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Demo lawmakers study school crisis
Criticism of FEMA renewed during tour
By James Varney
Staff writer
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
A delegation of congressional Democrats began a two-day visit to
Katrina-ravaged zones Monday, focusing on education issues as they
surveyed the wreckage for the first time.
Like nearly every Washington official who has trod the storm surge
path, the visitors were stunned by the extent of damage to the New
Orleans area, and attributed most of the recovery signs they
encountered to individual initiative rather than governmental action.
For example, U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking minority
member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, opened
the team's fact-finding mission with a visit to the St. Bernard Unified
School in Chalmette and later, while touring the temporary campus of
Southern University at New Orleans, talked about the admirable work
he's witnessed.
"It's really quite impressive, although I get the impression most of
it's been done in spite of FEMA, if you know what I mean," Miller said.
The reference was to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the
federal outfit charged with overseeing disaster relief in the United
States and one widely slammed for its performance in the aftermath of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.
With the exception of Louisiana Reps. William Jefferson and Charlie
Melancon, the delegation in town Monday and today is comprised of
Democratic members of the House Committee on Education and the
Workforce. And while part of the goal is to "learn...what Congress
should do to help get schools and colleges that are still struggling to
rebuild and reopen," the officials were chary with details Monday.
Most said they hoped to gather information and make decisions when they
return to Washington. At SUNO, where a full curriculum is being offered
to a student body about 56 percent the size of the pre-Katrina
enrollment, the elected officials were told things are improving,
albeit slowly. The school's campus consists of 45 temporary buildings,
a grid of corrugated steel walls, gravel walkways, and wooden railings
that looks more like a military boot camp than the kind of sylvan
glades colleges like to feature in promotional literature.
The university has negotiated a deal with Marriott hotels, and now
leases 400 rooms there, Chancellor Victor Ukpolo told the delegation,
as some members gazed at trailers perched on rail cars on the tracks
running parallel to Leon C. Simon Boulevard. Those units are earmarked
for SUNO, Ukpolo said, another sign of the university's uncharted
situation.
"We are the first campus in America to state its residential area is mobile homes," he said.
All told, SUNO hopes to put 440 trailers in place to house students and
first responders. That could make for a flimsy collection of
dormitories when the 2006 hurricane season arrives, Ukpolo told the
congressmen.
"We're putting a plan in place now that if we hear the news a storm is coming everybody heads off," he said.
Miller asked a collection of graduate students in the makeshift
cafeteria how things we're going and received a surprisingly upbeat
answer from LaShonda Alexander, a 34-year-old pursuing a master's
degree in social work.
"It's going pretty good so far," she said as her lunch companions nodded agreement.
"You've gotten over the tough spots?" Miller asked.
"Oh, we've overcome a whole lot of those," Alexander said as her table burst out laughing.
While neither Ukpolo nor other SUNO staffers the delegation spoke with
were strident about it, it was clear that the school is hoping for more
cash infusions from government. The delegates did not address that
topic directly, but noted issues they have with the track record of
Congress and the White House on that topic. Although they did not
single out any representative by name, some officials pointed the
finger at Louisiana's delegation for failing to unify support in the
capital.
"You've got Louisiana members voting against their own interests,
playing politics and treating this like a partisan event," said John
Tierney, D-Mass.
Some of Jefferson's staffers noted that they were joined by President
Bush and U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, in trying to funnel
all of a $4.9 billion appropriation to Louisiana, an aid package that
has been pecked at by other states. That would appear to represent a
bipartisan team with considerable clout in Louisiana's favor, but
Tierney said he hasn't seen much evidence the Bush administration is
pushing hard.
"I'm not sure which way they're twisting," he said when asked about
White House lobbying efforts on Louisiana's behalf. "I find it hard to
believe if he (President Bush) wanted the votes he couldn't marshal
them."
Late Monday, the minority congressional delegation was slated to grow
by two with the arrival of U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Dr.
Donna Christensen, a nonvoting member of Congress representing the U.S.
Virgin Islands.
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