In the past decade, traditional public schools in Louisiana lost 60,000 students at a rate three times the national enrollment decline. In New Orleans, there are approximately 20,000 fewer students since 2005.
As part of a recovery program following Hurricane Katrina, a state takeover transformed New Orleans into the first all-charter school system. Since 2018, all schools in the New Orleans school district have been charter schools, except for The Leah Chase school.
The Education Research Alliance for New Orleans was originally formed to “help understand post-Katrina education reforms” following the city’s transition to charter schools, Jamie M. Carroll, managing director of ERA-New Orleans, said.
The ERA-New Orleans is housed within Tulane University’s School of Liberal Arts, with the goal to “produce objective, rigorous, and useful research to inform the community’s understanding of how to improve students’ experiences in schools and beyond.”
While an influx of Hispanic students was a source of growth for some districts, recent changes in immigration policy led to a drop in Hispanic student enrollment in New Orleans.
“Students who are immigrants, who have immigrant families, might be really afraid and not feel safe going to school, and that could explain some of the reasons for our low attendance rates,” Carroll said.
A sustainability analysis by New Schools for New Orleans credits the decline in enrollment to an 11% decrease in the under-18 population since 2015, a 5% decrease in city population since 2015 and an annual 4% decrease in birth rates since 2019.
NSNO projects an 8.6% decrease in enrollment by 2030.
“There’s some declining enrollment related to just fewer students living in New Orleans,” Carroll said.
New Orleans district officials may close nine schools this year due to under-enrollment or low performance. This is in addition to the nine schools that closed last year, leading to an increase in individual school enrollment, despite a 2% decrease in total Orleans public school enrollment.
Allisyn Swift, project administrator of the Coalition for Compassionate Schools, said school closures are “inevitable.”
“Almost every year, at least one school that we work with has been closed,” Swift said. “The impact on the school community and the disruption to the lives of educators, students and families is profound.”
Charter schools
While charter and traditional public schools vary by location, on average, charter schools “outperform traditional public schools, especially for students from low-income families” and students of color, Carroll said.
New Orleans schools have drastically improved since Hurricane Katrina, based on student outcomes.
As of 2025, no schools in the New Orleans district were rated a failing grade compared to 61% of public schools in 2005. The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program English language arts and math scores also increased at twice the rate of the state.
Since 2005, New Orleans graduation rates have increased by 25% and college enrollment by 28%, now higher than the state’s enrollment.
Public education
A new ERA-New Orleans survey shows that 60% of students feel that “they belong in schools” and “discipline is fair,” according to Carroll.
Black and Latino students were less likely to have positive answers to the survey, reporting less safety, fair discipline and a sense of belonging in schools.
“There’s big racial ethnic differences … [that] mostly have to do with the fact that there’s so much school segregation here,” Caroll said. “White students are in different types of schools than Black and Latino students.”
According to a 2025 survey by the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, low-income and racial minority families were more likely to have negative viewpoints about public education than higher-income households.
Forty-three percent of respondents said public education stayed the same, while 34% said it was getting worse. Twice as many lower-income households stated public education was getting worse compared to higher-income households.
Consistent with previous grading by the Louisiana Department of Education, 39% of households rated the quality of New Orleans Public Schools a C.
The Cowen survey found that white or higher-income families preferred charter schools. Higher-income, college-graduate or private-school families were more likely to agree that their schools prepared students for college and a career. White and Hispanic respondents had more positive answers than Black respondents.
Funding cuts
Louisiana education faced a $250 million budget cut this year.
The Cowen survey showed that 83% of respondents expressed concern about federal education funding cuts.
“Many schools have had to cut staff, combine rolls and cut supportive programs such as after-school activities,” Swift said. “This puts additional stress on the system, especially for many public charter schools who serve under-resourced communities.”
Programs aimed at increasing teacher diversity in New Orleans also lost federal funding, according to Caroll.
According to the Coalition, Louisiana received $4 billion in 2021 from the Louisiana Department of Education for Pre-K and K-12 pandemic recovery efforts. The Louisiana Department of Education budgeted almost $400 million for Orleans Parish, over $60 million of which went to support equity and inclusion, including social-emotional and diverse learning.
Schools received funding after COVID-19 to “hire tutors, mental health counselors and student support specialists” to combat learning loss during the pandemic, Caroll said.
“Those are the types of positions that I think are important, and a lot of the research shows are really important for students,” Carroll said. “But now that funding has been removed, those schools might not be able to meet students in the same way.”