K+10...What It Means To Remember Katrina

And by Remember, I mean remembering the sociopolitical circumstances that led to so much tragedy and loss...and not repeating them. People didn't suffer and die for us to forget, declare everything "OK," and merely move on and recreate the same conditions. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Mayor Landrieu.)

Faith in Haiti

These don't look like the devil-deal making type of folks Pat Robertson made them out to be. Over the course of history, many Protestants have looked askance at the Catholic religion and our "idolatry"; and I wonder if that sort of thinking is also the source of Pat Robertson's ridiculous statements since Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic. But I tell you this, I and most people I know, regardless of our religions, would choose to have the faith displayed in this video by the people of Haiti any day of the week over that of Pat Robertson's.

Also, as a Katrina survivor, I want people to know that then, just as now and despite the media focus on a "breakdown of society," most people pull together and do not descend into chaos. Please don't mistake anguished pleas for help, whether to God or to the cameraman, as a sign of impending chaos -- especially if you've never found yourself in such a situation. Just hush your mouth, show some compassion, and do something to help even if it's just a prayer or sending a check to get relief on the ground.

Here's an Idea for Improving Student Test Scores

$150 million for improving accountability measures?

If Louisiana is selected by the U.S. Department of Education for the grants, about half the money would be distributed to districts to help with programs aimed at helping the poorest performing schools improve their rankings and student test results. Stronger accountability measures and teacher evaluations would be part of the process. [T-P, 1-9-2010]

I'm all for accountability, but here's an idear: How about spending the money on mental health services and more special education resources like more individualized supports, speech-language therapy, occupational therapy or on-campus health clinics or supports for parents to help their kids do better in school -- you know, all of the things that research has actually shown to help kids perform better in school.

Superintendent Pastorek, Please Report to the Planet Earth

From a Dept. of Education press release today:

The School has hired Dr. Alan Cohen, Medical Director and Founder of the National Deaf Academy, in Mount Dora, Florida. "Dr. Cohen is an expert in dealing with social and behavioral issues facing deaf and hard-of-hearing children," said Kenneth David, Director of the Louisiana School for the Deaf. "We're honored that he would work with us to improve how we serve our students."...

Also brought on board to assist is Dr. Cynthia Ashby, School Director of the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, and Dr. Reginald Redding, Director of the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf.

Superintendent Pastorek has scheduled a closed-door meeting this Tuesday with parents to receive their concerns and suggestions on how to provide the supervision needed at school and at home to improve student safety.

I must have missed the press releases announcing that Pastorek took behavioral and social problems in New Orleans schools seriously enough to hire 3 doctors (can't be cheap and is the statewide hiring freeze over?) and call a closed door meeting with parents here. I do, however, recall a friend who is a charter school principal expressing exasperation that staff were even more confused about how to help their special needs students (you know, including the hearing ones with behavior problems) after state education officials "explained" the special education process to them -- 3 months into the school year, I might add. Actually, that meeting made them aware of more barriers they'd have to cross to provide the federally mandated services that are alledgedly a civil right. Maybe if our public school students were deaf instead of just impoverished, abandoned, written off, and traumatized by exposure to violence and NOW by disaster too, Mr. Pastorek would do the same for them...

...instead of ridiculing our absurd concerns that the few kids who make it to 12th grade in N.O. are failing the exit exam by the busload.

He'd rather spend much more time on a scavenger hunt to find ethnic minority schools which actually aren't failing (notice not one of the 21 on the list is from Orleans, not even from a neighboring parish).

In February of this year, Mr. Pastorek was inspired by the doubts of a local elected official to find schools that served high minority/high poverty students and were achieving academic success. The Department of Education was able to identify 21 such schools...

It occurs to me that the top dog in state education, one who has really tried to find ways to help such schools, would have already identified most of the exceptions to the rule of the minority/poor failing school. To perhaps, I don't know, figure out how they defied the odds -- other by being located in the country (as if there's anything to do there besides studying).

As you can see, I've been watching this guy lately. I think he might be living in a parallel dimension...or perhaps on the verge of a break from reality.

Jackie Clarkson Changes Stance on Homelessness, Admits It's LikeTotally Like Not Good

Councilwoman-at-Large candidate Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, in a sudden change of opinion, has realized 9 days before the election that homelessness in New Orleans is a problem. In fact, "it's horrible"!

Possibly even more horrible than living in a FEMA trailer; but nowhere near the stupid human catastrophe putting FEMA trailers for future constituents on unusable golf courses in her neighborhood would be.

