New Orleans nola

neglected
crappy schools destroyed give beachhead for educ reform
disaster capitalism?
=720 desmog
<div class="views-field views-field-title" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/09/new-orleans-environmental-racism-police-brutality-protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; font-weight: 700; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">New Orleans Activists Call out Environmental Racism Alongside Police Brutality in Week of Protests</a></div><div class="views-field views-field-body" style="font-size: 13px; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;">On June 3, just hours before New Orleans police tear-gassed a group protesting racial violence, Jesse Perkins, a Black veteran, called out the many shades of racism and violence his community...<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/09/new-orleans-environmental-racism-police-brutality-protests" style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">READ MO</a>RE</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/">https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/</a></div><div>
</div><div>TWO LEADERS OF the long-running fight for environmental justice in Louisiana turned themselves in to police in Baton Rouge Thursday morning. The activists, who work in a part of the state known as “Cancer Alley,” faced charges of “terrorizing” related to a nonviolent protest action. Civil liberties attorneys are calling the charges a dramatic escalation of a yearslong effort by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/27/pipeline-safety-legislation/" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">criminalize efforts</a> to halt the expansion of polluting facilities in the state — part of a nationwide trend of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/07/pipeline-petrochemical-lobbying-group-anti-protest-law/" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cracking down</a> on dissent around climate change issues.</div><div>
</div><div data-reactid="216" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The accusations against the activists, Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, stem from a seemingly innocuous activist stunt carried out in December, the day after a festival designed to draw attention to the environmental misdeeds of Formosa Plastics. The Taiwanese petrochemical company plans to build a massive plastics manufacturing complex in a largely Black Louisiana community that has already suffered health problems linked to local industry. In October, Formosa agreed to a $50 million settlement for dumping pollutants, including the small pellets that form the building blocks for plastic products known as nurdles, into Texas’s Lavaca Bay — the <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/stories/historic-pollution-settlement-to-nurdle-patrol.html#:_{:text=Formosa%20Plastics%20Corporation%20USA%20has,the%20federal%20Clean%20Water%20Act.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">largest</a> settlement of a Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by private citizens.with a key environmental permit still pending for Formosa in Louisiana, the action — dubbed “Nurdlefest” — was meant to pressure the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to scrutinize the company’s record. Boxes of the plastic pellets, used as evidence in the Texas case, were carted to the front of the agency, where around 75 people gathered in the rain.</div><div data-reactid="227" style="box-sizing: border-box;">What apparently terrorized community members, however, was a container of the pellets that appeared on the porch of an oil and gas lobbyist, with a detailed note attached, explaining what they were and their Texas origin. “We have delivered this package of nurdles as a reminder – Louisiana does not need anymore pollution, plastics or otherwise,” the letter said. “We demand that LDEQ DENY Formosa’s air emissions permit application.”</div><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: block; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px;">[ltr doc   Letter Included in "Nurdles" Package Sent by Louisiana Activists</a><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px; display: inline !important;">]</a><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: block; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px;">
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</div></div><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Raleway; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1; font-size: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="headline" href="https://boingboing.net/2019/11/25/f-rated-schools.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0.25em;">After Katrina, neoliberals replaced New Orleans' schools with charters, which are now failing</a><a class="byline" href="https://boingboing.net/author/cory_doctorow_1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); font-family: raleway; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 15.36px;"> CORY DOCTOROW</a></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">----</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On February 21, the New Orleans City Council unanimously voted to uphold approval of Entergy's proposed natural gas power plant, which faces a growing number of lawsuits, and passed a resolution to impose a $5 million fine on the company for its role in a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/10/entergy-natural-gas-power-plant-new-orleans-astroturfing-campaign" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">paid-actors scandal</a>.
