WAS HURRICANE KATRINA GOOD FOR THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS IN NEW ORLEANS? By Caroline Harris

Pre-Katrina The education system in New Orleans was already struggling prior to Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was known as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana

HURRICANE KATRINA On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans hard. 80% of New Orleans was underwater, and some areas were under as much as 20 feet of water. Hurricane Katrina severely destroyed 47 of the 128 New Orleans public schools and 38 other schools had moderate damage.

HOPE? Although Hurricane Katrina destroyed a lot of New Orleans, some people saw this as a time for change in the New Orleans school system. Maybe this was the city’s chance to rebuild the education system from scratch?

RESEARCH QUESTION The Post-Katrina era of New Orleans brought about, the rapid expansion of the Recovery School District, the removal of school attendance zones, the rise of charter schools, and a new group of teachers, but did these factors actually bring about a better education for the struggling students of New Orleans?

THESIS The people of New Orleans had hoped that Hurricane Katrina would bring about a drastic change in the education system, but the rapid expansion of RSD brought about many unsupplied classrooms and inexperienced teachers and the removal of school attendance zone caused confusion among parents and there was no transportation for students to get to their school of “choice”. While it is true that this hurricane made the country aware of how poor and bad off the city of New Orleans was, it did not bring about the change in education that the citizens and government had hoped for.