An article just posted on the EdNext website, “New Schools in New Orleans,” looks at what’s next for the schools of New Orleans.

The author, Jed Horne, educated two sons in Orleans Parish public schools.  He is the author of Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his part in hurricane coverage by The Times-Picayune.

More public school students — 71% — are in charter schools in New Orleans than in any other U.S. city.  The percentage of students attending a low-performing school has fallen by half, from 67 percent to 34 percent. New Orleans’s polycentric administrative structure – with schools run by the state and the school board as well as by autonomous charter organizations – has fostered competition and performance gains.

The article is summarized in this press release.