Duncan: Katrina Was The “Best Thing” for New Orleans School System

It’s ok, though, because he’s a Democrat.
Posted by: bgates | Jan 29, 2010 5:31:47 PM
Yup. No problem. His heart was in the right place. Move along. Nothing to see here.

There are blessings in all disasters.
But the families that lost loved ones, and those that survived the horror would probably not agree with Duncan.
It was an insensitive thing to say–even for a Democrat.

Great Arne. Now can we destroy public schools nationwide? For their benefit of course.

As a liberal democrat and New Orleans native, these comments are so insensitive and ignorant. You can’t pull apart outcomes from Katrina and say it was good for this and not good for that. People lost their lives and all they owned in Katrina. Ask any New Orleanian or any citizen in this country if they would be willing to go through what New Orleans went through to improve their schools and see what they say. What he is saying is equivalent to saying that 911 was good for this country because it improved safety measures in this country and especially in the airports. Mr. Duncan, what you said was shameful, disgraceful, totally disrepectful to the City of New Orleans and you should be apologizing profusely for the next week.

Democrats are upset that Rush Limbaugh didn’t say this so they could accuse him of being racist.

Ok….does anyone want to make the argument that Katrina has made the school system worse? Duncan said that because of Katrina, they were able to improve the school system.
However, it was extremely insensitive and a very poor choice of words, and he should be feeling quite moronic for saying it. But he obviously didn’t mean “it’s a good thing Katrina destroyed the city”.
Why is it when someone misspeaks, the rest of what he says is completely ignored? Like when McCain was speaking negatively about the poor state of the economy and he gives one positive statement “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” and that’s all anyone hears and it dooms his campaign.
Thanks Jake for only telling us the unimportant semantics.

Jeff wrote: “Ok….does anyone want to make the argument that Katrina has made the school system worse? ”
.
Might want to ask Houston or any of the other cities that opened their hearts, homes, and wallets to the New Orleans folks that the Democrat mayor and governor left to fend for themselves.

Those who complain about how Secretary Duncan said what he did are missing the point. He may have phrased it inelegantly, but is there any question as to whether he told the truth? I don’t think so. What is tragic is that it took a disaster of this magnitude to break up the culture of failure that characterized the public schools of New Orleans. I just hope that the dead hand of the teachers unions and their partners in the educational bureaucracy will not be able to strangle the innovation that’s taking place there before it has the opportunity to demonstrate its superiority to the old way of doing things.

While what Duncan said was very, VERY inartful and insensitive,imo, and it absolutely could have been worded much more artfully (and I seriously hope he isn’t given to or continue saying things this insensitively on an ongoing basis), in full context its not quite as bad as it sounds in the headline here, imho (and the headline at WaPo is worse). Moreover, there is truth in the statement that the education system was terrible before. I’ve read some great articles about the reform going on there and it is amazing and to be applauded.

I am a Democrat and I despise Arne Duncan and his Disaster Capitalism Bull Crap.

In the CONTEXT of how he said it, this is not really a headline grabber–but it will be

I think everyone needs to calm down. Most folks have forgotten about Katrina and yet are now somehow offended. Arne was simply pointing out a silver lining after being specifically asked if the disaster helped the education system.
My sense it that many of you really enjoy picking apart something someone says. Not everything is offensive but anything can be made to sound offensive if framed correctly.
And I believe this leak of an upcoming interview is intended to boost ratings for the show when it airs. This will make people watch.

Complicate the disrespectful and insensitive remark by adding a stupid assumption that privatized school systems are superior to public education. The failures of privatized schools are well documented, and predictably, will most likely not solve the education problems in New Orleans. These problems stem from the roots of American culture, just as the disaster relief failed because of our apartheid mentality (to borrow from Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine.

The earthquake was really the best what could happen to Haiti because now they get the free food and doctors that they were rather reluctant to provide for themselves before.
What, is it a bad analogy?

