Hoping To Save New Orleans

It's been almost two years since that hurricane that destroyed much of New Orleans. Yet we still have only about half the number of schools open. Many were physically destroyed and the population less that half of what it was before the storm. That accounts for the scarcity of schools. But worse. There are far too teachers available in New Orleans. Perhaps one third of the original number are in schools that are open, accounting for the huge classes and lack of elective course offerings for primary and secondary education students here. In fact, the private school system here is healthy and educating the vast majority of the residents living in the city and the suburbs.
The problem is they can't find many teachers here and even fewer from outside the city and area want to live in New Orleans and work in what was already a poor school system before the storm and is now a "flood" of problems. Even with recruiters here and in other parts of the U.S., there are few takers wanting to work in the dysfunctional New Orleans Public School System. My state contacted me more than a year ago with an offer of a job, paid at regular salary plus about $30,000 in incentives. I wouldn't work there under any circumstance. Hehe besides I am working hard educating YOU here...just kidding.
The spiel they give attract out of state teachers is the "you can make a difference and be apart of a historic opportunity". But I don't think many teachers want to relocate to a broken city to teach in a broken school system with little hope for improvement. With at least 650 teachers needed just to reach normal staffing of the schools one wonders if the hopeless school system reflects the hopeless state of the city itself.
We are getting help from non profit agencies like 'Teach For America' and 'The New Orleans Teacher Project' that try to bring teachers to New Orleans. But it is hard sell. Since the hurricane New Orleans has a three tiered free public school system- A state run "Recovery School District", the regular New Orleans Public School system and a number of independent charter schools that are loosely regulated by the state. That division makes it confusing for parents and teachers to understand the system the teachers or the students select to use.
Laura Bush was in town twice last month to also help recruit teachers to New Orleans at the invitation of Teach For America. She announced that her foundation for restocking libraries in schools would receive a half of a million dollars for new books to replace some of the ones lost in the storm. Hehe Thankfully, she left George at home. Our image is already bad enough. Adding George Bush to it would not help.
So far a few younger teachers have taken the bait, some recent teacher graduates who know the city or were here after the hurricane as volunteers to help repair homes. they range from Harvard Grads to teachers from small towns in remote areas of the U.S. the mantra of each is idealism in that they truly believe that through teaching kids here in our substandard public schools they can help save the city. I wish them luck and suggest they buy plenty of aspirin for the school sessions they will endure.
If teaching in one of our schools is often compared to diving into a pile of manure I may have another candidate for a teaching job here. She is an unidentified Chinese woman who must be practicing for a job interview with New Orleans Public School recruiters. Why? Well, she just survived a plunge from a sixth floor balcony thanks to a convenient pile of excrement which broke her fall. Media sources in China said the accident happened when the woman was hanging out laundry on Monday in Nanjing, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu. "Workers happened to be emptying the building's septic tank, which had not been tended for a long time and had regularly blocked sewage pipes," a Nanjing newspaper said. "She probably stretched out too far and fell ... right on to a 20cm-thick heap of excrement."
The woman suffered only slight injuries. Hmmmmmm Sounds like a good candidate to teacher here.