<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/10/entergy-natural-gas-power-plant-new-orleans-astroturfing-campaign">https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/10/entergy-natural-gas-power-plant-new-orleans-astroturfing-campaign</a>
Before the vote, in nearly three hours of often emotional testimony mostly against the plant, many contended that the $5 million fine was not a sufficient punishment. This was in light of the council's commissioned investigation, <a href="https://thelensnola.org/2018/10/29/entergy-investigators-company-knew-or-should-have-known-about-paid-actors-at-council-meetings/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">which concluded the company "knew or should have known</a>" that a subcontractor was paying actors to support its proposed power plant at council meetings.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Entergy New Orleans, the company that recently <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/13/new-orleans-approves-entergy-natural-gas-plant-environmental-racism-climate-change" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">won approval</a> to build a controversial $210 million natural gas power plant in the city, confirmed that actors were paid to show support for this project at public meetings. Though Entergy claims it was unaware of the situation, a public relations firm it hired had paid freelance actors to testify in favor of the project at public meetings. On May 10, Entergy released its <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/NOPS%20Investigation%20Report%20Final%205%2010%202018.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">finding from an internal investigation</a> revealing that the public affairs firm The Hawthorn Group, which it hired to organize “grassroots support” for the natural gas power plant, in fact paid actors to voice and show support for the plant. The Hawthorn Group in turn hired a company called Crowds on Demand to “pay individuals that it recruited to appear and/or speak at those two meetings.”“This activity was undertaken without our knowledge or approval, and I can say unequivocally that it would not have been approved had we known,” Entergy General Counsel Marcus Brown <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/NEWSRELEASE_NOPSReport_5_10_18_FINAL.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said in a statement</a>. “We do, however, recognize that we ultimately are responsible for the actions of those who act on our behalf, and we are taking immediate steps to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”

Earlier this week, The Lens, an investigative journalism site, <a href="https://thelensnola.org/2018/05/10/entergy-says-a-public-relations-firm-hired-people-to-speak-on-behalf-of-its-new-power-plant/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported that actors</a> were paid $60 to show up at the meetings, and up to $200 to read a statement at two recent public meetings when critical votes regarding the plant were held.At one meeting in October last year, 50 people wearing orange shirts that read “Clean Energy. Good Jobs. Reliable Power” filled seats in an auditorium, preventing many residents who oppose the project from getting into the room. Entergy plans to build the natural gas power plant in New Orleans East, which is home to majority African-American and Vietnamese communities, raising concerns of environmental racism. Proponents claim the plant would address New Orleans’ energy outage issues, while critics say they could be solved for less money by fixing the city’s ailing transmission system.The Lens reported that the actors had to sign a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4450791-22450478-10209665066210350-1404230592-O.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">non-disclosure agreement</a> and were instructed not to speak to the media or tell anyone they were being paid to attend.Before the admission, Earthjustice <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/FILED-Louisiana-Open-Meetings-Petition-Memo-Proposed-Order.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">filed a lawsuit</a> on behalf of opponents of the power plant, including members of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Sierra Club, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and 350 New Orleans, in order to void the actions taken at the two meetings, one a city council meeting and another a utility commission meeting.The opponents also sent <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Ethics_Investigation_Request.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a letter</a> to the Louisiana Attorney General, Buddy Landry, calling for an investigation into who paid for the fake participants, and possible legal and ethical violations. 
Renate Heurich of 350 New Orleans testifying against the gas power plant on March 8, 2018.

Renate Heurich of <a href="https://350neworleans.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">350 New Orleans </a>doesn’t believe Entergy didn’t know the company’s money was going to paid actors at the public meetings. “I think the corruption goes much deeper than that,” she told me. “Why else would anyone on the council vote ‘yes’ on a project that has no value for the residents of New Orleans?” 

At the March council meeting before the vote for the plant was held, Heurich pleaded with the council not to invest in a fossil fuel infrastructure project in a city already plagued by the effects of climate change. “The vote for the plant, clearly wasn’t based on logic,” Heurich said. “The only one who benefits is Entergy.Astroturfing — secretly paying for efforts to create the illusion of grassroots support — is nothing new, but proving a company like Entergy may be involved can be challenging. Hawthorn, however, has a history of astroturf campaigns on behalf of the energy industry, as pointed out <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/hawthorn-group-pr-firm-paid-actors-new-orleans-entergy/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">by the Energy and Policy Institute</a>. In 2009, the company, paid by the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-coalition-clean-coal-electricity" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity</a>, hired a subcontractor to create the illusion of grassroots support against climate change legislation, which involved forging letters from minority groups such as NAACP’s Charlottesville chapter. And sometimes paid support can take another form — such as the fact that <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/entergy-paid-actor-scandal-widens/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Entergy's foundation donated</a> more than a million dollars to at least nine charitable organizations that testified on the plant's behalf, without always disclosing those donations, at the same public meetings now under scrutiny.*Brendan DeMelle, DeSmog’s executive director, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2014/11/17/edelman-transcanada-astroturf-documents-expose-oil-industry-s-broader-attack-public-interest" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wrote about</a> a 2014 astroturf effort made by communications firm Edelman on behalf of TransCanada for the Energy East tar sands export pipeline (a project <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/10/05/transcanada-cancels-energy-east-oilsands-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ultimately killed in 2017</a>). Documents obtained by Greenpeace outline a “grassroots advocacy” campaign plan to build support for TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline, as well as to undermine public opposition to oil and pipelines generally.Entergy’s claim that it didn’t know about the astroturfing effort made on its behalf sounded disingenuous to members of the coalition against the plant whom I spoke with after Entergy released its findings.