Jill on S-CHIP Veto (and Getting Your Priorities Straight!)

President Chimpy actually vetoed health insurance for children. FOR CHILDREN Y'ALL! Thirty-five billion dollars is apparently too much to spend on making sure working- & middle-class kids stay healthy. A trillion or so in tax cuts for the wealthy is apparently not. Neither is a few hundred billion to CONTRACT out this war and Katrina clean-up to cronies in his inner circle.

If you didn't make noise over the tax cuts which decimated the Treasury, if you didn't pitch a fit when the 3 states hardest hit by Katrina & Rita received only 16% of the billions Congress allocated for recovery, then maybe it's time you call folks like Sen. Vitter, who says he will not vote to override this veto and remind them we put them there to actually be of HELP! (I think "Vitty Cent" done really lost his damn mind as of late.)

My first ever guest blogger, Jill, is not pleased; and she is back to have a word with some of you (you know who you are):

It's on, people! PLEASE MAKE YOURSELVES HEARD ON THIS ISSUE! There are tools all over the web for you to write letters and send emails to your congressmen and women; there will be rallies held all over the country tomorrow as well. Also, now is as good a time as any to check your voter registration -- if you're not registered, get registered; if you need to update, do it.

At the risk of calling folks out, I'll go ahead and make it plain -- I got about a hundred emails from people about that ignorant Don Imus some months ago. I got a ton about the "Read a *&^%^ Book" video. Some folks even sent messages expressing outrage at PepsiCo for taking "in God we trust" off of their marketing materials or some similar foolishness. If y'all have time and energy to engage that madness -- you've certainly got time and energy enough to stand up for the health and wellness of our poor and near poor children. Let your reps know in no uncertain terms that this is a priority issue, and their vote gets yours. Let's go!

All the best,

Jill

Just Mah Two Cents

Maybe this will be a new segment: Just Mah Two Cents!

I'd like others' 2 cents on this too. A story in the T-P today about mixed-income housing brought this topic to mind. Folks should be pissed off that public housing hasn't reopened so they can come home; and HANO should have handled that much better. The apprehension and the skepticism towards promises is well-placed because promises to the poor and Black Americans have typically not been honored. People are afraid of losing their communities, their local support network, the familiarity. G Bitch wrote an excellent post about this and other public housing issues.

But I scratch my head when some folks oppose tearing down the projects to build mixed-income housing. Concentrated poverty, based on my opinion and observations, just doesn't seem to be a good idea. I think there is something beneficial for kids who grow up around professionals, college educated folks, etc. Those are the folks with connections to the scholarships, programs, internships that people need to succeed nowadays in many fields. Think of how many jobs you've found out about from a friend or colleague or from being in a certain organization. The more people that own homes around you, the more people there are who are invested in that neighborhood at a different level than people who rent; so there is more incentive to make sure that there are services, that street lights get fixed, that trash is picked up,etc..

There are a few experimental studies* that show that kids who moved to better neighborhoods did better in school, were more likely to go to college and less likely to be arrested than the kids in the control groups. There's also data to suggest that families who do move to "better" neighborhoods, Black families in particular, face a new set of problems like separation from support network, transportation issues, or social isolation because of race.

So i know there's no easy answer. This is a big issue and I can't put down all my thoughts about it today; but for me the bottomline is that we can't go back to the way housing was if the residents are going to have the same lack of resources and decent schools, and if their neighborhood is more neglected by the powers that be than other neighborhoods. Whatever the cause of crime or poverty or whatnot, I just haven't seen where big public housing developments have turned out to be a resounding success.

Should public housing residents be worried? Hells yes. But instead of opposing it all together, I think they should sit down with HANO and the developers and find ways to make this new way work and make sure the promises are kept. No matter how you look at it, most if not all of the old public housing units are old and shitty and need to be renewed anyway. I think there's much more for everybody to gain from cooperation in forging a better system than from having an all-or-nothing / don't-change-anything or tear-it-all down position.

So what's y'alls two cents?

*references on quasi-experimental or experimental neighborhood studies (Journal/Book is in CAPS):

• Briggs (1997) "Moving up versus moving out: Neighborhood effects in policy mobility programs." HOUSING POLICY DEBATE, Vol. 8, pp. 195-234.
  
• Rosenbaum, Kulieke, & Rubinowitz (1988). URBAN REVIEW, vol. 20, 28-41.

I can try to point people to more if you're like REAL psyched about reading this stuff. LOL