Mary Landrieu
Former U.S. Senator (D-LA) New Orleans
I was an appropriator in Washington. So I just earmarked $3 million for the New Orleans school board and I just thought, "Well, let me let the school board try to see what they would do if I just gave them $3 million, or the federal government gave them $3 million." The money sat in their account for three years. They wouldn't do anything with it. They wouldn't even try to come up with a new idea. So I just took the money away and I earmarked it to the University of New Orleans. They created the second and third charter school. Katrina hit the Friday we were raising the flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance at one of those schools. In fact, six months later, when I found my way back there, the water was gone, but the damage was still very visible. The sign welcoming me to the school, was still there. When I got back I said, "OK. We are not going to build the old failing system that we had. We are going to find a way to build a new system."
So with Margret Spellings, who was Secretary of Education, with a broad coalition of leaders here, we decided to move towards an all charter, or at least majority. It was just the way that we had to do it, and wanted to, many of us, to get our kids back in schools.
