The Black Informant

Over the recent Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to take some time to review the recent piece of legislation introduced by the Congressional Black Caucus entitled The Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Reclamation, Restoration, Reconstruction and Reunion Act of 2005 (HR-4197). I’ll just give you some of the highlights that stuck out to me. If you wish to read the bill in its entirety, click here.

Here is a line from the bill that I found interesting:

“…many of the hardest hit areas in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina were low-income and minority communities already facing decades of environmental injustices;”

This statement is very misleading. If one was to rely on the foxhole Katrina coverage (”foxhole” meaning that networks focused most of their time on the city of New Orleans not the other counties that were also affected) it would be very easy to conclude that blacks were the biggest victims in this unfortunate disaster. The facts tell us a different story.

Below, you will find a chart that illustrates the white vs. black makeup of affected counties/parishes:

Whites were far more affected by Katrina than blacks.

{data taken from census.gov. Chart format is from James Taranto’ article “Is Katrina Racist?” in OpinionJournal.com–part of the Wall Street Journal}

This bill also seeks to “restart” the Head Start program:

PART 4–WAIVER AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE HEAD START SERVICES

SEC. 541. WAIVER AUTHORITY TO EXPAND THE AVAILABILITY OF HEAD START SERVICES.

The Head Start program has had its share of problems as it relates to financial oversight and poor management. Here are a couple of articles that provide some additional information:

Stronger oversight urged for Head Start programs

By Cheryl Wetzstein

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Hundreds of Head Start preschool programs have financial irregularities, a government watchdog agency says in calling for tougher oversight of the 40-year-old anti-poverty program.

Between 2000 and 2003, 838 Head Start grantees were found to have one or more errors in the way they managed their program, finances or bookkeeping, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released today.

“The next time those grantees were reviewed, 440 — or 53 percent — were cited again for problems in those same areas,” the GAO report said.

These findings, plus other evidence of mismanagement, show that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) “has not implemented a well-integrated monitoring system to oversee the Head Start program, including its financial management,” the GAO said. Without change, the report added, “ACF will be unable to ascertain how widespread the problems are.” (more…)

So this department admits to widespread problems, but is unable to measure just how widespread these problems are in the Head Start program. This bill seeks to expand this program without any mention of a reliable system of checks and balances to ensure that the money goes to its intended source. Here is an excerpt from the actual GAO report:

Moreover, when we looked more closely at each of the processes ACF uses to oversee Head Start grantees, we identified flaws that limit the quality, accuracy, and reliability of the information ACF collects. ACF does not ensure that its on-site reviews are conducted in accordance with its own guidelines for grantee compliance; it does not verify the accuracy of the data grantees submit on key performance indicators each year; and it does not reconcile grantees’ actual withdrawals with reported expenditures until all the funds have been spent. In addition, many of the staff we spoke with said that they often learn about problems after they get calls from parents and teachers—an ad-hoc, reactive approach on which ACF relies too heavily instead of comprehensive, proactive risk assessment. (more…*.pdf)

The watchdog group Citizens Against Public Waste also came up with some additional findings [Link]

This bill also seeks to pour in money into the historically failing school system in New Orleans. Again, there is no mention of a way to ensure taxpayers that the proposed funding will not just simply restart failure. Again, here are some more excerpts that shed more light on the school situation before and after Katrina:

NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS BEFORE AND AFTER KATRINA (PBS)

November 1, 2005

JOHN MERROW: It had other problems besides decrepit buildings. New Orleans, the nation’s 50th largest public school system with nearly 60,000 students, had earned a reputation for incompetence and dishonesty.

JIMMY FAHRENHOLTZ: Fraud, corruption, contract scams, flat-out theft, people walking out with laptops, anything you can imagine. Any way you could steal they were doing it.

JOHN MERROW: Since 2002, there have been 24 indictments against school employees. $71 million in federal money was unaccounted for, and there were other problems. Academically, New Orleans was one of the worst public school systems in the country. 70 percent of the eighth graders were not proficient in math, 74 percent in English. Under pressure from the state because of the academic performance and in danger of going bankrupt, the school board acted. It hired a company that specializes in turning around failing organizations. They arrived in New Orleans in July.

JOHN MERROW: What did you find?

BILL ROBERTI: Just years and years and years of abuse, and of people just doing what they wanted to do. I mean there was — there was no discipline. (more…)

School Accountability Accounting

by Neal McCluskey

May 8, 2005

Neal McCluskey is a Cato Institute education fellow.

An April 12 Associated Press article about New Orleans school superintendent Anthony Amato’s resignation noted Mr. Amato was leaving “after more than two stormy years in the post, during which the school system lost millions of dollars, federal officials investigated allegations of corruption and test scores remained among the worst in the state.” In Mr. Amato’s defense, the article noted financial problems and corruption were rampant long before he arrived in the Big Easy. (more…)

Crises multiply at schools in New Orleans

By Adam Nossiter

April 19, 2005

The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — Dozens of employees indicted or convicted on corruption charges. Tens of millions of dollars unaccounted for. Eight superintendents in seven years. Rock-bottom test scores. Shootings, sirens and police uniforms, often. The threat of bankruptcy and bounced checks, constantly.

In the dismal gallery of failing urban school systems, New Orleans’ may be the biggest horror of them all. (more…)

On top of all of this, this bill is pushing for expedited teacher recruitment:

SEC. 558. EXPEDITED APPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER RECRUITMENT GRANTS.

As I mention earlier, this bill seriously lacks a thorough system of checks and balances to ensure both the intended recipients and taxpayers that the money will be properly spent. Both the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana have a long history of corruption and shady financial mismanagement. There were other sections of this bill that bear closer scrutiny by the public at larger. Again, I just wanted to highlight my own observations.

While I believe that the United States does have an obligation to rebuild this region, throwing our money into proven failed systems is very unwise and not the way to do it.