Demagogue

President Bush didn't mention the city of New Orleans even once in his SOTU address. Perhaps there's a good reason why he didn't.

First, some quick background. In the year after Hurricane Katrina, 34 New Orleans public schools were taken over by the state-run Recovery School District (RSD). Due to poor planning and a dumb decision to fire virtually all teachers, the RSD has not been able to recruit enough teachers to fill classrooms and teach kids.

By the start of December, the RSD schools were still 45 teachers short of what they needed.

Could things get any worse? The sad answer is "yes." As Matt at the NCLBlog explains, the New Orleans public schools are literally turning children away.