REPORT OUTLINES FLAWS OF NEW ORLEANS REFORMS

The redesigned two-district New Orleans public school system isn’t living up to the hype that it would be a national model for other urban school districts; flaws in the restructured system are obstructing chances of success, according to a recent report by the United Teachers of New Orleans, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the AFT.

“National Model or Flawed Approach?” details evidence that the restructured New Orleans public school system is unlikely to deliver on promises made when the state took over most of the city’s 128 public schools in November 2005. The takeover plan was promoted as a vehicle to create “world-class” schools and a “new national model” for urban schools in which “every decision focuses on the best interests of the children.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around for the mess we’re facing, but we’ve got to move on to focus on real solutions,” says UTNO president Brenda Mitchell. “This report isn’t about settling scores. It’s about the need to make changes so that we can have the best plan to educate students in quality neighborhood public schools.”

“This unfortunate experience carries a very important lesson: Leaders can’t work in a vacuum and attempt to create an effective school system without input from people with expertise and a stake in the schools—parents, staff and other community leaders,” says Nat LaCour, AFT secretary-treasurer and former longtime UTNO president.

The report finds three major flaws that impede effective high-quality education: Student access to quality neighborhood schools is inadequate; a severe teacher shortage is affecting quality classroom instruction; and the balkanized school system is a bureaucratic nightmare.

For more information and a link to the report, visit www.aft.org/news/2006/neworleans_schools.htm.

School nurse Diane Adloff got a new assignment this school year. A major with the U.S. Army Reserves, she was ordered to prepare for deployment to Iraq, where she is working as a community health nurse at a combat support hospital.

In her civilian life as a nationally certified school nurse, Adloff already has a big job with the Cleveland Public Schools, where she’s been since 1989. Her duties include working with young adults, including English language learners, at the Max Hayes Vocational School. At the Ben Franklin School, she serves nearly 800 preschoolers through eighth-graders, including a fair number of special education students.

Adloff tenaciously advocates for the children under her care, her colleagues say, writing individual healthcare plans and 504 plans to ensure their safety in school.

“School nursing is not a ‘Band-Aid’ profession,” she says, explaining that nurses need an array of skills, including self-assurance, to walk the line between educational and medical goals for their students. “I find my profession in the schools rewarding and challenging, and would never want to have picked another area of nursing.”

From her unit’s combat support hospital in Brooklyn, Ohio, Adloff was transferred for deployment to a hospital in Taunton, Mass. An Army reservist since 1991, she has three married children and three grandchildren, the youngest of whom will be walking and talking before she gets home, making her departure even more difficult.

“At age 57, this is certainly a new adventure in my life,” Adloff says, adding that she hopes to “make a difference for the people I will serve.”

PA. LEGISLATURE KILLS THREAT TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Faculty and supporters of academic freedom celebrated the final report of the Pennsylvania Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education. The November report of the bipartisan legislative panel concluded that legislation to create statewide protections for college students’ academic freedom rights is unnecessary because violations are “rare.” Further, the legislators found that at institutions where academic freedom policies are in place—this applies to virtually all the public institutions in the state—“the policies are effective at resolving disputes.”

For a while it seemed as if the intent of the legislation was to pave the way for passage of the so-called Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR), which right-wing activist David Horowitz is hawking at legislatures around the country. More than 20 states have rejected ABOR bills, which would allow government intervention in how faculty are hired, what they can teach and what students can learn in their college classrooms.

“In education, there is no need for the thought police,” says AFT vice president William Scheuerman, who testified before the Pennsylvania committee.

In response to the situation in Pennsylvania, and to Horowitz’s well-funded campaign, the AFT helped spearhead the creation of a coalition of education and civil liberties groups called Free Exchange on Campus. The coalition helped get word of the ABOR threat out to Pennsylvania campuses, which produced a strong showing of students and faculty of all political persuasions at the hearings.