EducateNOW

Our speaker today for TFA is a vital part of the education system in New Orleans - Leslie Jacobs.

Some facts that hit me today:

• 84% of public school children in New Orleans live below the poverty line
• The national average is 15%
• 57% of public school children in NoLa are being educated at charter schools (the highest in the nation) -- with growth estimated to be at 75% by 2014
• Pre-Katrina there were 65,000 students attending New Orleans Public Schools
• The 2008-09 school year brought 36,000
• None of the special education programs in the entire state of Louisiana are providing their students with what the national and state government consider to be even basically academically acceptable.
• Louisiana has the highest incarnation rate in the industrialized world.
• And the most convicted youth.

It's not that my students CAN or WILL learn. They HAVE to.