New Orleans Still Reeling
Teachers Educated By Big Easy Plight

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

City Teachers and Professors knew there was work to do when they signed up to spend two weeks in New Orleans this summer, but the level of devastation they witnessed left them bewildered.

CAN'T WAIT ON GOVERNMENT: Geof Sorkin (left), the United Federation of Teachers chapter chair at I.S. 259 in Bay Ridge, and delegate John Amato stand in front of a house in New Orleans they worked on, which is being rebuilt by Habitat for Humanity. 'The scary part of all of this is that there certainly should be more government assistance,' said Mr. Sorkin. 'It seems like people are fending for themselves.'

"I've never seen anything like this," said Robert Putz, a Professor of math and computer science at Kingsborough Community College. "I expected there to be construction and rebuilding. But compared to the need, it's nothing."

Devastation in Air

The city educators were part of the American Federation of Teachers' Union Summer Project, which sent members to New Orleans to help rebuild houses, paint schools and tutor children. The participants describe a city abandoned by government almost two years after Hurricane Katrina hit: Teachers in families of four still living in trailers meant for two people; houses that looked habitable from the outside but were missing walls and floors inside; and blocks upon blocks where no more than two families were living.

Cecelia McCall, who taught English for more than 35 years at Baruch College, said that on her trip with the AFT's Human Rights Committee in February 2006 to the Lower Ninth Ward, all she saw was open space and flattened houses. "Now you don't see the houses, just the platforms that used to hold the houses," she said. "It looks like a forest, because there's no building going on."

The AFT local in New Orleans has been demolished, reduced from thousands to hundreds after the city summarily fired 4,900 Teachers and 1,900 school staff three months after the storm hit in the summer of 2005. The following spring, the city forced them to reapply for their old jobs in the few schools that re-opened, and then unilaterally cancelled their contract last June.

Schools, Union Gutted

A system that once comprised 128 schools before Hurricane Katrina struck has only 55 two years later, with children still on waiting lists. About 31 of those are charter schools, all of which are non-union. No school has a union contract. Salaries were slashed for veteran Teachers who did get jobs, after being forced to take basic skills tests, while the system offered a $17,000 bonus for new Teachers who moved to the area.

"The cost of getting a new Teacher to New Orleans - $17,000; the price of breaking the union - priceless," said Christian Roselund, the communications director for the United Teachers of New Orleans.

Mr. Putz described a surreal scene of blocks of empty houses with rotted infrastructures and freshly cut lawns. He helped the community group ACORN with some of the landscaping work, which became crucial when the city made it clear that any house with an overgrown lawn would be considered abandoned. Homeowners are in the bizarre bind of not wanting to lose their houses but not being able to afford to repair them. So community groups and good Samaritans mow the lawns, or the residents travel from their trailers to their former residences every so often to make sure the grass is cut.

Tourist Spots Revived

The union volunteers said that the French Quarter and the big hotels appeared to be back in business. "As far as the tourists are concerned, hey, New Orleans is back," said Mr. Putz. "But you step into the neighborhoods, and it's another story."

The union members described the Catch-22 faced by would-be residents. Even if they can afford to rebuild their homes, there are not necessarily enough seats in the schools, the strip malls are barren, and grocery stores are few and far between. And they worry about the safety of moving back to a block with no neighbors.

Mr. Putz said he nonetheless met Teachers who were optimistic about New Orleans' future and their ability to play an important role in children's lives.

Some of the volunteers said they too saw some hope amidst the horror. "It's surprising how much a fresh layer of paint can change the whole feel of a school," said Geof Sorkin, the United Federation of Teachers chapter chair at I.S. 259 in Bay Ridge, who along with co-worker John Amato helped to paint McMain High School. Mr. Sorkin said New Orleans residents and Teachers gave them a warm welcome, and were grateful for the assistance. When restaurant owners found out they were volunteers, they refused to let the visitors pay full price.

But most agreed that community groups and good-will efforts would not be able to fill the gap. "The scary part of all of this is that there certainly should be more government assistance," said Mr. Sorkin. "It seems like people are fending for themselves."

'Pressure Government'

Union officials said the purpose of the trips, which wrapped up last week, was not only to lend material and emotional support to fellow union members and New Orleans residents, but also to push the government to fund and focus the reconstruction of New Orleans.

"We can use some part of our resources to pressure government to do more," said Mike Fabricant, the treasurer of the Professional Staff Congress, which is an AFT local. "The largest part has to come from government - that's where the real resources are located." He argued that it was the role of labor to "push the state to fill needs otherwise unmet."

Volunteers also emphasized that they saw their work as an act of solidarity, not charity. But some were frustrated that they weren't able to do more to empower residents to be able to advocate on their own behalf and gain the skills they need to rebuild. "We go in and fish," said Ms. McCall, "but we don't have the chance to teach people to fish."

Union Rebuilding

New Orleans union officials say that for a while the fish weren't biting, but that they have begun to gather some momentum. After plummeting to 700 members last year from 5,500 before Katrina, the local has climbed back close to 1,000 by mounting an aggressive organizing campaign. They have a majority signed up on union cards in the non-charter schools and believe they are close to convincing one of the school boards to negotiate a contract with them. The Teachers are currently at-will employees under Louisiana's right-to-work laws.

Mr. Roselund said that having the successive waves of volunteers over the past few weeks had an enormous impact. "There's the direct physical benefits - fixing members' houses, renovating school libraries," he said, "but even greater is the psychological benefit. The government has abandoned people, but it's important to know that the union has not."