At a recent education summit at the healing Center on Saint Claude Avenue, Ms. Karran Harper Royal, an educational advocate, spoke frankly about the false community engagement that has become the norm in the post-Katrina educational reform environment and the battles between public schools controlled by the Recovery School District (RSD) and Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB). She was critical of public forums that were simply staged to check off the community engagement box while closed-door decisions had already been made concerning what neighborhood was going to get what school.
She addressed the frustrations of false processes that have exhausted many communities across the city, where they have been told that their engagement was crucial to the decision-making procedure for schools in their neighborhoods—only to learn that a charter model not of their choice was moving in. For community members in attendance from the St. Roch, Marigny, and Bywater neighborhoods, her comments could not have been more sobering. Many concerned families in these three historic neighborhoods have been struggling with the RSD over what charter model was going into the Colton School Building, which is under reconstruction.
Describing the actual rebuilding at Colton a “renovation” is a stretch. Sadly, the historic building is undergoing a destruction process, and it has been literally stripped to an empty concrete shell of its once regal redbrick imposing and historical characteristics. I live two blocks from Colton on Saint Claude Avenue, and it breaks my heart everyday I pass the destruction site. However, that’s another story altogether.
This story continues with another educational gathering concerning the Colton site and the corporate-for-profit educational behemoth know as KIPP, whose acronym stands for Knowledge is Power Program. Apparently, KIPP is not only all-powerful but also all-knowing of the future to come because it blatantly claims the Colton facility on its web site as its own—as a done deal. The flyer distributed at its recent Monday, July 25th meeting, where the new RSD Superintendent Mr. John White spoke, claims it again. It literally states “Colton will house KIPP New Orleans Leadership Academy and Primary (KNOLA), temporarily operating in the Frederick Douglass Building (alongside KIPP Renaissance High School) in 2012. At KIPP, we believe that communities and schools are partners in serving children.”
It continues, “Altogether, families living near Colton are choosing a KIPP education, making the voice of the community clear: KIPP operates schools that the people in the neighborhood want.” It looks like the KIPP Corporate leadership team forgot to tell that to Mr. White, who clearly stated that before making a decision on Colton, he was also open to hearing from a neighborhood group that was creating their own charter. He candidly opened by saying, “I think in the past my organization has not always done the best job of being transparent.” He expressed “deep regrets” about questionable decision making processes that have affected neighborhood families and their children. Quite convincingly, he portrayed himself as a leader committed to hearing all sides before making any decisions on what school gets what facility.
So who is playing whom here? Was Mr. White putting on a public show, and did he not see the flier that KIPP distributed to all who entered the Douglass Building presentation hall? Was this just another episode of false community engagement? For all his seemingly genuine talk about listening to all sides from the community at large, and after more than half an hour of numerous orchestrated testimonials from KIPP parents proclaiming how great the school was for their children, Mr. White finished by saying that he was open to hearing from other community members in attendance, but that only three minutes were left.
Mr. White’s charismatic and candid approach had me convinced he was a new breed of RSD leader, but when he left all of three minutes for anyone else to question KIPP or him, it was obvious that the community was being played. Unfortunately, it became even more apparent when I asked a critical question about whether KIPP hires novice non-union teachers who are unprepared, and in doing so have helped to cripple the African American Teachers’ Union in New Orleans. I asked a direct hard question because these are hard times. Our children’s future demand hard questions about who is properly prepared to take on the monumental responsibility of educating them.
Mr. White’s mood turned. His lips became pursed, and he was dismissive of my question by simply asking the KIPP crowd, “Do you have good teachers here?” They roared a resounding yes. It was expected like an eerily orchestrated event, where questioning the all-mighty KIPP was not part of the community engagement process. I continued with my line of questioning and referred to an article in the American Independent, which quoted a Southern Poverty Law Center study about many charters’ suspect security measures. KIPP was the biggest culprit with draconian punishment of their students written into their guidebook.
Mr. White responded abruptly, “You are bringing politics into an environment that’s about kids and parents, and it’s an unfortunate occurrence.” Dismissively, he looked away and ended the three-minutes for the community to ask questions. He made a political choice to shut down any line of questioning that challenged KIPP, whose educational practices he applauded time and time again during his ample time professing his more “transparent” strategy to hear all sides of the educational debate.