Happy Johnson testifying at a New Orleans City Council Meeting against Entergy’s proposed natural gas power plant. FLAnked by 2 cops about to pull him out?!Happy Johnson, author and humanitarian and an outspoken opponent to the gas plant, hopes in light of Entergy’s admission the permit will be reconsidered. According to Johnson, at the next council meeting on May 24, opponents plan to make their case to the newly seated city council that the permit needs to be revoked. “With this kind of trickery, I hope the new council will do the right thing and take another look,” Johnson said.
</div><div class="coverage_header_bar coverage_header_bar_news-politics" style="text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: bold; line-height: 32px;">altN</div><div class="region region-content" style="line-height: 32px;"><div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system first last odd count-1" style="position: relative;"><div class="content"><div id="node-1039734" class="node node-story view-mode-full clearfix" about="/news-amp-politics/17-shocking-stats-expose-decline-and-1ification-new-orleans" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document" style="position: relative;"><div class="headline"><h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title" style="line-height: 52px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both;">17 Shocking Stats That Expose the Decline and 1%ification of New Orleans</h1></div><div class="teaser" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 15px;"><div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden" style=""><div class="field-items" style=""><div class="field-item even" style="">Ten years after Katrina, it looks like the same people in New Orleans have been left behind again.</div></div></div></div><div class="byline news-politics" style="margin-bottom: 0px; max-width: 350px; float: left;">By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/bill-quigley" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Bill Quigley</a> / <a href="http://alternet.org/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">AlterNet</a></div><div class="story-date" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; padding-left: 15px; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">July 22, 2015</div><div class="authors_signup" style="clear: both;"><div class="item-list"><ul style="list-style-type: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><li class="first last" /></ul></div></div><div class="top-tools" style="clear: both; padding-top: 15px;">When <a href="http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=event_katrina2005" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Hurricane Katrina</a> hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, the nation saw tens of thousands of people left behind in New Orleans. Ten years later, it looks like the same people in New Orleans have been left behind again.</div><div class="the_body body_news-politics clearfix" style="line-height: 25px;">The population of New Orleans is noticeably smaller and noticeably whiter. While tens of billions poured into Louisiana, the impact on poor and working people in New Orleans has been minimal. Many of the elderly and the poor, especially poor families with children, never made it back to New Orleans. The poverty rate for children who did made it back remains at disturbingly high pre-Katrina levels, especially for black children. Rents are high and taking a higher percentage of people’s income. The pre-Katrina school system fired all its teachers and professionals and turned itself into the charter experiment capital of the US even while the number of children in public schools has dropped dramatically. Since Katrina, white incomes, which were over twice that of blacks, have risen three times as much as blacks. While not all the numbers below are bad, they do illustrate who has been left behind in the 10 years since Katrina.33: Rent in New Orleans is up 33 percent for one-bedroom apartments and 41 percent for two-bedroom apartments since Katrina hit.   This is very tough because in New Orleans, <a href="http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">55 percent</a> of residents rent. (The <a href="http://nmhc.org/Content.aspx?id=4708" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">national average</a> is 35 percent.) CNN/Money recently named New Orleans as one of the <a href="http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/new-orleans-one-of-the-worst-us-cities-for-renters/Content?oid=2609106" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">worst cities</a> in the US for renters. Before Katrina, the <a href="http://www.gnofairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Unsafe-Overpriced-Home-for-the-Holidays-FINAL.pd" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">average renter</a> spent 19 percent of her income on rent. The Data Center reports 37 percent of renters in New Orleans now spend more than <a href="http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">50 percent</a> of their income on rent. Rental apartments are mostly substandard and <a href="http://www.gnofairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Unsafe-Overpriced-Home-for-the-Holidays-FINAL.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">78 percent</a> of them, nearly 50,000 apartments, need major repairs.38: In <a href="http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_622.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">2005,</a> 38 percent of the children in New Orleans lived in poverty, 17 percentage points higher than the US as a whole. The most recent numbers show <a href="http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2015/02/thirty-nine_percent_of_new_orl.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">39 percent</a> of the children in New Orleans live in poverty. 82 percent of these families have someone working in the family so the <a href="http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2015/02/thirty-nine_percent_of_new_orl.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">primary cause</a> is low wages.44: New Orleans now has <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CI_Policy_Brief_No1.