu.

‘We All Count’ Campaign To Combat Historic Levels of Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement

From a press release from Project South:

More than 30 million people will be discouraged or prevented from voting in this election. “This is the highest number since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. We know that many of those people are African-Americans, LGBT people, people displaced by foreclosure or disaster, and young people—we are working to bring these communities together, and to say that we will not be erased,” says Emery Wright, Co-Director of Project South in Atlanta, GA.

While the Democratic and Republican parties fight for the votes of people across the country, 15 grassroots Southern groups working for social justice are taking a different approach through an effort called the ‘We All Count’ campaign.

The 2008 election, which many considered a decisive victory, was decided by 9.5 million votes. The 2004 election was decided by 3 million votes. If even a fraction of the voters who are discouraged or prevented from voting were able to vote this year, the blue-red map could look very different.

While the media and many national organizations abandon the South during election years, these 15 groups representing over 25,000 people have established 25 action sites around the South. Instead of playing beltway politics, more than 300 organizers are engaging ‘unlikely’ voters - inviting them to join with other communities, to participate, and to be counted.

“Working with the ‘We All Count’ campaign has changed my life,” says Shaquita Bell, a 22-year-old college student at Alabama State University in Montgomery, AL. “I have learned so much about how to engage my community and stay involved beyond the election, when our organizations are needed the most.”

150 people will gather in Lowndes County, Alabama on September 22 to represent their communities and vote on a plan of action for the People’s First 100 Days. Lowndes County is the historic site of Tent City on the trail of the Selma to Montgomery March that organized for voting rights almost forty years ago. While other groups focus on how to target individual voter groups around narrow individual interests, the We All Count campaign is working to shine a light on how different groups of ‘unlikely’ voters have similar interests but are often marginalized from the democratic process.

This movement in the US South is bringing together people who are often dismissed as non-voters or as people without political power. But as history shows us, the power of a multiracial, multi-generational coalition represents a significant powerbase that can respond locally, regionally, and nationally to the attacks on immigrants, youth, women, and families living on the frontlines of poverty.

“Some people have asked why an LGBTQ organization would be spending our time building with Latino and Black-led groups across the South this fall instead of working with other LGTBQ groups to push ‘our issues’’, states Caitlin Breedlove, Co-Director of Southerners On New Ground (SONG), a regional LGBTQ organization. “The answer is simple—‘our issues’ are far more alike than different—people of Color, immigrants and LGBTQ people are being blamed for lack of jobs, unaccountable government programs, and fissures in our family and community values. But, we all need and deserve good schools, good jobs and basic safety—we need to come together to make our voices heard.”

“Many people ask me why ex-felons and formerly incarcerated people would be spending time building with immigrants, gays, and youth,” states Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, a formerly incarcerated person who leads The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS) in Dothan Alabama. “The answer is simple: our issues are connected, and the disenfranchisement of any person threatens the whole democracy.” More than three million people who have served their time are still excluded from voting every election. “If we look at the economics of disenfranchisement, in Alabama alone the cost of housing inmates is approaching 30k per year. It makes good moral sense and sound economic sense to ensure public participation and reduce recidivism. We all need and deserve good schools, good jobs, and basic safety—we need to come together to make our voices heard.”

Aramark Uses Hurricane Isaac to Loot the City of New Orleans

From a press release by SEIU Local 21LA:

On August 29, Hurricane Isaac swept through New Orleans and surrounding areas with raging winds and torrential rains causing widespread flooding and epic power outages that lasted in some cases as long as a week. Businesses and schools were closed for up to one week. Whether people evacuated or chose to ride out the weather at home, most people experienced a financial loss due to being out of work since August 28. Shelters were opened. FEMA began processing applications and a disaster foodstamp program was implemented and extended for days to accommodate the outpouring of those in need due to the hardships caused by this disaster.

Everyone lost -- except Aramark and its Wallstreet owners. In fact, this Fortune 500 company, which receives taxpayer money to clean and provide food services in the Recovery School District (RSD), made money. Aramark was paid even though schools were closed. Instead of paying workers for their scheduled shifts that were canceled due to forces beyond their control, the company pocketed tens of thousands of dollars, while their workers, who already toe the poverty line, were put into precarious situations because of the loss of income.

Aramark and its private equity investors from Wallstreet made a week’s worth of profits off of the pain and suffering of New Orleans and the New Orleans people.

“Aramark and its Wallstreet investors looted during Hurricane Isaac from the workers and the taxpayers,” said Helene O’Brien, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 21 LA. “Louisiana law requires a three-year prison sentence for looters. Aramark needs to pay its workers or pay back the taxpayers or go to jail.”

Aramark workers as well as concerned New Orleanians will deliver a letter of demands to the Aramark office (3800 Desire Parkway, New Orleans, 70126) at 10 a.m., Tuesday, September 18. For more information or to interview Aramark workers and concerned New Orleanians, contact Jewel Bush, SEIU Local 21 LA, by phone at (225) 454-3853 or via email at jewel.bush@seiu21la.org.

