Good news in The Big Easy where over a year ago they broke the teachers union and basically started over with publicly financed but privately board run charter schools.  This year, testing of fourth and eighth graders have shown improvements by 12% and 4% respectively, in only a year.  They still have a long way to go, but this is real progress from a completely failed school system in a short turnaround time.  The major reason being given for this success is the quality of teachers they were able to attract.  I wonder if they would have been able to attract those teachers without being able to kick out the other ones that are often so protected by unions.  Just a thought.

Via Megan.

Update:  Some good extra analysis over at Boots and Sabers, especially in response to Jay's comment here.  Scott also asks in particular how New Orleans attracted these new wonderful teachers.  After the union was broken, many teaching service organizations like Teach for America came in to help support these schools.  The teachers are often times younger, very enthusiastic and very driven.  Just the sort of teacher that they need to fix these problems.