There is no way a school should operate in a vacuum and not actually be deeply rooted in the broader context that our students live in. I see many examples across the city of where schools are really working much harder to do that. A lot of what i focus on the last four years has been helping both leaders who may not be from here but actually have good intentions figure out ways they can bridge more effectively within their community. Walter you have been a critic a times mr. Perry at times. Walter you always have Something Interesting to say. You are critical of two things. One, the expulsion policy which is if you are in one of these types of schools, you have an incentive to expel the back kids so that your scores go up and you dont the deal with it. And then there was the other criticism. Mr. Perry special needs. The way i explain it is that the development of what we have in new orleans occurs generally in three stages. The immediate aftermath. We were literally pulling schools together, cleaning them up, finding teachers. Then you have a second phase and this is where a heap of criticism is deserved. It was at the point when we got and the focus was clearly on deconstructing the former system. Process people were expelled. We can talk to the Youth Empowerment project, families and friends for incarcerated children, and the data bears it out. Right around 2007 the expulsion rate was around the same as it what it was prekatrina. Then there was this third phase. To the credit of john and his team there were a lot of corrections that were done. The rsd and new orleans education way it looks now is different than it was three years ago. Walter Recovery School district has addressed to your monday exposure problems . Mr. Perry i am not satisfied. But there was a recognition that there was a problem and prior to that i dont think so. He saw the lawsuits. Southern poverty law center. Walter what got done . Mr. Perry to the certain extent, leadership. I will less john as well, how was the axles and issue addressed . Mr. Perry when they came up with a common expulsion policy. If there is anything innovative about new orleans, it is not Charter Schools. It is the ability to balance centralization and decentralization. Stormg clearly after the we had Charter Schools and special needs people were falling through the cracks. That is a fact. Aside, if there is any moment in time where we have to be painfully and brutally honest, it is this week. Too much of our conversation is coming from external pressure from all over the country, forcing us to tell a narrative that is either all good or all bad. That has to stop. [applause] walter but that is why i am calling on you. Mr. Perry john white and several other charter leaders, as well as community groups, pull people together to say we have to address suspension and expulsion. We have got to address special needs services. Differentiate finances are special needs kids. These are the lessons the rest of the country can take. We need a storm, we need a Hurricane Katrina. But what we are learning is you cannot just decentralize. Centralized factors that address special needs populations and that is what i think leadership brought to the table. Lets drill down on the walkin. What do you think that they did or you all did because you are part of the community, to satisfy first the special needs thing . How did that get fixed or is it halfway fixed. The common enrollment process. You had together an to put yourprocess child based on an older rhythm. There are issues with it but it takes the responsibility out of the hands of the schools who were not necessarily incentivized not to take them but there clearly was not an incentive to take them. The need to remove the responsibility. And that got done. Walter what about expulsions . Mr. Perry that was about School Leaders coming up with common suspensions. Walter so each school cannot have a separate policy . There is one board that approves expulsions . Mr. Perry in generalmr. Perry that is the thinking. I think one thing that is misunderstood is that the politics of schooling in new orleans dont feel nearly so divisive to us. Instead, it feels like republicans and democrats in baton rouge and romans in washington working together to try to find solutions. The most innovative thing about the solutions that have been found on other changes to schooling. We still have school buses, lunch, recess, we still of high school football. It is the changes to the lake government overseas schools. That has been the thing that looks the most different in new orleans. How role in government as regulators is so different. We dont tell principles which curriculum to take, who a higher, or how to spend their money. We guarantee equity. Equity for all kids to all schools. Equity of resources, Financial Capital so the low income kids, the special needs kids yet more money to be served in those schools. And equity of outcomes. If you cannot teach them to read, we will see it. That is not a partisan issue. That is just a common sense way of government overseeing schools and it is been to the credit of republicans, and we have a debt republican governor. And democrats, we had a democratic governor this began. A democratic senator that is in support of all this. It is been to the credit on people on both sides of the aisle. Walter let me move to miss york. How is it to navigate the system when you have five kids . Experienced soe when i cast the letter into my younger kids going to the system, been there done that. It is not what you think it is. Is not perfect but it is if you dont already know where youre going your lives will be lost. You are competing other debts with other parents to find the best schools to get your kid in. Walter how has the one at process helped . Help her in general . Ms. York it has not helped at all. It has not hurt. It has done nothing for me personally. Im sure it is done ever thing for some other parents. But nothing for me. I found a great school and i went to that school and it myself known and luckily i got my kids in. There