Most people in the Gulf Coast region do not call Hurricane Katrina by its name. They call it "The Storm." Perhaps this is because, especially in Mississippi and Louisiana, The Storm so fundamentally changed daily life that it is unnecessary to say which storm one refers to. Perhaps it is a snub to the Hurricane gods, like turning one's back on a bad memory. Whatever the reason, The Storm turned five today, and it is worth marking that milestone here on a blog dedicated to education law issues.
The Storm is of particular interest here at Edjurist because of its profound effects on public schooling policy, especially in New Orleans. In the past five years, the city schools in New Orleans have become what has often been called a "laboratory of experimentation," a term that Justice Brandeis used to refer to the states in general in defending his ideal of federalism. New Orleans is now divided into traditional public schools, state-takeover public schools, and several different kinds of charter schools. Around fifty percent of the schools in New Orleans are presently charters. This situation is unprecedented in public education, and it is both excting and, in some ways, scary. From the region, we hear both success stories and worrisome reports of neglect and discrimination--particularly in relation to disabled students.
With the idea of education law and school reform in New Orleans in mind, I want to call the attention of our readers to two feature law review issues that focus on school reform in New Orleans since The Storm. One is already published as Issue 2 of Volume 11 of the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law. The other will be published as the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Law and Education. The papers in these volumes reveal a good deal of unknown or under-discussed information about the post-Katrina reforms in the area and their local and national implications, and they are worth a read for anyone interested in large-scale reform efforts.