Dive Brief:
- New Orleans public schools that were split off into a Recovery School District in 2005 because they were labeled chronic low-performers will be reunited with the Orleans Parish School Board next year at a projected cost of $28 million, according to a draft plan.
- The New Orleans Advocate reports the cost is approximately $5.5 million more than the two entities have, though when they join together, they should be able to realize as much as $1.2 million in savings by combining similar jobs and services.
- The plan highlights several tasks still on the table, including figuring out what centralized services to offer to charter schools, how employees from the recovery district will join Orleans Parish, how new employees’ pension costs will be paid, and how the district will continue to maintain facilities after 2024 when the current fund is projected to run out.
Dive Insight:
The New Orleans Recovery School District is made up of 52 charter schools run by independent boards. Many have called for a reunification of the two systems for years now, but there are still critics who oppose the way the reunification is being handled. A 13-member committee has been in charge of overseeing the transition, rather than the elected school board for Orleans Parish. And the act that reversed the takeover of the public schools requires that the schools in the Recovery School District remain charters.
New Orleans is considered one of the most positive charter experiments in the nation. While large charter networks in cities like Denver, Detroit and Chicago have been seen as parasitic to traditional public schools they compete with, many see the New Orleans Recovery School District as a success.