Lolis Eric Elie And The Connections That Link New Orleans And Haiti

This article has been reprinted from Bev Bell at Other Worlds:

The Things That Are The Richest Are The Least Valued: New Orleans And Haiti, Post-Catastrophe

Lolis Eric Elie, Interviewed by Beverly Bell
August 28, 2012

Tomorrow, seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina dodged New Orleans, the city will be venturing out to assess Hurricane Isaac’s overnight imprint on its neighborhoods. Yet parts of the city – especially low-income, African-American parts – are still damaged from the flood that followed the 2005 storm, when more than 50 levees broke and filled New Orleans with killing waters.

Below, writer Lolis Eric Elie speaks to the connections between his native New Orleans and Haiti, which did not escape Hurricane Isaac. Officially, 24 people died when the hurricane passed through on August 25, though the numbers of those who will die from secondary effects such as hunger and cholera will never be counted. Elie’s discussion, however, focuses on an earlier disaster in Haiti, the epic 7.0 earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Elie is one of the writers of the HBO hit series Treme and co-producer of the documentary Faubourg Treme.

A friend of mine visited Haiti post-earthquake and he sent back a bunch of pictures of fresh graves of people with my last name. I’ve always known that there were Elies there, but that personal connection, seeing it that way… I can’t escape imagining people with my last name and my blood perishing in the earthquake.

In terms of obvious connections, the architecture strikes you immediately: the shutters and the stucco construction, the colors people paint their houses. These things make places in Haiti look very much like parts of New Orleans. The food is also a striking parallel. In Haiti, you have a version of New Orleans’ red beans and rice. You also get a sense of celebration in that culture that parallels our own. For example, considering how small Haiti is, it’s amazing that their visual art has had the incredible influence that it has had. There are at least a half dozen signature styles of Haitian visual arts, whereas you couldn’t say, “That’s obviously a painting from Brazil, or from Poland.”

We also share with Haiti the fact that the things that are richest are the same that are the least valued by the people who count these things. Part of what was so heartbreaking about New Orleans post-levee failure was the fact that we had to explain to people why we were important, why we mattered. And even in the context of trying to make that case, we often found ourselves  minimizing our cultural riches and maximizing our discussions of international trade and oil refining and drilling. We found ourselves forced to speak in the language of a marketplace when that is certainly not the thing that has made New Orleans singular.

Haiti is similar.  If you took it out of the world market picture, financial markets would not collapse. But if you took Haiti out of the cultural picture through its music, its architecture, its visual arts, we as a world community would be greatly impoverished.

The other thing we share with Haiti is this assumption that somehow we deserve our misfortune. Or that somehow misfortune follows us so closely and so consistently that no one should be surprised.

The shorthand for what happened, whether we’re talking for Haiti or New Orleans, is that this was a natural disaster, and nothing could be further from the truth. It is so easy to attribute our difficulties to natural disasters or acts of God, but no one investigates very closely how much unnatural disasters and acts of man are really at the heart of these twin catastrophes. In New Orleans, if the federal levees had been built to the standards that they were supposed to be built to, Katrina would have caused moderate damage. Of course, in Mississippi and Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, it would still have been devastating, but New Orleans would not have been devastated the way it was. If the forced urbanization of Haiti had not taken place in the l980s [when many small farmers went out of business due to the influx of foreign goods at prices made extremely low by IMF pressure on trade tariffs], if millions had not flocked to the city, then the destruction of Port-au-Prince would not have taken the human toll that it took. The forces behind this migration were anything but natural.

Post-flood, there was both euphoria and dread. Euphoria at the possibility that we could rebuild  and apply to the rebuilding a degree of intelligence unprecedented in the city’s history. There was also an immense dread that the same kinds of developers and profiteers would guide the rebuilding, thereby amplifying and expanding all that was bad prior to the levee failures. It is impossible these days to speak about major disasters without referencing Naomi Klein [the intellectual author of disaster capitalism, as described in her book The Shock Doctrine]. Implicit in the rebuilding strategies I hear about for Haiti, and heard about for New Orleans, is the sentiment that we are so desperate that we should be glad for any assistance, no matter how lethal.

The other thing the rebuilding of New Orleans and Port-au-Prince have in common is a sense that what we need is outside experts. At no point has anyone looked at our history and asked about the extent to which outside experts have been culpable in our misfortune. The outside experts who knew how to drain swamps and develop subdivisions had us building in places that we probably should not have built. The outside experts from the Army Corps of Engineers assured us that the levees would protect these areas. They did not. In the case of Haiti, outside experts have been going there at least since the American occupation of 1915 to 1934. The assumption is that foreigners, especially white foreigners, are automatically more qualified than someone in Haiti who can do the work. You cannot escape the racial dimension of the post-earthquake assistance.

Mayor and Police Chief Still Silent in Response to NYPD spying in New Orleans

This article originally appeared in Louisiana Weekly.

Editor’s Note: Documents recently uncovered by Associated Press reveal that the New York City Police Department traveled to New Orleans in 2008 to conduct surveillance operations.

