Three reports -- two provocative and one time-honored standby -- were released today, pointing out severe flaws in the federal government’s response to schools affected by Hurricane Katrina, more information on rising segregation in the South, and the public’s attitudes toward public schools.

* The Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation (www.southerneducation.org) slammed the federal government with its new report, Education after Katrina: Time for a New Federal Response. In sobering detail, the 30-page report chronicles the losses for students from pre-K to the university level.

“Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the United States witnessed so many of its own students thrown out of school,” the report states. “During the last two years, however, the most powerful national government in the world has spent relatively small amounts of time, money, and effort in helping to set right the hurricane-displaced students and the schools they attend.”

* Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration Strategies, issued by the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA (www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu) describes what Gary Orfield calls “the racial realities in American schools.” The report criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court for taking away “useful tools for educators at the same time academic evidence clearly shows the benefits of desegregation,” and asks Congress to provide help to school districts.

* Finally, the 39th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools (www.pdkintl.org) revealed no great surprises. Local schools and school boards get high marks, while public education in general is only average.

What’s interesting about this year’s poll are the answers surrounding the public’s knowledge and support for No Child Left Behind. Almost half of those responding say they know very little about NCLB. And while the public is split on the law’s effect on public schools, NCLB gets less favorable reviews when people get more details.

Ah, those details…

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief