Here we go – another attempt to think out of the box. From NOLA.com:
It should come as absolutely no surprise that the private schools in Orleans Parish are going to be up and running long before the public system. Nobody’s jaw will hit the floor when they discover that the private Catholic schools have extra room for students – up to 3,000 of them – and the Archdiocese of New Orleans is offering to open those slots to the wider public.
What is a stunner is that the Louisiana State Board of Education is considering the possibility of allowing school vouchers, so that Orleans Parish students might actually have a chance to go to school this year. As the Board superintendent said,
“Things have changed dramatically since Hurricane Katrina,” Picard told the board Thursday. “So I think we need to start thinking out of the box.”
Oh my yes - it’s been time to think out of the box. In light of how quickly the charter schools idea was snarled up and bogged down, it’s really hard to avoid sounding a bit skeptical that such a child / family-centric idea might go forward. For this to work (for anything to work, in fact), parish and state officials are going to have to “walk the walkâ€? about wanting people to come home.
So far, all they’ve done is “talk the talk�.