After Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans 20 years ago, public education in the city came to a complete stop. And when schools reopened, many of the city's educators didn't get their jobs back. Instead, they were replaced with young people who were new to teaching and new to New Orleans.

Education reporter Aubri Juhasz spoke with two teachers on opposite sides of that divide.

While all New Orleans public schools were forced into this all-charter system, the ways in which the schools bounced back were uneven. And some schools were dramatically different than they had been in the pre-storm years.

Marta Jewson, reporter for The Lens Nola, profiled one such school, John McDonough High from its integration in 1967 – seven years after the first New Orleans Schools were integrated – to its role as an elementary charter school today. She joins us now for more. 

Because it’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, that means there are plenty of young people throughout the city who have no memory of the storm – they weren’t around yet. But many of them can still feel the weight of this tragedy, and have grown up hearing stories about how the storm impacted their friends, family and community.

The storytelling organization Be Loud Studios has recently launched a new curriculum, Born After the Storm, that gives teachers a way to discuss Hurricane Katrina with their students. Be Loud’s executive director Alex Owens tells us more.  

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

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