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">44 school boards</a>. Prior to Katrina, nearly all the public schools in New Orleans were overseen by the Orleans Parish School Board. <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CI_Policy_Brief_No1.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">91 percent</a> of the public schools in New Orleans are now charter schools, the highest rate in the country. Only <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cowen.poll.2015.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">32 percent</a> of African Americans believe the new charter school system is better than the public school system before the storm, versus 44 percent of whites (few whites attend the public schools).50: <a href="http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/12822531-125/post-katrina-progress-for-Black-new" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">50 percent</a> of the black children in New Orleans live in poor households, a higher percentage than when Katrina hit.59: New Orleans is now 59 percent African American, <a href="http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">down from 66.7</a> percent in 2000; 31 percent white, up from 26 percent in 2000; and 5.5 percent Hispanic, up from 3 percent in 2000.67: Prior to Katrina, <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Changing+Course+on+Incarceration.pd" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">New Orleans incarcerated</a> more of its citizens than any city in the US, five times the national average. Ongoing efforts by community members and local officials have <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Changing+Course+on+Incarceration.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">reduced</a> the number of people held in the jail by 67 percent.73: 73 percent of New Orleans students who start high school <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/07/new_orleans_high_school_exam_r.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">graduate</a> on time.3221: There are now 3221 fewer low-income public housing apartments in New Orleans than when Katrina hit. In 2005 there were 5,146 low-income public housing <a href="https://billquigley.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/locked-out-and-torn-down-public-housing-post-katrina-by-bill-quigley-and-sara-h-godchaux/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">apartments</a> in New Orleans, plus thousands of other public housing apartments scheduled for renewal or maintenance, nearly 100% African American. The housing authority now reports having 1925 public housing apartments available for low-income people on the sites of the demolished complexes, less than half the number promised, and less than half of those have rents set at rates which are affordable to those who lived in public housing before <a href="http://www.hano.org/our_story/Agency%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Winter%202015.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Katrina</a>. That means the majority of public housing units now require higher incomes from renters than the people who were living in public housing prior to Katrina. That is why only about half of the families who lived in the four public housing developments that were demolished after Katrina made it back to New Orleans by <a href="http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/katrina/12479401-186/katrina-scattered-new-orleans-entrenched" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">2011</a>. And only 7 percent of those original families were living in the new housing that replaced their homes.6,000: There are 6,000 fewer people on Social Security in Orleans Parish than before the storm. Orleans Parish had 26,654 people on Social Security, either old age or disability, in <a href="http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/2004/la.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">2004</a>. Orleans Parish had 20,325 people on Social Security in the <a href="http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/2013/la.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">latest report</a>. There are similar drops in the numbers of people on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in New Orleans. There were just over 3,000 families receiving state temporary assistance in New Orleans in <a href="http://www.dss.state.la.us/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats04-05/FITAP/fy0405_FITAP_Part_Reg.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">May 2005</a>. As of <a href="http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats14-" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">May 2015</a>, that number was down to 463.7,500: Over 7,500 public school teachers and paraprofessionals, mostly <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2015/05/justices_decline_to_hear_appea_1.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">African American</a>, were fired when Louisiana took over the New Orleans public school system after Katrina. The US Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal in May 2015.9,000: There are 9,000 fewer families receiving food stamps than before. In <a href="http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats14-15/SNAP/fy1415_FS_Part_Reg.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">May 2015</a>, Orleans Parish had just under 40,000 households receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. In <a href="http://www.dss.state.la.us/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats04-05/FOODSTAMPS/fy0405_FS_Part_Reg.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">May 2005</a>, New Orleans had 49,000 households receiving food stamps.17,392: There are 17,392 fewer children enrolled in <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/11/new_orleans_public_school_enro.