State and district school officials argue that they’ve complied with a 2015 federal civil-rights judgment. But lawyers representing students who still aren’t getting adequate special ed services say that school officials may be complying with the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it.
Author Archives: Marta Jewson
Marta Jewson covers education in New Orleans for The Lens. She began her reporting career covering charter schools for The Lens and helped found the hyperlocal news site Mid-City Messenger. Jewson returned to New Orleans in the fall of 2014 after covering education for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in journalism and social welfare and a concentration in educational policy studies.
Jewson has covered New Orleans schools for 15 years through the nation's largest education reform experiment. She was a founding member of the outlet's Charter School Reporting Corps and was instrumental in holding schools accountable to sunshine laws during the rapid expansion of charter schools in the city.
Posted inSchools
City Council poised to send $10 million to schools, Cantrell could veto
Council members say they feel beholden to the November agreement that they’d forged with the school board. And though the mayor backed out of the proposal, citing a tight city budget, council members see no worrisome shortfalls ahead, they say.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
The price of Passionfruit: how band directors balance the books
New Orleans band directors must see band as a small business, if they want to provide students — especially students in this high-poverty city — with instruments, uniforms, daily bus rides, food after parades, and all the tools they need to boost musicianship.
Posted inSchools
OPSB goes to court to get $20 million – and to stop the city from skimming money from schoolkids
While recent furor has focused on the city’s fumbled $20 million deal with the Orleans Parish School Board, district leaders say it’s more important to stop the city from taking a “collection fee” off the top of school tax payments.
Posted inSchools
Council condemns mayor’s threat to scuttle $20 million settlement with Orleans Parish School Board
OPSB had sued because the city was skimming a portion off of the top of its OPSB tax payments; district officials agreed to settle last year, when the School Board realized it was facing a $36 million deficit.
Posted inEmbracing our narratives
She saw ‘a public-health crisis’ and opened a clinic in the emptied Lower 9
“Alice saved my life,” neighbors say. In 2007, Alice Craft-Kerney helped to launch a post-Katrina clinic that was invaluable to neighbors. But it closed its doors after an inexplicably short time.
Posted inNews
Top debate student couldn’t sway School Board to keep his school open
Delores Taylor Arthur School for Young Men closed Friday, and its students are now frantically trying to find spots to finish out the school year. Parents say that the school’s mid-year closing was a tragedy that could have been foreseen – and prevented.
Posted inSchools
‘Tis the season for school closures
Four city schools are likely to close. Budget shortfall could top $49 million.
Posted inSchools
Compare 2024 school performance scores for New Orleans charters
Though its score climbed a little, the NOLA Public Schools district received the same grade, a C, from the state of Louisiana for the third year in a row. The state’s A-F letter grades are particularly high-stakes for 12 charters, who could face closure at the end of the school year.
Posted inSchools
School Board seizes $20 million cash settlement, future funding, amid financial crisis
The Orleans Parish School Board settles a years-long lawsuit against the city, to provide financially strained schools with help that includes a swift, $20 million cash infusion and $70 million for education over 10 years.