How is it not a political struggle when the article I referenced is from a section called “State Politics in Context,” and the renowned SPLC, whose Civil Rights and social justice practices are about challenging the bad politics that affect people of color? The RSD itself is a state governance agency from Baton Rouge, and its making political decisions on education reform in New Orleans post-Katrina. The questions were concerned with accountability of a corporate charter that is awarded millions in public funds generated by the taxes collected from homeowners like myself. Mr. White’s job is to develop just policies on what charters get what facilities. It sounds like politics, but it is looking more like the same dubious politics that we, the people, have struggled with since the RSD took control of our neighborhood schools.
Colton is two blocks away from the home I own with my wife and two little boys, and the KIPP corporate charter model is not the type of school I want in my neighborhood. The taxes I pay will go to support them, whether I want them or not. The families in the immediate area of Colton envision a different charter model, one dramatically in contrast to KIPP and the offensive presumptuous that “all people in the neighborhood” have chosen them. The KIPP propaganda flyer is attached. Read for yourselves and forward it to Mr. White. Post it on your face book accounts and distribute it to your own cyber communities.
We are being played all over again. This is not a time for civility. This is a time for outrage. This is a time to demand that policy makers like Mr. White give us more than three minutes and the theatrical politics of public lip service as part of more false community engagement.
Ashé y adelante gente!
José Torres-Tama
ArteFuturo Productions
Note:
This is a guest blog from a gentleman I met at a community meeting last week. I am very pleased to have inspired Mr. Torres-Tama to write this piece. This is exactly the kind of community push back that we need to truly reform our public education system. We can’t allow “Fake Community Involvement” to go unchecked.
Thank you very much Mr. Torres-Tama
Education Talk New Orleans 
I am very thankful, humbled, and honored that people have come to New Orleans from different parts of the United States to help with the much-needed rebuilding effort.
However, I can’t understand how visitors with a limited knowledge of the history, culture, or struggles of the people of New Orleans can come to the conclusion that they know what this city needs and how to help its people without partnering with them.
I have lived in New Orleans my entire life, and even I cannot honestly say I know all of the rich cultures of the different wards, neighborhoods and communities of this city. Like the many tribes of natives of America, each ward has their own culture, traditions, and heritage.
Being a educator, organizer, and consultant, I would never go into a city, town, or community without partnering with people from that place who are native and truly know the landscape. Even then I would go into this endeavor humbly knowing that I do not have all the answers and that the people also have a wealth of information and experiences that they would like to share with me. So my objective would be to teach and learn in order to incorporate our ideas into a process that will work for the betterment of all parties involved.
The city of New Orleans is the birthplace of some of the most creative, courageous, and resilient people. But it seems that in the eyes of some, we are not educated, organized, or creative enough to come up with solutions to our problems. This opinion is evidenced by local government leaders and local nonprofit organizations that spend millions of taxpayer’s dollars to get people from all over the country to fix all our problems and give us all the answers.
Would it be too much to ask that these people partner with the human resources that already exist in the communities of New Orleans? People coming from out side the community to do work in our community should be trained or educated by people from that community. How can you come up with solution without taking the time to find out what the problems and causes are?
If I came into your home to fix “the problem” you would first expect me to knock on your door, introduce myself, get input from you about the problem, survey your home to find out exactly what the problem is and the cause, talk with you about a course of action to remedy the problem, get permission or consent from you to began work on the problem, and subsequently do a follow up to make sure the problem was solved.
Sometimes in an effort to fix our problems, people sometimes unintentionally cause more problems and this is mainly due to their inability to understand or empathize with the people of New Orleans. The people of New Orleans have experienced very traumatic events and are being further victimized by corruption, manipulation, exploitation, and disproportionate incarceration. Therefore, trust is normally one of the root problems hindering any real progress. Hurricane Katrina was only the icing on a very large cake of racism, poverty, lack of job equity, and a deplorable education system.
Before you assume that they are no leaders and spend lots of money on leadership development for our communities take the time to consider: 1) what is a leader? 2) Why are people reluctant to assume a position of leadership? 3) Are adequate resources available to community-based leadership that allows them to be effective? 4) Is government interference (laws, rules, policies, etc.) undermining leaders who strive for real political and economic change in the community? 3) Are leaders chosen by the people or from a pool of candidates allowed, supported, and promoted by the government?
If you do not have the time to devote to truly assessing “our problem” it may be that you are a part of the problem and should not be rebuilding New Orleans.