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">public schools</a> in New Orleans now than before Katrina. There were over 63,000 enrolled pre-Katrina and now there are 45,608.35,451: The median income for white families in New Orleans is $60,553; that is $35,451 more than for black families whose median income was $25,102. In the last 10 years the median income for black families grew by 7 percent. At the same time, the median income for white families grew three times as fast, by <a href="http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/12822531-125/post-katrina-progress-for-Black-new" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">22 percent</a>. In 2005, the median income for black households was $23,394, while the median for white households was $49,262. By 2013, the median income for black households had grown only slightly, to $25,102. But the median for white households had jumped to $60,553.44,516: The New Orleans <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Latinos+in+New+Orleans.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">metro area</a> has 44,516 more Hispanic residents in 2013 than in 2000. The total is now 103,061, just over 8 percent of metro population according to the <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Latinos+in+New+Orleans.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Data Center</a>.71,000: 71,000 fewer people live in New Orleans now than before the storm. In <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/03/census_estimate_shows_strong_p.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">2005</a>, New Orleans had a population of 455,000 and in <a href="http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/population-by-parish/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">2014</a> its population was 384,000.99,650: There are <a href="http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">99,650</a> fewer African Americans living in New Orleans now than in 2000, compared to 11,000 fewer whites.$71 Billion: <a href="http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/katrina/12479369-186/the-cost-of-recovery-after" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">$71 billion</a> was received by the state of Louisiana for Katrina repairs, rehabilitation and rebuilding. This index makes it clear who did not get the money.<div class="bio-new body_news-politics" style="width: 630px; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both;"><div class="author-bio">Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He is also a member of the legal collective of School of Americas Watch, and can be reached at <a href="mailto:quigley77@gmail.com" style="text-decoration: none;">quigley77@gmail.com.</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>=14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher SchoolsSlave masters were nice, the KKK is A-OK, and the Great Depression is a liberal fantasy. Thanks, Gov. Jindal! By Deanna Pan | Tue Aug. 7, 2012 3:00 AM PDT Thanks to a new law [1] privatizing public education in Louisiana, Bible-based curriculum can now indoctrinate young, pliant minds with the good news of the Lord—all on the state taxpayers' dime. Under Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher program, considered the most sweeping [2] in the country, Louisiana is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars to help poor and middle-class students from the state's notoriously terrible public schools [3] receive a private education. While the governor's plan sounds great in the glittery parlance [4] of the state's PR machine, the program is rife with accountability problems [5] that actually haven't been solved [6] by the new standards [7] the Louisiana Department of Education adopted two weeks ago. For one, of the 119 (mostly Christian) participating schools, Zack Kopplin, a gutsy college sophomore who's taken to Change.org [8] to stonewall the program, has identified at least 19 [9] that teach or champion creationist nonscience and will rake in nearly $4 million in public funding [10] from the initial round of voucher designations.Read about Bobby Jindal's exorcism problem [11]. Many of these schools, Kopplin notes, rely on Pensacola-based A Beka Book [12] curriculum or Bob Jones University Press [13] textbooks to teach their pupils Bible-based "facts," such as the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster [14] and all sorts of pseudoscience that researcher Rachel Tabachnick and writer Thomas Vinciguerra have thankfully pored [15] over [16] so the rest of world doesn't have to. Here are some of my favorite lessons: 1. Dinosaurs and humans probably hung out: "Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007 Much like Whoopi and Teddy in the cinematic classic Theodore Rex. Screenshot: YouTubeMuch like tough cop Katie Coltrane and Teddy the T-rex in the direct-to-video hit Theodore Rex [18] Screenshot: YouTube 2. Dragons were totally real: "[Is] it possible that a fire-breathing animal really existed? Today some scientists are saying yes. They have found large chambers in certain dinosaur skulls…The large skull chambers could have contained special chemical-producing glands. When the animal forced the chemicals out of its mouth or nose, these substances may have combined and produced fire and smoke."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007 3. "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ."—America: Land That I Love [19], Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994 4. Africa needs religion: "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel…Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government."—Old World History and Geography in Christian Perspective [20], 3rd ed., A Beka Book, 2004 The literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"--give or take a few dozen percentage points. residentevil_stars2001/FlickrThe literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"…give or take a few dozen percentage points [21]. residentevil_stars2001 [22]/Flickr 5. Slave masters were nice guys: "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well."—United States History for Christian Schools [23], 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991 Slaves and their masters: BFF 4lyfe! Edward Williams Clay/Library of CongressDoesn't everyone look happy?! Edward Williams Clay/Library of Congress 6. The KKK was A-OK: "[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."