In a Pulitzer prize-winning series of investigations over the past year, the Associated Press revealed that the New York City Police Department was conducting spying operations on U.S. citizens across several states, including as far away as here in New Orleans. However, the difference in how cities have responded to the revelations highlights much of what is wrong with our local political system, criminal justice system, and even media.

Compare New Orleans to Ne­wark, New Jersey. When evidence of New York City spying activities was uncovered, it became a major story across New Jersey print and TV. Here in New Orleans, The Louisiana Weekly was the only outlet to cover the story (although the Times-Picayune did reprint the Associated Press story).

In New Jersey, politicians from across the political spectrum were quick to condemn the spying program. New Jersey’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, told reporters that he was angered by the spying. “I don’t know if this NYPD action was born out of arrogance, or out of paranoia, or out of both,” he declared at a press conference. On the Democrat side, Newark mayor Cory Booker called the spying program “offensive,” and his police chief Samuel DeMaio assured residents that “this type of activity is not what the Newark PD would ever do.”

When Mayor Landrieu and Superintendent Serpas were asked for their comment on the actions of the NYPD, both appeared to be completely in the dark, and displayed little curiosity. “To be honest with you, I think that’s the first I’m ever hearing that,” said Serpas when asked at a recent press conference. “So I don’t know anything about it one way or another. I might have to catch up.”

“I hadn’t heard about it,” agreed Mayor Landrieu, speaking at the same press event. When asked if he approved of the NYPD actions, Landrieu commented, “I don’t like getting spied on,” but had no further comment.

Ryan Berni, the mayor’s director of communications, refused all follow-up requests for comment. When asked if the mayor’s office has any comment or opinion on the story, he gave this three-word answer: “We do not.”

In response to follow-up inquiries, NOPD spokesperson Frank Robertson told me, “we have researched this incident and in no way is it documented in our records.” When pressed, via email, for any opinion on the appropriateness of another city’s police department conducting surveillance activities in New Orleans, Robertson added this cryptic phrase: “Surveillance is the epicenter on crime fighting initiatives.”

This cavalier attitude is cause for concern. Mayor Landrieu has made police reform a centerpiece of his administration’s focus. When our mayor and police chief show that they don’t care about their citizens’ civil rights, and when our media and politicians treat these violations less seriously than it would be treated in other cities, it adds to New Orleans’ status as a “second-class” city, and gives all of us, as residents, second-class rights. Until we have a mayor and police chief take these issues seriously, reform of our criminal justice system will remain stunted.

Seven Years After Katrina, A Divided City, By Jordan Flaherty

A version of this article originally appeared on TruthOut.org.
 

Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has become a national laboratory for government reforms. But the process through which those experiments have been carried out rarely has been transparent or democratic. The results have been divisive, pitting new residents against those who grew up here, rich against poor, and white against Black.

Education, housing, criminal justice, health care, urban planning, even our media; systemic changes have touched every aspect life in New Orleans, often creating a template used in other cities. A few examples:

- In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, more than 7,500 employees in city’s public school system were fired, despite the protection of union membership and a contract. Thousands of young teachers, many affiliated with programs like Teach For America, filled the empty slots. As charters took over from traditional public schools, the city became what then-superintendent Paul Vallas called the first 100% free market public school system in the US. A judge recently found that the mass firings were illegal, but any resolution will likely be tied up in appeals for years.

- Every public housing development has either been partially or entirely torn down. The housing authority now administers more than 17,000 vouchers – nearly double the pre-Katrina amount –a massive privatization of a formerly public system. During this period, rents have risen dramatically across the city.

- The US Department of Justice has spent three years in negotiations with city government over reform of the police department. The historic consent decree that came out of these negotiations mandates vast changes in nearly every aspect of the NOPD and some aspects could serve as a model for departments across the US. But organizations that deal with police violence, as well as the city’s independent police monitor, have filed legal challenges to the agreement, stating that they were left out of the negotiations and that as a result, the final document lacks community oversight.

- As the city loses its daily paper, an influx of funding has arrived to support various online media projects – including $880,000 from George Soros to one website. In a city that is still majority African-American, the staff of these new media ventures is almost entirely white, and often politically conservative. These funders – many of whom consider themselves progressive - have mostly ignored the city’s Black media, which have a proud history of centuries of local resistance to the dominant narrative. Publications like Louisiana Weekly covered police violence and institutional racism when the daily paper was not interested. Wealthy liberals are apparently still not interested.

There is wide agreement that most of our government services have long deep, systemic problems. But in rebuilding New Orleans, the key question is not only how much change is needed, but more crucially, who should dictate that change.

New Orleans has become a destination for a new class of residents drawn by the allure of being able to conduct these experiments. For a while, they self-identified as YURPs (Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals).  Now they are frequently known as “social entrepreneurs,” and they have wealthy and powerful allies. Warren Buffet has invested in the redevelopment of public housing. Oprah Winfrey and the Walton family have donated to the charter schools. Attorney General Holder came to town to announce police department reforms. President Obama has visited several times, despite the fact that this state is not remotely in play for Democrats.