is nothing wrong with one app, walter do you like having a system where you had the choice . Ms. York google is an amazing thing. [laughter] [applause] i wanted to know the grades, how many kids graduate. To cant kid goes believe in st. Charles camp believe in st. Charles. I picked it and got in. The school she was attending was a cschool. If i have to throw my back i will but a lot of parents hunt for the best school they can find. Doctord and my childs wanted in bed and neither one of us got it. Walter victoria, tell us about what you joined as a 10yearold and what it was like being a student in the system and getting to brandeis. Victoria let me thank. When i initially started rethink, both of my older brothers it became a family endeavor. My older brothers were already in rethink. I was initially thinking why would he want to spend my summer doing that. Its a Nonprofit Organization that works to get the voices of youth in the rebuilding process of new orleans schools because truth be told no one really knows what is happening in the schools but the people who were there. That is what rethink does and it tries to do a lot of policy changes. Basically the idea is to empower you. It feels as though an hour in this time we live in we forget that we are doing all of this for youth. What we should really be doing is working with youth. Walter did you help figure on school . How did you choose were to get a high school and how did you get into brandeis from their . Victoria both of my brothers went to high high. , sci drop my whole educational career i followed them which worked for me. Its a up there and marvelous school, at least when i was there. When i was there i enjoyed it. There were a lot of downsides giving it a school that had so much turnover which is a major problem in new orleans, especially for students. When you have turnover in schools, while that is horrible for the adults going through it, but imagine being the kid in thinking i guess i am not worth it for you to stay. It is what go through these your head when you are in the system. I was actually forth in my class, which because i had great friends and amazing people who were like you need to get a college, and if you dont pass the ap testing dont care as long to learn something. Obviously it is something right and obvious the something happened. Let me open it up. I want to make sure were not hogging all the airtime. Is there any question . I cant believe victoria is not inspired a question. Yes . The microphone is a front of the. Hello, im principal academics at sign high. [applause] walter oh the principal. Can you talk about what really works for you in the charter system in terms of your and in your experience. The charter experience what really made it work for your andents . For you victoria . How we are saying that progress in terms of the student experience. Victoria first off, hi. [laughter] victoria it is hard to say it but when it comes to what works for me it is not really what worked in terms of the charter system. It is in terms of the people because personally a system is just that. It is a word. A bunch of words that we as human beings consult put together in order to get definition to what is going on in our lives because that is all we know how to do. When i look at the School System i went through, i dont just look at the words. But rather the people within it. What helped me in the system i was in was the teachers. And the fact that they were there because they were like i get a paycheck at the end of the day nor because they were like i have to make sure i t stand the test, but rather i want you to learn and i care about you. That is what helped, knowing that someone cared about you. Does anyone care enough for me to actually learn . Thank you, thank you for actually caring and wanted to be there. Now i am in college and i am doing amazingly comes to writing essays and doing math. Of course, there are some things that i wish we couldve caught before when i was in high school. Right now im facing a lot of learning disabilities in college that have brought me back very far. A because i went to a school that ice the cared about me and worked to make sure every student actually got what they needed, i feel more prepared than i would have if i were to school they didnt have that. You have to understand that schools in general in new orleans are built on a system that has a long run of not of continuing path of not only but also courageous this in the ability to actually move forward. We live in a city where social justice is very vague. Right now and before. That is a beautiful thing. We have to live in a system where no matter what we say, it is silly system of oppression for many people. Not just a youth who are black, but youth of every race and creed and everything. When you go to a school that looks at you and says it is not it says just because you are black, im not good going to criminalize you. I will not act as though you are the problem. I will look at the system is say you were the problem because you are not actually working to make sure she or he stays within the system. Or better yet, improves it. [applause] walter i can think of no better words to in that end that. You are inspirational and it shows the complexities. We are out of time. Everybody on the panel will be over there because im sure you have more questions to ask, especially of victoria. [laughter] [applause] the New York Times reports that 10 years since katrina new orleans is now wider and richer in still changing. This tweet shows the map of new orleans today. The areas in yellow sure the white population has increased. In theas in white show year 2000 in new orleans. Pictures from a few minutes ago. President obama touring some of the homes. That tweet from bloomberg. The president is in new orleans this afternoon, he is visiting a Community Center in the new orleans lower ninth ward. That particular neighborhood was one of the hardest hit by the storm. The president is expected to talk about Climate Change in our communities need to prepare for