Storm brewing in New Orleans

Arne Duncan has back-tracked, sorta, from his claim that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to New Orleans education. But the post-Katrina two-tiered school system he endorses, continues under another former Chicago schools CEO, Paul Vallas.

It's a system that is drawing more and more heat from the city's disenfranchised. Yesterday a crowd openly hostile to Recovery School District Superintendent Vallas, used a state board of education meeting to raise concerns about whether charters are leaving the most vulnerable children behind.

When Vallas stated at Monday's meeting at Joseph S. Clark High School,  that charters are doing "a heck of a job" educating public school students, the mostly African-American audience responded with jeers. Many parents expressed fears that many charters are practicing selective enrollment policies.

"Charters don't want anything to do with our children. They're sending them away," said Brenda Valteau, who identified herself as a 1961 graduate of George Washington Carver High School. "We're losing our young people to the streets." (Times Picyune)