Many residents – especially in the Black community – have felt disenfranchised in the new New Orleans. They see the influx of college graduates who have come to start nonprofits and run our schools and redesign our neighborhoods as disaster profiteers, not saviors. You can hear it every day on WBOK, the city’s only Black-owned talk radio station, and read about it in the Louisiana Weekly, Data News, and New Orleans Tribune, the city’s Black newspapers. This new rebuilding class is seen as working in alliance with white elites to disenfranchise a shrinking Black majority. Callers and guests on WBOK point to the rapid change in political representation: Among the political offices that have shifted to white after a generation in Black hands are the mayor, police chief, district attorney, and majorities on the school board and city council.

In a recent cover story in the Tribune, journalist Lovell Beaulieu compares the new rebuilding class to the genocide of Native Americans. “520 years after the Indians discovered Columbus, a similar story is unfolding,” writes Beaulieu. “New arrivals from around the United States and the world are landing here to get a piece of the action that is lucrative post-Katrina New Orleans…Black people are merely pawns in a game with little clout and few voices. Their primary role is to be the ones who get pushed out, disregarded and forgotten.”

People hear the term “blank slate,” a term often used to describe post-Katrina New Orleans – as a way of erasing the city’s long history of Black-led resistance to white supremacy. As New Orleans poet and educator Kalamu Ya Salaam has said, “it wasn’t a blank slate, it was a cemetery.” Where some new arrivals see opportunity, many residents see grave robbers.  In response, those who find anything to praise in the old ways are often accused of being stuck in the past or embracing corruption.

Hurricane Isaac has demonstrated that New Orleans is still at risk from storms – although the flood protection system around the city seems to be more reliable than it was before the levees failed and eighty percent of New Orleans was underwater. But have the systemic problems that were displayed to the world seven years ago been fixed by the radical changes the city has seen? Is reform possible without the consent of those most affected by those changes? These are polarizing questions in the new New Orleans.

Katrina Pain Index 2012: 7 Years After, By Bill Quigley and Davida Finger

1          Rank of New Orleans in fastest growing US cities between 2010 and 2011.  Source: Census Bureau.

1          Rank of New Orleans, Louisiana in world prison rate.  Louisiana imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of the other 50 states.  Louisiana rate is five times higher than Iran, 13 times higher than China and 20 times Germany.  In Louisiana, one in 86 adults is in prison.  In New Orleans, one in 14 black men is behind bars.  In New Orleans, one of every seven black men is in prison, on parole or on probation.  Source: Times-Picayune.

2          Rank of New Orleans in rate of homelessness among US cities.  Source: 2012 Report of National Alliance to End Homelessness.

2          Rank of New Orleans in highest income inequality for cities of over 10,000   Source: Census.

3          Days a week the New Orleans daily paper, the Times-Picayune, will start publishing and delivering the paper this fall and switch to internet only on other days.  (See 44 below).  Source: The Times-Picayune.

10        Rate that New Orleans murders occur compared to US average.  According to FBI reports, the national average is 5 murders per 100,000.  The Louisiana average is 12 per 100,000.  The New Orleans reported 175 murders last year or 50 murders per 100,000 residents.  Source: WWL TV.

13        Rank of New Orleans in FBI overall crime rate rankings.  Source: Congressional Quarterly.

15        Number of police officer-involved shootings in New Orleans so far in 2012.  In all of 2011 there were 16.  Source: Independent Police Monitor.

21        Percent of all residential addresses in New Orleans that are abandoned or blighted.   There were 35,700 abandoned or blighted homes and empty lots in New Orleans (21% of all residential addresses), a reduction from 43,755 in 2010 (when it was 34% of all addresses).  Compare to Detroit (24%), Cleveland (19%), and Baltimore (14%).  Source: Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC).  

27        Percent of people in New Orleans live in poverty.  The national rate is 15%.  Among African American families the rate is 30% and for white families it is 8%.  Source: Corporation for Enterprise Development (CEFD) and Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) Assets & Opportunity Profile: New Orleans (August 2012).

33        Percent of low income mothers in New Orleans study who were still suffering Post Traumatic Stress symptoms five years after Katrina.  Source: Princeton University Study.

34        Bus routes in New Orleans now.  There were 89 before Katrina. Source: RTA data.

37        Percent of New Orleans families that are “asset poor” or lack enough assets to survive for three months without income.  The rate is 50% for black households, 40% for Latino household, 24% for Asian household and 22% for white households.  Source: Corporation for Enterprise Development (CEFD) and Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) Assets & Opportunity Profile: New Orleans (August 2012

40        Percent of poor adults in New Orleans region that work. One quarter of these people work full-time and still remain poor.  Source: GNOCDC.

42        Percent of the children in New Orleans who live in poverty. The rate for black children is 65 percent compared to less than 1 percent for whites.  Source: Census.

44        Rank of Louisiana among the 50 states in broadband internet access.  New Orleans has 40 to 60 percent access.  Source: The Lens.

60        Percent of New Orleans which is African American.  Before Katrina the number was 67.  Source: GNOCDC.

60        Percent of renters in New Orleans are paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, up from 51 percent in 2004.  Source: GNOCDC.

