On Sunday’s Meet the Press, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry blamed the growth of charter schools in New Orleans post-Katrina as one of the reasons the city has not improved since the storm.
The MSNBC host proclaimed “for many who are African-American it's not a better city in part because this so-called success story in the schools also included charterizing the entire system, which also meant deunionizing all teachers.”
While Harris-Perry stressed her assessment had nothing to do with “[w]hatever people feel about teachers unions,” she made it clear that she had a negative view of the growth of charter schools in New Orleans:
One important thing to remember is that it is the heart of the black middle class, particularly in New Orleans. And so, that loss of income and of economic stability for the black middle class there has been meaningful, so it's not just the schools but also the people who work in schools.
The MSNBC host never explained why New Orleans should continue to pay poorly performing teachers solely because it is a major source of “economic stability for the black middle class” but seemed to have no problem placing the success of teachers above the children of the city as a major factor in why the city has not recovered.
Harris-Perry also made sure to throw some cold water on increased investment in New Orleans since Katrina and argued that only certain neighborhoods could benefit from such growth:
I would say is, yes, there are some ways in in which the city has had a huge amount of federal investment it deserved before the storm, but also remember that that -- that stands on whether or not you are living in a community and a neighborhood that can take advantage of it.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
August 30, 2015
CHUCK TODD: I want to bring in Melissa Harris-Perry here, longtime New Orleans resident. When I told you about Malcolm Gladwell’s interview you had a sort of visceral reaction because you digested that New Yorker article. But let me ask you some of the basic questions here. New Orleans today, is it a better city than it was pre-Katrina? What do you say to that?
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: Maybe the only thing I agree on with Malcolm Gladwell in this assessment is that's a tough question to answer and depends on where one is standing. So the answer is if you're a Ninth Ward resident, whose home was destroyed, whose community was not rebuilt, and whose home was destroyed, importantly as you point out, not by Katrina, but, rather, by the federal levees that failed in the context of Katrina, then, no, it simply is not better off.
I would also suggest that for many who are African-American it's not a better city in part because this so-called success story in the schools also included charterizing the entire system, which also meant deunionizing all teachers. Whatever people feel about teachers unions, one important thing to remember is that it is the heart of the black middle class, particularly in New Orleans. And so, that loss of income and of economic stability for the black middle class there has been meaningful, so it's not just the schools but also the people who work in schools.
And I think -- the final thing I would say is, yes, there are some ways in in which the city has had a huge amount of federal investment it deserved before the storm, but also remember that that -- that stands on whether or not you are living in a community and a neighborhood that can take advantage of it.
