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Missed Opportunity for Jefferson?

One of New Orleans’ original “Catholic League” schools, Holy Cross, recently announced its intention to move its campus out of the lower 9th Ward. The area had been in decline for years and hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the century (plus) old campus. There was somewhat of a battle over the new site – some wanted the school to relocate to Jefferson Parish, others wanted Holy Cross to stay in New Orleans. New Orleans won, so to speak, as the school announced it will move into a recently vacated Archdiocese of New Orleans school district.

What I found interesting was the logic that some opponents used to fight against Holy Cross moving into Jefferson. A recent article in the Times Picayune stated:

Ray Ferrand, principal of Bonnabel High School in Kenner, said Holy Cross would increase its enrollment at the expense of Jefferson Parish’s public elementary, middle and high schools.

Joe Potts, head of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers, urged the board to reject the sale, saying it does nothing to help public school children.

Holy Cross charges a tuition of about $6,000 per year. If parents would opt to take their children out of Bonnabel, where they do not directly pay any tuition, to spend $6,000 per year, could this possibly be indicative of a problem with Jefferson’s public schools? And is it is even plausible that increased competition for Jefferson’s public schools could lead to improvements? If Holy Cross had paid Jefferson Parish more than $2 million for land, couldn’t that money have been put to use to aid the public schools?

NM

This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am and is filed under Education, Katrina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Missed Opportunity for Jefferson?”

  1. Brittany J. Williams Says:
    November 7th, 2006 at 8:59 am

    Holy Cross has been a great educational landmark in New Orleans for many years, and I would hate to see New Orleans lose such an educational gem. For the school to relocate to Jefferson Parish, given the tragic conditions of the lower ninth ward and New Orleans, may be the only way for Holy Cross to survive. To purchase the land for $2.5 million would give the city of Kenner, a great economic boost. It’s not that there are other major corporations standing in line to purchase the land. Holy Cross also will not be taken students away from the public school system, as many parents choose early in a child’s life whether they want their children educated in private or public schools. Given the influx of new students and residents to Jefferson Parish, they may not only need a new private school, but also public schools. New Orleans would love for Holy Cross to rebuild and remain in the city, but can the school survive for several years with limited students while the city attempts to make a major comeback.

    Dr. Turner, Econ 211, 3m

  2. Dameyel Welsch Says:
    November 28th, 2006 at 3:55 pm

    Holy Cross moving to Jefferson is a plus to the parish, but New Orleans needs the school to help their economy. Jefferson would gain more money to help improve and rebuild their schools. Holy Cross would become competition for the public schools to become better. The public schools may lose their male students to Holy Cross. This topic has pluses and minuses for the Jefferson Parish School System.

  3. Amanda Hucke Says:
    November 7th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    In my opinion, I think that Orleans Parish would suffer a loss, however it is not the only private school in New Orleans. There are a number of high cost schools in the New Orleans area. The question to ask is where is that money going? And how is it being spent? The same goes for Jefferson Parish. Being a graduate of a Jefferson Parish Public High School, I feel that my education there was very inadequate. I graduated with good grades and a relatively high GPA, but I honestly don’t think that the coursework was up to par. I passed all of my classes with very little effort. Thank God for the few good teachers that I had, that pushed me for all that I had. There are also many good private schools in Jefferson, but I don’t see any of that money going to help the public schools. I hava a younger brother and sister who attend public school, my family cannot afford anything else, and I fear that they too will get nothing out of their education but a piece of paper stating their profiency in high school academics. Ha, my 7 year old sister could probably pass high school as they stand right now.

    So, in my opinion, money from private schools in new orleans and Jefferson is going no where but into the pockets of the members who sit on te school board.

  4. morris.coats Says:
    November 7th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

    Amanda,

    There are three important points here. 1) Increased competition for customers does no harm to these customers, and is likely to increase the quality all the way around. 2) When customers choose to pay a lot rather than get some good that is “free” they are saying that the “free” good comes at an even higher cost–in this case, a poorly educated child–I commented on this in this article in 1998 http://www.nicholls.edu/mcoats/parents.htm. 3) Jefferson Parish would no longer face the cost of educating those children lost to Holy Cross, yet would still get the same tax dollars–maybe, though, their state subsidy may decline.

    MC

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