68        Percent of public school children in New Orleans who attend schools that pass state standards.  In 2003-2004 it was 28 percent.  Source: GNOCDC.

75        Percent of public school students in New Orleans who are enrolled in charter schools.  Source: Wall Street Journal.    This is the highest percentage in the US by far, with District of Columbia coming in second at 39 percent.  Sources: Wall Street Journal and National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

76        Number of homes rebuilt by Make It Right Foundation.  Source: New York Times.

123,934           Fewer people in New Orleans now than in 2000.  The Census reported the 2011 population of New Orleans source as 360,740.  The 2000 population was 484,674.  Source: Census.

Bill and Davida teach at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.  A version of this article with complete sources is available.  The authors give special thanks to Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.  You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

Is It Time For The Bounce Vote?

New Orleans hip-hop artist Tenth Ward Buck, a legendary New Orleans bounce music artist, announced today that he has qualified for a spot on the ballot for the city council election in District B, the seat formerly held by Stacy Head. He is one of several candidates who have declared their intentions in the race, including longtime community advocate Dana Kaplan, director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.

Tenth Ward Buck has achieved fame on multiple fronts. He is best known as a musician who's career has spanned decades - his biggest hit is "Drop And Gimme 50," which became a national hit when it was covered by Mike Jones. He also has a restaurant, called Finger Lick'n Wings, that he is in the process of rebranding to turn it into a bounce-themed restaurant. The past year also saw the release of a play and film based on his book Definition of Bounce. The play, book and film tell a personal history of bounce music, a community's history told through the perspective of Buck's life. Buck has also appeared in several films, beginning with a role in Dead Man Walking, and directed the award-winning film A Katrina Story, a powerful short film that was shot by Buck in the days after Hurricane Katrina, as he traveled from a flooded home in New Orleans East, to his evacuation to Houston and later return to New Orleans. Buck also has a strong community reputation for his work in support of local youth.

Without funding or major political backing, his candidacy is an uphill struggle, but Buck has never hesitated to try the impossible, and he has an audience and fans. His shows and festivals like the annual Bounce Fest, one of many community projects he helps organize with longtime collaborator Lucky Johnson, have shown the Buck has a large constituency. If someone could turn the bounce community into a voting block, they would be a candidate to reckon with.

Buck, whose name will appear on the ballot as Marlon J. Horton, submitted his paperwork just over an hour before the qualifying deadline, and says he was still receiving contributions for the filing fee up until the final minutes. Dana Kaplan of JJPL, LaToya Cantrell, a community leader from the Broadmoor neighborhood, Eric Strachan, former Chief of Staff for Stacy Head, and Donald Vallee, a vocal advocate for landlords and opponent of affordable housing, also qualified for the ballot. The election will be on November 6.

Unprecedented, Massive Cuts Devastate University of New Orleans

While barely covered in the local media, the University of New Orleans is facing another round of brutal and devastating cuts, quickly transforming an already-under-resourced school into a shadow of its former self. Below is a letter from UNO President Peter Fos outlining some of the cuts. While this letter attempts to spin positives out of the situation, the basic facts are clear: public education at every level in Louisiana is under the most major attack in our state's history.

To: All Faculty, Staff and Students
From: Peter J. Fos, President
Date: August 14, 2012
Re: Budget Reduction Plan

I am announcing the University’s budget reduction and savings plan that will total approximately $12 million by the end of the current fiscal year. The cuts are due to a reduction in the University’s state appropriation of $9.3 million and increases in retirement costs, fringe benefits and other mandated expenses as well as an expected moderate decline in enrollment for the fall 2012 semester.

These represent the most significant budget cuts in the history of our institution. We undertook this process with great deliberation, intent on preserving the academic core of the University. We solicited feedback from both academic and non-academic  personnel. And we were still faced with some very difficult choices. I am disappointed that that we have been forced to eliminate instructor and staff positions, but we simply didn’t have any choice. We remain committed to maintaining academic quality and giving our students the best university experience possible.

The University’s total operating budget this year totals approximately $111 million. Although state approved tuition increases allowed under the LA Grad Act have increased self-generated revenue to $71 million of the school’s budget, these adjustments have not been sufficient enough to offset an overall decline in state support to the University.

The budget reduction plan includes incentivized faculty retirements (projected to be approximately 25), incentivized classified staff retirements (projected to be approximately 28), elimination of vacant faculty positions (30), terminal contracts to faculty (5), elimination of funding for graduate assistantships (26) and elimination of non-classified staff (16, including 5 in administration), resulting in a cumulative savings of $3.3 million.

Other savings will be achieved through several approaches including:

•             Mandatory annual leave for seven days for staff and administrators. This will allow the University to close buildings during Spring Break and Lundi Gras to save on utilities (expected savings of $100,000).
•             Outsourcing the University bookstore. This is expected to be completed by December 2012(pending approval of University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors). The immediate impact will be a cash savings of $500,000.
•             Anticipated lease of university property to third party (pending approval of University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors); expected to bring in $100,000 to $120,000 annually.
•             Reduction in adjunct faculty budget ($250,000)
•             Reduction in travel expenditures by 47% ($329,000)
•             One million dollar contribution from the UNO Foundation to the general scholarship fund

The remainder of the shortfall will be made up through a series of efficiencies and increases in self-generated revenue.

