"I had a son who served eight months in Iraq as a medic. He's a product of the public schools. His uniform had a shoulder patch of the American flag. That flag is supposed to mean something. I find myself asking if we still live in America because this isn't the America I know. The public schools are supposed to welcome every child, but my youngest son, Benjamin, couldn't find a school to take him. I couldn't even get them to provide me with any textbooks or materials to use until I can get him into a school. How can this be? Isn't education a child's right?"

Kathy Boisseau,

New Orleans parent

To: Friends of Public Education

From: The American Federation of Teachers

Date: January 30, 2007

Last week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that at least 300 would-be students have been turned away by public school officials in New Orleans. Where will these children receive an education?

Meanwhile, federal and state officials seem to be living in a dream world. On Monday, President Bush called the federal response to rebuilding New Orleans "very robust." Some state officials in Louisiana appear all too willing to tolerate the shameful realities of public schools without enough teachers, and children with no place to learn.

As the school year began, Louisiana's largest newspaper used the word "nightmare" to describe what parents faced under the city's newly restructured school system. The director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research called it "the most balkanized school system in North America."

Through enrollment caps and selective admission standards, many of the locally operated charter and non-charter schools have long been able to turn away applicants. Now, the 17 public schools that are part of the state-run Recovery School District are doing the same. On January 17, the Times-Picayune reported:

"In an exceedingly rare move for a public school system, hundreds of children seeking spots in the city's schools have been turned away — 'wait-listed' — and told that the campuses have no room, school officials said Tuesday."