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Schools in New Orleans

In your otherwise excellent article, Derrick, you say the situation for public schools is mixed. Your specific details are anything but - they paint the picture of shock-doctrine "reform" that Arne Duncan wants to bring to the whole country. As a former teacher in Chicago, I know well the hopes of parents who look to charter schools as the only practical hope they see, but the charters are a cruel hoax on this count -- utopian pragmatism. They rid themselves of troublesome students - those with greater needs; they can be PRIVATELY owned but accepting public money; and even by the test-happy standards of the pro-charter crown, they do as well or worse at teaching students. But they're magic anti-union devices.
Since the publication of your article, Arne Duncan mad the breath-stopping statement that Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans schools. Your analysis is quite timely.

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