NEW ORLEANS – When public charter schools are allowed to flourish, great things can happen.

That’s the unmistakable lesson that emerged from New Orleans following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

“According to a report issued by Tulane University’s Scott S. Cowen Institute for Public School Initatives, the growth of charter schools has yielded positive results, with the ACT scores of New Orleans students improving at a faster rate than state and national averages,” Newsmax reports.

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The results are significant because New Orleans has the highest concentration of public school students attending charter schools anywhere in the United States. Last school year, 84 percent of all public school students in the city attended charter schools, Newsmax reports.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, “everybody had given up on” New Orleans schools because of the embarrassingly low graduation rates and nearly non-existent student learning. But after the hurricane hit in 2005, district officials saw an opportunity to remake the district.

They “laid off every public school teacher, resisted reconstructing the teachers union, and handed a majority of the school system over to the Recovery School District,” a state-run district aimed at turning around failing schools.

RSD leaders allowed charter schools to flourish, and it was clearly the right decision.

“It has been far and away the best city in terms of school improvement,” Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, told Newsmax.

We believe the same type of approach could work in other cities, as well, if district officials were free to manage their schools without union or government interference.

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Newsmax points out that two pending revisions of the No Child Left Behind Act – one from U.S. House Republicans and one from U.S. Senate Republicans – both include provisions to send more support and funding to charter schools.

While it’s difficult to determine if either bill stands a chance of passing, it’s obvious Democrats aren’t on board. The House version of the legislation passed 227-207 with no support from Democrats, Newsmax reports.

Senate Health Education and Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said the House bill doesn’t “ensure access to comprehensive education, teachers who are the most effective, and standards that are world-class.”

Regardless of what Washington bigwigs might think, data shows charter school students in New Orleans are making great strides, and more students across the country could be doing the same.

More large scale improvement will require lawmakers and local bureaucrats to put aside their long-held loyalties to the teachers unions in favor of real reforms that work, including fostering charter schools that focus exclusively on students’ best interests.