Education after Katrina: Time for a New Federal Response
Southern Education Foundation
2007

Abstract:


This report notes that the federal government has had a long tradition of supporting education recovery and reconstruction in the wake of disasters. It concludes, however, that the government has provided inadequate support for struggling schools in Louisiana and Mississippi in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Statistical data shows that significant numbers of displaced students at all grade levels did not return to school. Federal funding and health care professionals need to be mobilized to help these traumatized and financially-challenged individuals. The cost of supporting K-12 and college education in hurricane-ravaged areas would be far less than the cost of ignorance, the report explains.