Like I said earlier... They're doing it on purpose

Schools not ready.

Nagin's response on the evening news: Try private schools.

Update: T-P has way way more on this this morning. Lest we face charges of mopiness once more, let us say that this news is encouraging.

The good news is there are now plans in the works to repair and reopen MLK school in the Lower Nine.. and it's happening because of some very motivated people.

By 9 a.m. Wednesday, 200 African-American schoolchildren sat on the steps of the former site of Charles J. Colton Middle School, waving signs that read "Open our school NOW!" and "Education is a right!"

On the first scheduled day of school, parents and students at the newly chartered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School for Science and Technology arrived at their temporary home in the Faubourg Marigny only to find contractors still working to rid the crippled old building of mold and exposed lead paint. State authorities had asserted control of the building: They could not use it.

With King's original building in the Lower 9th Ward destroyed along with the neighborhood, they had watched many other schools open, some of them for a more affluent, more white student body. And so the problem festered with each passing day, outraging an African-American community that toiled for years to make King a comparatively high performer in the city's largely broken public school system.

Yesterday's rally was led by the MLK school community. Here's what you need to know about these folks from Da Nint Ward

The state had delayed four other charter school opening -- some for a week longer than Sept. 11 -- and none of their staffs held protests. Jarvis had arranged for students at three additional school to attend other campuses until repairs could be completed. But for King, it was personal. None of the other Recovery District charters facing delays had 90 percent of their faculty and more than 200 of their students returning after the flood. With new staff and students thrown together, they existed as schools on paper only. And none of them faced the devastation of the Lower 9th Ward -- and still managed to maintain their cohesive community.

This is what happens when people organize and refuse to be ignored. Hope floats.... but it takes a lot of constant dog paddling.