As someone who lived through the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, I totally get it. There is a secondary tsunami of government, insurance, and private money that courses into every corner after a disaster like Katrina. Unemployment disappears as everything is rebuilt with a stream of cash that never ends. My children’s schools were rebuilt and restocked with everything from new basketballs to new microscopes.The worse your school was, the more profound the turn-around, and I hear the schools in NOLA were pretty bad. Those hearty enough to ride out the rough patches are rewarded. The only threat to the shape and scope of such heavily subsidized, massively ENORMOUS recoveries is corruption, esp. at the local level. ( Let’s hope for the best in Haiti.)

Good points above – let’s just try to remember them the next time someone on the right (Rush, probably) says something true but non-PC.

This is a gaffe, especially when considering that it came from a member of the Smartest Administration in History.

I doubt the folks in Houston would say it was the best thing that ever happened. Didn’t Houston get a large number of New Orleans’ most disadvantaged students?

Then I guess by following the Obama Administration’s logic, the improvement is all Bush’s fault.

Les, that’s one way to put it, and it is absolutely true…not sayin’ its right. After Andrew, most people had private insurance money coming in, unlike Katrina with more govt money. But the gravy train eventually runs dry, and the costs get passed along.. higher insurance premiums, higher taxes..or both…for everyone.

So the 2 responses to his quote are 1) he’s right (which he is) or 2) the “how dare he say that!” folks trying to score political points. I’m sick of the finger-pointing about Katrina. Go find some other hot potato to yap about — the man is 100 percent right.

I have no personal knowledge of the NOLA school system, but I have no doubt that what was said about it is correct. That doesn’t mean that anyone who can perceive some good coming of Katrina has made a gaffe. It is pointing out a fact. Several posters have noted that this is no different than some of the non-PC things said by political analysts – I agree with that, too. The truth is often not-PC. I was just in NO on business 2 days ago. I had visited 2 years ago, as well. Many things have changed tremendously in those 2 years, some have not. When I was there 2 years ago we took a “Katrina Tour.” The first thing that the guide told us was not to feel guilty about wanting to see what happened. She said there is a lot to learn from it and that we were providing a job to her, the bus driver, and the local bus company. She proceeded to give us an excellent tour complete with news articles she had saved and political analysis of her own. She blamed the local and state officials for defying the federal govt on evacuation. Most people do not know that the reason that the school buses couldn’t be used for evacuation was because the city and state govt waited too long to make the evacuation mandatory and the majority of the licensed bus drivers had voluntarily evacuated with their families (as they should have). There was no one left to drive the buses when the mandatory evacuation was finally declared.
Regardless, if the good thing about Katrina is that the schools are improved, then we should celebrate that something good will come of this. What if we had NOTHING good to come of it? I am proud that NO school officials are making good use of the funding provided. Thank goodness it isn’t being squandered.

Aside from the callous nature of the statement befitting any good fanatic totalitarian, is there any verifiable proof that Duncan has any genuine proof for improvement? As with so much said about modern education, vague nonsense or misleading figures a.k.a. propaganda is the rule of presentation to the general public.

Hello Abcnews,
I take your point Hurricane season is kicking in with a nightmare storm in New Orleans. A city that has barely recovered from Hurricane Katrina is being affected by Hurricane Gustav. One group that is greatly overlooked is the K12 students who will be missing school. The schools in New Orleans are still recovering from Katrina. and making attempts to implement changes that improve student performance. Any slowdown in each K12 student’s education is a dagger in the heart of what’s been described as very unstable communities.
The New Orleans Gustav Hurricane is easily reminding residents of how slowly school was restored after Hurricane Katrina. In fact some neighborhood schools could not be reopened after Katrina. The parents and teachers in the city need to join hands in developing an education plan for these crisis situations. Increasing opportunities to read and do home work may be one great way to keep students intellectually active. Nearly 2 million people have fled the Louisiana coast including residents from New Orleans. There are thousands of disappointed students who need to keep their minds stimulated. Too many of their schools are faced with changing principals and teachers. Some of the teachers who are frustrated with the unstable weather like Gustav may be leaving the area permanently. If New Orleans is like many school systems where the teachers are retiring class sizes may increase until new teachers are hired. The New Orleans School District needs to diligently work toward developing attractive incentives that motivate teachers to stay.
Wishes