This process has been especially difficult because of the cumulative effects of the budget cuts over the past several years. Since January of 2009, our state appropriation has been cut approximately $28 million. But as you can see by the measures we are taking, we are not simply cutting our way out of this predicament. We have also identified areas where we can generate revenue to help offset the cuts.

I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff, and I am thankful for our talented and diverse students. UNO has a history of overcoming obstacles and, while this challenge may be unprecedented, we will certainly persevere once again.

Coalition of Black and Latina Women, Women from Arizona, Demand Sheriff Stop Submitting to Immigration Hold Requests

From our friends at the Congress of Day Laborers:

A delegation of undocumented women from Arizona will join local immigrants and civil rights leaders from Women United for Justice, in demanding that Sheriff Gusman stop holding undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The visit will happen Thursday, August 9, at 1:30pm at the office of Sheriff Marlin Gusman, 819 South Broad Street.

The delegation is part of Women United for Justice, a group of New Orlean women of all races and backgrounds organizing against over-incarceration and deportation of communities, families, and children. They will join an Arizona delegation, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice,’ a group of undocumented immigrants traveling across the south working for immigrant rights. They will bring the example of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s notorious treatment of undocumented immigrants, and ask Sheriff Marlin Gusman to stand on the right side of history.

The delegation includes undocumented women from Arizona, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear’ Ride for Justice, a journey that began in Phoenix, Arizona on July 29th; Deliny Palencia, member of the Congress of Day Laborers and local leader who was unconstitutionally held by the Sheriff’s department; Latoya Lewis, organizer with Stand with Dignity, New Orleans.

The Sheriff’s submission to immigration hold requests has led to numerous, grave, constitutional violations and a deterioration of trust between the immigrant community and local authorities. The Sheriff could follow in the footsteps of Cook County, Washington D.C. and the state of Connecticut, and no longer use city resources to divide families and deteriorate civil rights. This is an opportunity for the Sheriff to hear how people in Arizona have been affected by implementation of similar policies, and to chose to be on the right side of history.

Actions by undocumented students, such as coming out of the shadows events and civil disobedience actions, have demonstrated the power and results of communities acting and speaking for themselves. The riders are undocumented people  from all over the country and their allies, including mothers, fathers, day laborers, people in deportation proceedings, students, and many others who continue to face threats of deportation, harassment, and death while simply looking for a better life in the only nation many of them know and call home.

More information on the No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice is at www.nopapersnofear.org.

New Policy at Charter School in Delhi Louisiana Forces Out Students Suspected of Pregnancy

NOTE: See below for update.

From our friends at the ACLU of Louisiana:

The ACLU issued a letter today to the administration at Delhi Charter School in Delhi, Louisiana in response to its Student Pregnancy Policy. The policy requires female students even suspected of being pregnant to submit to a pregnancy exam – and if they are pregnant or refuse to take the test, it forces them out of school.

The pregnancy policy it states that if a teacher or administrator suspects a female student of being pregnant (whether she is pregnant or not) the school can require her to have a pregnancy test and even select the physician. If the student is pregnant, according to the plan, “the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School…and will be required to pursue a course of home study.” It goes on to state further, “Any student who is suspected of being pregnant and who refuses to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities. If home study opportunities are not acceptable, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.”

“The pregnancy policy violates the rights of every girl at Delhi Charter School, ” said Marjorie R. Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU.  “Every girl is at risk of being subject to intrusive medical testing, and possibly forced out of school, for reasons that have nothing to do with her education.”

Delhi’s policy stands in violation of, among other things:

·         Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and its implementing regulations because it excludes students from educational programs and activities on the basis of sex.

·         The Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, because it treats female students differently than male students and because it relies on impermissible sex stereotypes

·         The right to procreate, and to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy

·         The Due Process Clause of the Constitution by imposing the presumption that pregnant students are unable to continue to attend classes.

Esman says the policy is just a pretext for sex discrimination. “It is based on the archaic and pernicious stereotype that a girl’s pregnancy sets a ‘bad example’ for her peers.” The law is clear that no one can be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in education on the basis of sex,’” Esman said. She says the policy subjects all and, of course, only female students to the possibility of mandatory pregnancy testing, based on a subjective ‘suspicion’ that they might be pregnant. “Male students who might also have engaged in sexual activity or be expecting children are not subjected to similar action or risk,” says Esman.

“The right to attend school and to participate fully in activities cannot be denied a student simply because she is, or may be, pregnant,” said Galen Sherwin of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project.  “Pregnancy is not a disease, and schools may not treat it that way.  To force a student to home study simply because she is pregnant is to deny her the equal right to a full education.  The administrators of Delhi Charter School should be ashamed that they seek to deprive students of the benefits of going to school every day.”

