new orleans no longer needs artist licence

“When you look at the state as a whole, you see huge inequalities if you look by parish,” Lewis said. For education, the report looks at degree attainment as well as school enrollment. While the state has made progress since its last report in 2009, Lewis said stark inequalities still exist, mainly between Black and white residents, especially when it comes to educational attainment. Lewis said that’s the purpose of the nonprofit’s report: Highlight disparities across the state with the hope that public officials use their research to steer resources toward high-need areas. Through better choices real progress is possible.” “The good news is that just as people and policy can create inequality, they can also dismantle it. “When educational resources are inequitably distributed as they are in Louisiana today, opportunity gaps widen and inequality can really grow,” Lewis said. That’s because white children largely attend private schools.ĭivisions like these are common in Louisiana, according to Kristen Lewis, director of Measure of America and author of its new report. White children account for 20 percent of the city’s population under 18 years of age but less than 9 percent of the public school student body. More than 90 percent of New Orleans public school students identify as people of color and 80 percent identify as Black. The gap between Black and white education index scores statewide is 1.34, but in New Orleans, the gap is three times as large. For example, 65 percent of white residents have a bachelor’s degree compared to 18 percent of Black residents. “It's unfortunate that I am unable to tell a young group here that we have made it because we haven't.”Ī recent report from Measure of America, a nonprofit that maps opportunity and well-being in America, found that while education continues to improve in Louisiana overall, Black residents report worse outcomes than their white peers.Īccording to the report, New Orleans has one of the highest education scores in the state at 5.79 out of 10, but it’s skewed by the city’s white population. “We have work still left to do,” said Orleans Parish School Board President Ethan Ashley at an event Friday honoring Bridges. Today, while no longer segregated in the traditional sense, inequities persist in many Louisiana schools. It was only seven years before segregation again took hold. Almost 100 years prior, a similar campaign led to the integration of the public school system. It was not the first time children and their parents led a movement for education access in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne became young Civil Rights leaders in a new push for school integration in the Deep South.

It’s been 60 years since four New Orleans first-graders walked through the doors of two all-white elementary schools.

New orleans no longer needs artist licence