A tale of two schools - unfair social differences between a public magnet school and a regular public school in New Orleans, LA

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 22, 1999 by Viebica Stokley

New Orleans students tell harsh story of differences in magnet and non-magnet schools

The following package of stories and opinion was reported and written by students in a news writing class at Xavier University in New Orleans.

It's hard to tell whether the chipped paint on the walls of Alcee Fortier High School has been worn away with age or shattered by the incomprehensible chatter, shrieks and squawks that resound throughout every hall.

The buzz and cackle of 1,200 students' voices (depending on how many decided to show up) doesn't cease once classes begin. Many students continue to roam, aimlessly and loudly, about the halls well after the morning bell has sounded.

Whatever the reason, such behavior is clearly not a problem for their peers three miles across town at Benjamin Franklin High School, a magnet school.

Here the students walk on immaculate floors through freshly painted halls on their way to air-conditioned classrooms occupied by no more than 15 students.

Here, no students amble in halls after the bell sounds.

The students at Fortier mostly, if not all, are black. Those at Franklin are mostly white with a mixture of blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans. This difference in the racial makeup of these schools, the disparity in the condition of the schools and the quality of education they offer, is the subject of great controversy in New Orleans. The situation is repeated in public schools across the country (see accompanying story), great disparities in city after city, often played out along racial lines.

Critics say that the magnet school entrance tests are racially biased -- that the magnet school system fosters racial discrimination.

Perhaps the students at Fortier, reputedly the city's worst high school for discipline, ignore the bell because their overcrowded classrooms have no air conditioning and they are unwilling to sit in a stiflingly hot room with 34 other students on a typically humid New Orleans day. Or maybe they disregard the bell because no administrator or teacher has reprimanded them for their behavior or seen to it that they report to class.

The blatant differences between magnet and non-magnet New Orleans high schools are significant in another way: college attendance.

A recent Southern Education Association study in Southern states found that the number of black students matriculating to college is either at a standstill or declining. African-Americans are underrepresented in college preparatory courses. That's the pattern in New Orleans, a city of 500,000 that is 65 percent black with a school system 93 percent African-American.

While 100 percent of Franklin's 900 graduates go on to college, a Fortier guidance counselor says that 20 percent of the school's 1,000 students go on to four-year colleges. That figure is not surprising, given the average Fortier student grade point average of 1.5.

Not surprising

New Orleans school board member Henry Julian is not surprised by such findings. "There is a much smaller [than representative] percentage of African-Americans at a magnet school like Franklin. If there are not enough college preparatory programs within a non-magnet school, then it's likely that these students won't have too much encouragement to attend college," he said.

In 1996, two complaints were filed with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that the magnet school system was racially discriminatory. Federal officials instructed the school board to revise the magnet admissions policies as a result of the complaints.

Since that time, debate over the issue has been incessant. The school board's response to the complaint, which banned admissions tests said to be culturally biased, satisfied the Justice Department but not all of the critics of magnet school entrance policies.

One major problem non-magnet schools have to deal with that is not necessarily an issue at magnet schools is discipline. In a math class at Fortier, students talked back to the teacher and walked in and out of the classroom without regard for the lesson being taught or the teacher. At the same time, other students roamed the halls, yelling and laughing.

Fortier has gained such a bad reputation, it was recently targeted for additional state funding. But the bad reputation wasn't always the case.

"When my parents and grandparents were growing up, this was THE school," said Jon Jacobs, a Fortier special education teacher. "That's why you have senior citizens that are upset about hearing Fortier's name in the news and hearing negative things about the school," he said.

"Back then, it was run with an iron fist. If you talked, you were out. If you dropped a pin on the floor, you would hear it hit the ground. Of course, times changed," Jacobs said.

Tom Tews, the Ben Franklin magnet school's principal, sees discipline at his school in an entirely different context: "Our discipline problems are `Why aren't you working harder?' not `Why aren't you coming to school?' or `Why are you hitting that person?' "According to Tews, it is the very entrance exams that have been outlawed that weed out poorly disciplined students. Unlike critics, Tews believes the weeding out process is a positive thing.