Posted on 09/06/2014 10:59:48 AM PDT by BBell
Having closed or chartered all its schools, the Recovery School District quietly shed 84 percent of its staff this summer. The statewide system now has only 92 employees, down from 568, and one third of those remaining run New Orleans pre-school programs.
The system made national headlines this year when it shut its final New Orleans schools. But in fact, it no longer runs schools anywhere in Louisiana, not in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, St. Helena Parish or Point Coupee Parish. Its remaining mission is oversight of more than 60 elementary and secondary charter schools, plus pre-school programs.
Its budget for the current academic year is $214 million. And all but $20 million of the budget is for construction, for New Orleans is in the middle of a $1.8 billion school rebuilding plan. The $20 million operating budget represents a 93 percent drop in two years.
To be sure, Leslie Jacobs, a key force behind the 2003 creation of the Recovery School District, has said its founders never intended for it to run schools. Its mission was to turn them over to independent, nonprofit charter operators.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Now thatz what I’m talking about.
Still, $200 million?
Can’t that be pared as well?
I thought the same thing, but the light green is construction, whatever that unnecessary projects that covers.
The construction budget survived mostly intact. I’d like to see a list of the projects; I suspect some of the proposed work is in areas where the population hasn’t returned enough to warrant the improvements.
A lot of it is hurricane related. Katrina,Rita,Ivan,Issac....
If it’s really paring down, cut out the preschool.
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