The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public School District Money, Power, and the Illegal Takeover of a Public School System

The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public School District explores and criticizes the contemporary educational reforms of the New Orleans public school system. The New Orleans education reforms implemented after hurricane Katrina has been an academic failure with charter operators making millions of dollars while reestablishing a segregated school system based on race and class all in the name of school reform. This education reform, using the corporate model approach, has received more than its share of favorable reports by the media. Despite the claims of unprecedented academic success the educational reforms has it has been a dismal failure academically, operationally and has resurrected equity and access issues. Equally as disturbing the reforms firmly have re-established a tiered public school system that segregates students by race and class. The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public School District puts the corporate education reform movement in its proper context, which is to create a new 21st century model for turning around America's urban public school districts. This book reveals untold events of what really happened pre and post Hurricane Katrina that contributed to the state takeover of public schools in New Orleans. This story is told through the eyes of parents, students, activists, political leaders, Orleans Parish School Board members and employees who have been largely ignored. It will also include my analysis of almost 40 years of being intimately involved in New Orleans public schools as a teacher, principal and college professor.