SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and in the wake of the storm, charter schools replaced traditional public schools in a way that had not been seen before. Many of those charter schools promoted the idea that every student should go to college. Now at a time when polls show many Americans question the value of a college degree, reporter Sarah Carr looks back at the successes and failures of the college for all movement.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Chanting) KIPP.
SARAH CARR: There was one charter school operator after Katrina that epitomized the college for all push in New Orleans. They even had an anthem for it.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Chanting) Got to read, baby, read. Got to read, baby, read, and go to college.
CARR: KIPP, which stands for the Knowledge is Power Program, is a national charter school network. In New Orleans, it served mostly low-income Black students, and it kept a relentless eye on the same prize - college.
GERALDLYNN STEWART: (Chanting) Read, baby, read. You got to read, baby, read.
CARR: Geraldlynn Stewart was 9 years old when Katrina hit. Afterwards, she ended up at KIPP schools.
STEWART: KIPP really made it a point to like, college, college, college, college. That's what we want. We want college, college, college, college, college.
CARR: And in 2014, she went, but she left partway through her second semester, far from a degree.
STEWART: Financially, I'm not where I want to be. And it bothers me because I know I could have been somewhere, you know, in a different situation.
CARR: She recently tried to enroll in a cosmetology program, a long-time dream, but there was something holding her back - a decade-old student loan. A $1,200 balance lingers. She supported her kids through jobs at the airport, Walmart and now Target. But as hard as she works, clearing the balance hasn't been easy.
STEWART: Now my struggle is being 28 with three kids and not knowing what's my purpose.
CARR: Today, the earliest graduates of those college-focused high schools are in their late 20s or early 30s, and there's some solid data on how things went for them after charters came to town.
DOUG HARRIS: Test scores, high school graduation rates, college-going, everything improved, and everything improved a lot.
CARR: Education researcher Doug Harris says more students started college.
HARRIS: We're almost at the top of the state at this point in college-going rates, which is remarkable.
CARR: The problem is many students didn't stay in college. Harris, who works at Tulane University, looked at college persistence at the time Geraldlynn Stewart's cohort would have been enrolled. In a study, his team found that before Katrina, about 1 in 6 New Orleans students didn't make it past their first semester. And more than a decade later, in 2016, that figure had barely changed.
VINCENT ROSSMEIER: That's something that really needs to be focused in on is what is happening once students actually get to college that's preventing them from graduating.
CARR: Vincent Rossmeier also studies New Orleans schools at Tulane. In a school system that's mostly Black and lower income, he says, students can find themselves overwhelmed at college by personal and financial strains their more affluent peers rarely encounter.
ROSSMEIER: Twenty years post-Katrina, that is something that I'm still struck by that, you know, education can't solve for poverty in and of itself.
CARR: But back in the 2000s when Geraldlynn Stewart started attending KIPP schools, there was a lot of optimism and some naivete that those challenges could be overcome, that there was no need for a plan B. At the time, Stewart felt pretty ambivalent about college. But eventually, she says she bought into KIPP's messaging.
STEWART: It's what we want, as us kids, wanted to hear.
CARR: After she graduated from high school in 2014, Stewart enrolled at Dillard University, a private, historically Black college in the heart of New Orleans. She juggled school with a nearly full-time job at Waffle House.
STEWART: I was so much focused on financially being able to stay at this college because Dillard isn't a cheap school.
CARR: Stewart didn't want to be a financial burden on her mother. She had a scholarship and a small loan, but it remained a hustle.
STEWART: I had to buy a lab coat for biology class, and I had to have money for food to eat because you got to eat.
CARR: She hit a breaking point during her second semester and withdrew from Dillard to focus on earning money.
STEWART: I gave up on myself, pretty much. I really did. I gave up on myself.
CARR: Other classmates from KIPP also enrolled with Stewart at Dillard and struggled with money and family obligations. One of her classmates told NPR he remembers starting with a big group of KIPP alums, but over the years, most withdrew. Things would get a little better for KIPP graduates at Dillard over the next couple of years. The charter network wasn't able to provide college completion numbers for its graduates in New Orleans, but it acknowledges that setting students up to finish college remains a big challenge.
RHONDA KALIFEY-ALUISE: Persistence is the struggle.
CARR: KIPP New Orleans CEO, Rhonda Kalifey-Aluise, says KIPP remains committed to the idea that college is the surest path out of poverty. But the organization has mellowed when it comes to college for all.
KALIFEY-ALUISE: We absolutely believe that all students should have the opportunity to go to college if they want to.
CARR: If they want to. Their high schools have prioritized individual college and career counseling, and they've started to offer a little more access to technical fields like cosmetology.
KALIFEY-ALUISE: It really is a both/and.
CARR: Geraldlynn Stewart's family has remained loyal to KIPP, and for the most part, Stewart says she likes the way the organization is changing.
HARMONY: One, two, three...
HARMONY AND HARLEM: ...All eyes on me.
HARLEM: One...
HARMONY AND HARLEM: ...Two, eyes on you.
CARR: Twenty years after Katrina, her oldest kids are KIPP students themselves.
HARMONY: My name is Harmony.
HARLEM: And Harlem.
CARR: This year, Harmony is starting third grade. Harlem is in first. At school, their mother says they're exposed to all kinds of trades and occupations, from doctors to firefighters.
STEWART: I wish they drilled what they're doing now to those kids and to us because I feel like we probably would have been better off.
CARR: Harmony has many career aspirations.
HARMONY: I might be a teacher or doctor, but my mom wants me to be artist because I know how to draw very well.
STEWART: I want her to experience every little thing she possibly can. Like, she's very - like, she's just - she's amazing.
CARR: But what's most important to Stewart is that her daughter has opportunities of all kinds, college or not, and never feels trapped by someone else's vision of who she should be in this world.
For NPR News, I'm Sarah Carr in New Orleans.
SIMON: And WWNO reporter Aubri Juhasz also contributed to this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF STREAMBEATS BY HARRIS HELLER'S "SAN ANDREAS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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