News Briefs
Students say Orleans’ new school system all wet after Katrina
Feb 2, 2007 1:54 PM
Both the quality of learning and the state of the buildings have sunk since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August 2005, a sample of Orleans Parish public and private school students said. Half of the college bound said they were leaving the state, and some 43 percent said they doubted they’d return to the Big Easy. “If we don’t start sending positive signs about rebuilding, that percentage leaving will increase,” one city planner said.
Some 59 percent of the students said they felt less safe than before the storm, while just 3 percent felt safer, and 66 percent answered “all of the above” when asked to identify “their biggest concerns” in a field that included educational and economic opportunities, flood protection, housing costs and crime. Their single biggest concern? Thirty-four percent cited deteriorating education and job possibilities.
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jan. 17