In addition to its discrimination against girls, the policy is unlawfully vague and subjective by stating that “all students will learn and exhibit acceptable character traits that govern language, gestures, physical actions, and written words.”  “This provision, which clearly trenches on protected speech and expression, fails to define ‘acceptable character traits,’ leaving students of common intelligence [to] necessarily guess at its meaning. It fails to regulate First Amendment freedoms ‘with narrow specificity,’ rendering it impermissibly vague and in violation of the First Amendment.”

The ACLU of Louisiana issued the letter to the Delhi Charter School in hopes they revise the policy so that it complies with the U.S. Constitution and Federal law.  The letter asks the school to suspend the policy until it is revised and to notify parents and students of the policy change. Esman says if Delhi refuses to incorporate the changes the ACLU of Louisiana will consider taking further legal action, including filing a lawsuit or a complaint with the appropriate state or federal enforcement agencies.

UPDATE:  On Thursday, August 9, Delhi Charter School announced that it will eliminate the policy that required female students even suspected of being pregnant to submit to a pregnancy exam and forced them out of school if they refused or tested positive. Delhi Charter School President Albert Christman claimed that the policy was intended to protect students from ridicule and harassment. The school rescinded the policy after receiving a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Louisiana.

Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute Concludes This Weekend With Festival of Performance

Urban Bush Women have returned to New Orleans for another of their legendary Summer Leadership Institutes. This summer's theme is centered around the question, "Why are people poor?" You can catch some of their work this Saturday at a series of performances they are hosting. Below are the details, from a local press release:

Internationally renowned dance company Urban Bush Women (UBW) have returned to New Orleans for the fourth summer to host its long-running, nationally acclaimed Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) from July 20-29 at Tulane University. The SLI is a 10-day intensive training workshop bringing together artists and community leaders from all over the city, state, country - and even the world - to learn about UBW’s unique approach to utilizing the arts for civic engagement and social change. Participants from New Orleans and Louisiana are given priority and scholarships are offered. The SLI is co-directed by New Orleans arts professionals.

This year’s theme, “Why Are People Poor? Demystifying the Opportunity Gap in America,” will explore and lift-up the causes and effects of the wealth and opportunity gap in America and culminate in a final site-specific festival entitled “Wealth: Reclaiming and Reframing, A Festival of Art, Place and Ideas” on Saturday, July 28, throughout the city. According to UBW Founding Artistic Director, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, “Poverty matters!”  In discussing why she selected the theme of poverty for the 2012 SLI, Zollar said “issues around our country’s growing wealth gap, especially the racial wealth gap, are an ongoing concern for me born out of my own family’s circumstance and the implications the wealth gap has for our local communities and our nation. The lack of discourse in our local and national political conversations is alarming. This subject is close to us all, rich, middle class, working class or poor.”

The SLI participant schedule will includes teach-ins on poverty, daily UBW dance technique classes and a guided artistic process to create the final performances. Participants will also experience “undoing racism training” facilitated by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, an internationally acclaimed pioneer in the field, which Zollar credits with deepening the company’s awareness regarding poverty and its intersection with race and racism. For the second year, Liz Lerman, internationally acclaimed choreographer and MacArthur Fellow, will join the SLI faculty.
Lerman and Zollar, are co-creating a related artistic work around issues of economic equality.

For the first time, UBW will present a special pre-institute workshop on Thursday, July 19th entitled “LGBQTA 101”.  Through the workshop, participants will become more familiar with basic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Ally history and culture and learn tools they can use in their community and cultural practices.

Wealth: Reclaiming and Reframing, A Festival of Art Place and Ideas
Saturday, July 28th from 9:30 to 6:30

Performance 1
Time: 9:30am -11:30am
Location: Christian Unity Baptist Church, 1700 Conti St. (Treme)

Performance 2 & Community Sing
Time: 12:30pm -4:00pm
Location: Ashe Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd (Central City)

Performance 3
Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location: Tekrema Center for Art & Culture, 5640 Burgundy St. (Lower Ninth Ward)

Admission to the festival is free! UBW’s 2012 SLI is supported by the Surdna Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Tulane University’s Gulf South Center.

More information:

Urban Bush Women

Urban Bush Women’s mission is to create dance and to create community.

Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. We do this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond. We do this by facilitating the use of art as a means of addressing issues of social justice and encouraging civic engagement. Based in Brooklyn, we aspire to ensure continuity by strengthening and expanding our international community via ongoing professional education, development of new audiences, nurturing young talent and presenting bold, life-affirming dance works in a variety of settings including at our annual Summer Leadership Institute.

New Orleans Leadership & Partners

Since coming to New Orleans in 2009, Urban Bush Women has extended almost 60 scholarships to New Orleans participants. The SLI is lead locally by Team NOLA, a local body of artists and SLI alumni, who co-create and co-plan the SLI in collaboration with UBW. 2nd Line Consulting and Moving Stories Inc, New Orleans-based arts-consulting firms, led by Stephanie McKee and Takema Robinson-Bradberry, also SLI alumni, facilitate Team NOLA’s local planning efforts and goals which include connecting SLI to the greater New Orleans’ arts and social justice community. UBW’s New Orleans partners include Tulane University and People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Other local area partners include the Institute for Women’s Ethnic Studies (IWES), Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Tekrema Center for Arts and Culture, Christian Unity Baptist Church, Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant, Junebug Productions, Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective and Mondo Bizarro.