—United States History for Christian Schools [24], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001 Just your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard! Unknown/Library of CongressJust your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard Unknown/Library of Congress 7. The Great Depression wasn't as bad as the liberals made it sound: "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath…Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."—United States History: Heritage of Freedom [25], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1996 Definitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/WikipediaDefinitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Wikipedia 8. SCOTUS enslaved fetuses: "Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child was not a living person but rather the "property" of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford)."—American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997 9. The Red Scare isn't over yet: "It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism."— American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997 Meanwhile, God sneezes glitter snot in the form of Capitalism. Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia 10. Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson were a couple of hacks: "[Mark] Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless…Twain's skepticism was clearly not the honest questioning of a seeker of truth but the deliberate defiance of a confessed rebel."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001 "Several of [Emily Dickinson's] poems show a presumptuous attitude concerning her eternal destiny and a veiled disrespect for authority in general. Throughout her life she viewed salvation as a gamble, not a certainty. Although she did view the Bible as a source of poetic inspiration, she never accepted it as an inerrant guide to life."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001 And her grammar was just despicable! Ugh! Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale UniversityTo say nothing of her poetry's Syntax and Punctuation—how odious it is.Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University 11. Abstract algebra is too dang complicated: "Unlike the 'modern math' theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute…A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."—ABeka.com [28] Maths is hard! Screenshot: MittRomney.comMATHS: Y U SO HARD? Screenshot: MittRomney.com [29] 12. Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists."—Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998 13. "Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world's richest nations."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999 Plotting world destruction, BRB. Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy/FlickrPlotting economic apocalypse, BRB Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy [31]/Flickr 14. Globalization is a precursor to rapture: "But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999 He'll probably be in cahoots with the global environmentalists. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaSwapping insider-trading secrets is the devil's favorite pastime. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaWhew! Seems extreme. But perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. Gov. Jindal, you remember, once tried to perform an exorcism on a college gal pal. [11]Source URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars Links:[1] http://www.louisianaschools.net/topics/act2_choice_law.html[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601[3] http://www.wafb.com/story/15623744/new-scores-44-of-louisiana-public-schools-failing[4] http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=2&articleID=3377&navID=12[5] http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/louisiana-gives-us-taste-mitt-romneys-education-policy[6] http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/lousiana_school_voucher_standards_criticized.php[7] http://www.louisianaschools.net/offices/publicaffairs/press_release.aspx?PR=1664[8] http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-la-halt-the-implementation-of-louisiana-s-creationist-voucher-program[9] http://www.repealcreationism.com/697/stop-governor-jindals-creationist-voucher-program-before-governor-romney-takes-it-nationwide/[10] http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20120731/NEWS01/207310330/Some-voucher-schools-teaching-creationism[11] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/bobby-jindal-exorcised-his-college-girlfriend[12] http://www.abeka.com/[13] http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home[14] http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-06-26/news/32412766_1_voucher-plan-voucher-students-voucher-program[15] http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/25/84149/9275[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/weekinreview/27vinciguerra.ART.html?pagewanted=all[17] http://www.bjupress.com/product/228163?path=94384&spot=1[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY7gsUL9Xkk[19] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=109088[20] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=135275[21] http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=201[22] http://www.flickr.com/photos/23360760@N04/2231862471/[23] http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Schools-Timothy-Keesee/dp/0890845794/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top[24] http://www.bjupress.com/product/222141[25] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=103462[26] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=38733[27] http://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTS-LITERATURE-FOR-CHRISTIAN-SCHOOLS/dp/1579246362[28] http://www.abeka.com/Distinctives.aspx[29] http://www.mittromney.com/forms/middle-class-promise-gap-health-care-petition?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20120702_lb_healthcare_facebook[30] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=61263[31] http://www.flickr.com/photos/doe-oakridge/6945040384/=<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Louisiana" style="text-decoration: initial; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Louisiana</a>