New Orleans residents are feeling better about their public schools. A Tulane University report shows 59 percent of those surveyed found the city network of charter schools has improved public education.
More than 90 percent of public school students in New Orleans attend charter schools. It’s the highest rate in the nation. Of the 600 people surveyed last month who have children in New Orleans public schools, 71 percent said public education has improved.
Vincent Rossmeier is policy director of the Cowan Institute at Tulane, which has conducted annual surveys of the post-Katrina education system since 2009.
“From the poll results you see a general level of optimism with the city as a whole and then also with the way our system of schools is headed right now, and that there has been significant improvement," he said. "But that there’s still a recognition that we shouldn’t be complacent and should be looking to continue that improvement in the years ahead.”
The system overall gets a grade of C in the poll. And some see a need for more career and technical training over focusing on preparation for four-year colleges.
Rossmeier says future surveys will likely monitor that technical-education movement.
“Career and technical training will only become more important because, by all accounts," he said, "there are going to be a lot of jobs to be filled.”
The survey found strong support of the open enrollment system, rather than neighborhood school assignments.
