Duncan on Katrina: 'Best Thing' for New Orleans Schools

I've spent a lot of time in New Orleans

and this is a tough thing to say

but I'm going to be really honest.

The best thing that happened to the education

system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.

That education system was a disaster.

And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the

community to say that we have to do better.

--- Arne Duncan

This from Politics K-12:

Did the usually smooth-tongued U.S. Secretary of Education really say that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to the education system in New Orleans? Oh yes, he did.

In an interview to be broadcast this weekend on Washington Watch With Roland Martin, Arne Duncan says, "I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that 'we have to do better.'"

Arne Duncan does speak frankly when it comes to the shortcomings of urban school districts, but this comment seems unusually callous, even though we know what the secretary is trying to say. The public schools were a wreck before the storm, no real debate there. And, yes, the schooling options for many students are better in the city now, and student achievement is slowly, but surely on the rise.

But to the thousands of teachers, students, and school employees who lost colleagues, jobs, classrooms, school records, and the like, a remark like that from the nation's top education official is beyond insensitive....

That post drew a protest from Duncan's folks who wanted to underscore that he was not insensitive to plight of New Orleanians. Then he reiterated: "As I heard repeatedly during my visits to New Orleans, for whatever reason, it took the devastating tragedy of the hurricane to wake up the community to demand more and expect better for their children."