stronger storms. Live coverage of the speech this afternoon at 5 00 eastern. Washington journal will be live from new orleans tomorrow and saturday morning. Tomorrow, former rc morial. A and on saturday, you will video of the hurricanes aftermath and the resulting recovery over the past 10 years. Google open our phone nice to get your phone calls. Washington journal starts every morning at seven at lock eastern. Saturday afternoon, there will be a memorial marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Live coverage begins at 6 00 eastern. Clinton, mayor mitch landrieu, members of congress, northerns residence, leaders and advocates will take part. We are showing you discussions from the atlantic magazine. The category three hurricane killed nearly 2000 people and dislocated an estimated one Million People. This portion of it now includes keynote remarks from the president of the Rockefeller Foundation. [applause] good afternoon everyone. What an amazing morning. It really has been for so many of us. The reflections, the remembered says. The thoughts about moving forward and certainly the day so far has been focused so correctly on the unbelievable changes that new orleans has experienced in the decade since katrina. I would like to take some time to focus on how new orleans is changed so many of us. As cities now realizing we confront a range of threats to our social and economic and physical wellbeing. As a nation, addressing the increasing cost of Disaster Response and recovery. And more personally, as funders rethinking our grantmaking and our influence in this dynamic and complex and disruptive world. It is hard to believe that just 10 years ago the devastating impact of katrina were almost unimaginable in any city in the United States. As mayor landrieu has said 70 new orleansat way was the canary in the coal mine. We are seeing disruptions in our cities happening almost every week. Whether it is a technological glitch in our markets in new york, or flooding in houston, a severely worsening drought in southern california, or social uprisings in baltimore and ferguson. I can think of no less than a dozen showstopping events that have brought cities to a standstill in the last year. Maybe we all need to confront the crisis that crisis is becoming the new normal. Cities of always double challenges, but in the 21st century they are coming with greater frequency and greater impact, as you know better than anyone. There was not a moment we can code. 2 where all of this changed to a point for all of this changed. The increasing an incipient dangers of Climate Change. Citiese of our nations not just as Population Centers but its critical engines of our economy in crucibles of creativity. And the interconnections of our global economy, which means that what happens in one city has national and in international ramifications. Against this backdrop, there is the challenge of crumbling urban infrastructure. Revolutionraphic that is revealing a new generation of urban vulnerabilities in the United States. When all of these trends collided they do not make a sound. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we heard the results. The rushing of the waters of the levees. The cries from help from the rooftops. And assignments of a once vibrant neighborhood. We now know and we have given so much attention to this already. It is what we could not hear. What for decades had gone unspoken that became the real story of new orleans after katrina. Decades of racial and social tensions, of public School Systems in decline, people long left behind. When the levees broke these problems floated to the surface making it impossible for the city to rebound quickly and effectively in the immediate aftermath. But what we know now is this storms may be a notable, but crisis is not. Not every disruption has to become a disaster. And by building resilience new orleans and other cities can prepare for the next disruption while building a Stronger Society and a stronger economy at the same time. And when disruption does happen, when misfortune hits as it did theew orleans, cities have opportunity to change, to grow, to transform. This is the essence of resilience building. The results of investment in new orleans are undeniable. Where people fled it is now a city where people are flocking. People returning home, Building Back their lives, Building Back their homes, and building a new new orleans based on a wonderful past and a wonderful and new people entrepreneurs are coming to the city, helping to creatively and innovatively solve problems. The economy is that diversifying. We are seeing some improve its in the schools for some of the families. And communities more and more are singing off the same song sheet. This is examples of occult resilience dividends. The ideas and when you invest in systems that will help weather the storms, they will pay off in the good times as well. That is exactly what were these is experiencing today. 10 years ago this was not a guarantee. As you know better, some question whether new orleans should even be rebuilt. For those of you who love this city and indeed anyone who is spent any time here not rebuilding not rebuilding was never an option. The question was how to rebuild in a way that would allow the city to bounce forward and not fall back into some of the same old destructive regimes routines. That would profoundly change the way we at the Rockefeller Foundation thought about our work with the citys. When katrina struck i was six months and my presidency. Well people told us to just give money and get out. Days from the day that followed that we had a deeper obligation. Responsibility to help. We hadt because koranmaking ability but because of our own history. Grantmaking ability. Legacy. We had half a century or more of experience in the fields of urban planning and community development. And because of our own leadership, darren walker, the president of the ford foundation, was one of managing directors at the time. He had a wonderful and strong background in community and Economic Developme