Red flags

Red Flags of Accountability

VOTE

Two words we may use frequently before and after the October 14, 2017 elections in New Orleans are

accountable and accountability.  Simple definitions from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary ---

accountable--adj. 1. subject to giving an account: answerable.  2. capable of being accounted for: explainable.  Syn  see responsible

accountability --n.

The definitions in Black's Law Dictionary are likewise blunt----

accountability.  State of being responsible or answerable.  See also Liability.

accountable.  Subject to pay; responsible; liable.

It is reasonable to demand that candidates be accountable and to question whether there is sufficient accountability in the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish School Board. It is fairly transparent what we are doing when we demand something; when we raise a question, it is not exactly clear whether we are requesting information or sending forth a nicely concealed accusation.  What we may believe is reasonable in our speech acts may be heard and interpreted as hostile in the arena of politics.  The potential clash between those who have nominal power and those of us who know we do not have power can be serious.

Such a clash occurred during the August 8 town hall on education reforms since Katrina sponsored by the New Orleans Association of Black Journalists at Xavier University. It wasn't something planned for the edification or entertainment of visiting journalists.  It just happened in the same way that Topsy  just grew.  The history of politics in New Orleans teaches us to be on guard about what means what, about how truth is always beyond our grasp.

The town hall began with a brief conversation between Michelle Miller-Morial and Dr. Adrienne Dixson, associate professor of Critical Race Theory and Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The conversation focused on the national educational landscape and the ascent of charter schools.  Dr. Dixson noted the ascent is related to neoliberal ideology, to belief that the private sector can and should have more power in shaping a future for education than Federal agencies, particularly the U. S. Department of Education.  She also noted that her research or mapping of the landscape in Louisiana and New Orleans is constrained by a legal cap on full disclosure ( limited availability of data) about student performance.  Thus, her account or narrative of the landscape cannot represent full accountability for something that is funded not with private money but taxpayer dollars. And the charter school boards, under the color of privacy,  can legally opt not to account for some things to the taxpayers who finance their enterprises.

There is the rub which became the wound as the town hall moved forward.

VOTE AND WATCH RED FLAGS

The wound opened as certain remarks were made by panelists who gave mini-state-of-the-schools reports under Norman Robinson's moderation.  Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr., Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent, suggested the  school unification plan, which goes into effect on July 1, 2018, can probably bring a sense of normality to education in New Orleans.  We can have a better dialogue.  Mr. Jamar McKneely, CEO of InspireNOLA Charter Schools, was visually and verbally rattled that citizens who aren't enthralled with charter schools do not attend enough to deeply rooted, interconnected problems of education, job prospects, and poverty.  He came across as a champion of neoliberalism as it was defined by Dr. Dixson. 

Having visited the OPSB website---http://opsb.us/schools  and  having read the draft unification plan, I had the word "accountable" in my mind as I listened.  O.K.  Citizens  in New Orleans did have choice and input in shaping a plan that has been legitimized by Governor Edwards's signing of Senate Bill 432 into law as Act 91.  A friend reminded me that input without power is a fairly empty political gesture. And Mr. McKneely was politically correct in not reminding the audience that the plan provides a loophole for schools in the "School Board Chartering Authority" section of the plan. " 

Quote ---

1. Autonomy ---Each charter school shall have complete autonomy over all areas of school operation as set forth in each school's Operating Agreement, as long as such operations are in compliance with all federal, state, and municipal laws and regulations.

Unquote---

Autonomy includes school programming, yearly calendars, hiring and firing, and budgeting among other things.  But do we have any federal, state, and municipal laws that mandate a charter school's being held accountable for instances of class- and race-based inequity in New Orleans?

 Autonomy can function as a firewall against questions about the displacement of education as critical learning with certification as successful performance on tests.  All charter schools are not equal.  Some do educate students; others certify students as candidates for dead-end menial labor.  Do any of them believe a mixture of traditional academic education and vocational/technical training (non-academic skill sets) should be an option for students who have talents that charter schools are ill-prepared to test?  As a friend urged me to do after the town hall event,  check the reports on strengths and weakness of "progress" in the landscape at http://www.CheckStatePlans.org .

As far as I am concerned, red flags flap noisily in the educational landscape of the Crescent City and send weird signals about who is accountable to whom for what and remind us that accountability is a terrible thing to waste. And normality is as likely to return to the new New Orleans as terrorism is likely to vanish from this planet. I would really like to know what members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) will write about the post-Katrina educational landscape in our city, to know if any of them saw the red flags of accountability.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            August 9, 2017