Ida deals new blow to Louisiana schools struggling to reopen
LULING, La. — Tara Williams’ three little boys run shirtless, because most of their clothes were swept away, and they stack milk crates beneath a blazing sun because their toys are all gone too. Their apartment is barely more than a door dangling from a frame, so they crowd into a Ford Fusion for shelter.
And as if Hurricane Ida didn’t take enough, it has also put the boys’ education on hold.
“They’re ready to get inside, go to school, get some air conditioning,” said 32-year-old Williams, who has twin 5-year-olds and a 7-year-old and is more pessimistic than officials about when they might be back in class. “The way it’s looking like now, it’s going to be next August.”
After a year and a half of pandemic disruptions that drove children from schools and pulled down test scores, at least 169,000 Louisiana children are out of class again, their studies derailed by the storm. The hurricane followed a rocky reopening in August that led to more COVID-19 infections and classroom closures, and now it will be weeks before some students go back again.
“How concerned am I? If you pick up a thesaurus, whatever’s the word for ‘most concerned,’” said Jarod Martin, superintendent of schools in hard-hit Lafourche Parish, southwest of New Orleans. “We were brimming with optimism and confident that we were going to defeat COVID, confident we were on a better path. And now we’ve got another setback.”
In the most devastated areas, returning to class requires not only schools be repaired or temporary classrooms set up, but for students and staff scattered around the country to come back. That means they must have homes with electricity and running water. Buses must run, cafeterias must be stocked with food and on and on.
After the storm destroyed their house in Dulac, a stretch of Cajun country swampland, 43-year-old Penny Verdin’s two children and a nephew she cares for began living in their car, along with a gecko, a hamster and a squirrel named Honey. They hope to use some lumber and tin from the carcass of their home to fashion a new shack.
After a year in which nearly the whole family fell sick with COVID-19 and Verdin’s disability checks were suddenly halted, she’s worried about them falling behind in their studies.
“It’s going to be a big catchup,” she says.
Though many children spent most or all of last school year back in class, some children remained in virtual programs and arrived back in class last month for the first time since the shutdowns began, but the return led to nearly 7,000 infections of students and teachers in the opening weeks. More quarantines, shutdowns and disruptions resulted.
The latest state standardized test scores, released in August, showed a 5% drop in proficiency among students across Louisiana.
The state’s education superintendent, Cade Brumley, acknowledged that students “did lose a little bit” and that Ida dealt another blow, but he said all students would likely be back in a matter of weeks.