New Orleans and the Future of American Education

I included one of Randi Weingarten’s Eduwonk postings yesterday.  Here is another: New Orleans and the Future of American Education

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

New Orleans and the Future of American Education
Guest Blogger: Randi Weingarten
http://www.eduwonk.com/2007/08/new-orleans-and-future-of-american.html

Opinions here are my own and not necessarily those of the United Federation of Teachers, where I serve as President.

In the next week, we will mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The images of widespread destruction and needless suffering and death that flashed across our television screens two years ago remain fresh in our collective memory, if only because they were so stark and terrible. For a moment, the reality of the 'other America,' living in poverty and shut out of the American dream, became real for all Americans. We were shamed by the knowledge that thousands of people, many of them poor or of color, were left for days and days without essential food, water, shelter, medicine and health care as a result of the catastrophic failure of our government. In the wealthiest and most powerful nation of the world, such a failure was a monumental travesty.