Background on the Summer Leadership Institute

Urban Bush Women’s SLI grew out of the company’s earliest community engagement work, which took place in New Orleans from 1990-1992. The SLI began at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1997 and was moved to UBW’s home of Brooklyn, New York, in 2004. For the past three years, the SLI has been based in New Orleans to help support and strengthen the efforts New Orleans artists, organizers and stakeholders are making to sustain the cultural and artistic assets of this unique city. Zollar explains, “New Orleans is such a creative and personal inspiration that it was important to me to return to support the community, particularly the community of artists, as this city was the place of Urban Bush Women’s first community engagement project sponsored by Junebug and the Contemporary Arts Center. Here we made the leap from one-way outreach to an effective community engagement strategy. We want to be a part of the renewal process and hope our Summer Leadership Institute training can make a positive difference.”

Community Profile: Brenda Williams of VOTE

After attending an “outstanding” presentation that VOTE sponsored at Ashé Cultural Arts Center in Central City, Miss Brenda Williams was inspired to get “involved to make a difference in the lives of those who suffer injustice at the hands of lawmakers, judges and others involved in the criminal justice system processes.” She has heard stories from many people who were treated unfairly, exposing her personally to the powerlessness individuals face when they are forced to confront the criminal justice system. Knowing that there is power in numbers and that reclaiming the power of those who have had it taken away, “will require many people of good will to exercise informed, persistent, due diligence until change comes.”

Her favorite aspect of working with VOTE is the “persistent involvement in the legislative process.” She feels the most important things that VOTE does are to provide space where formerly incarcerated people and their families, friends and communities can “voice their concerns, meet with others of like experience and mind, learn how to effectively advocate for themselves and recognize and utilize their power in numbers.”

Through educational sessions at VOTE Miss Brenda has increased her knowledge of ways the criminal justice system is stacked against the betterment of people of color. She also became aware of the many licenses that FIPs are barred from obtaining, an issue that VOTE members have tackled head on by creating House Bill 295. She calls VOTE “the answer” to the call that is, comprehensive civic engagement necessary to transform societal ills.

In order to increase impact and scope Miss Brenda believes that it would be a benefit for VOTE to collaborate with more African American organizations such as Greek-letter organizations, Urban League, NAACP, Zulu, NOMTOC, Forresters, Masons, Knights of Peter Claver etc.

Outside of her work with VOTE Miss Brenda enjoys reading, fellowshipping with members of her church, actively participating with her sorority sisters in community affairs, advocating for a Louisiana Civil Rights museum and supporting continued growth and development of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. She also loves spending time with her 16 month old grandson whom she admits doting over.

Creating Excellent Schools is not the Same as Creating Excellent School Systems, by Dr. Lance Hill

Republished from Diane Ravitch's blog:

Charter schools that perform better by recruiting and retaining better students don’t exist in a vacuum: skimming the best and most profitable students affects other schools, though it is hard to detect in systems with few charters.  The systemic effects are easier to see in a “closed system” as we have in New Orleans in which 80% of students attend charters.  Every high-performing charter creates a chronically low-performing school somewhere in the system. The students that charters reject, who are high-needs and high-cost, become concentrated in a separate set of schools.  These “dumping schools” concentrate students with enormous skill deficits and disruptive behaviors, making it impossible for educators to teach and also creating an intractable non-compliant student subculture.  Privatization creates good schools by creating even worse schools.

The evidence of this “rob peter to pay paul” phenomenon is not difficult to find.  As charter schools increased in relative performance the first few years in New Orleans, the remaining state-run public schools were locked into chronic failure.  For four years in a row, the direct-run state schools posted an average 80% failure rate on the 8th grade math LEAP progression test.  This, despite the fact that the state had doubled the expenditure per pupil for a period of time and all these schools were directly run by Supt. Paul Vallas who selected the “world class” school administrators, contracted to staff the schools with the “best and brightest” teachers (TFA), and controlled the curriculum and hours of instruction.  It was clear that the every year charters would skim the best students from the remaining schools and dump the low-performing students forced on them by the lottery.

In 2007, the highest ranking official in the state takeover of New Orleans schools said in a meeting that I attended that some charters were systematically dumping challenging and low-performing students into the remaining public system. Six years after the takeover, only 6,000 of the total 42,000 students remain in non-charter dumping schools:  100% of those students are in state-run schools that the state graded as “D” or F” in 2011.  It is a wonder that New Orleanians can’t figure out why we have the highest per-capita murder rate in the nation, and school-age teens are the principal perpetrators of the most reckless of the violence.

Creating excellent schools is not the same as creating excellent school systems.  The free-market has one goal: profit.  It did not come into existence to create innovative and equitable public services.  The New Orleans Model ensures that successful schools are created at the expense of the system as a whole; one student advances at the expense of another.  If other school systems opt for the New Orleans Model, they need to do so knowing that the result will be a separate and unequal system of “college prep” and “prison prep” schools.

Dr. Lance Hill is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relations research center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and The Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).