Campaign Promises

Departments -> Education -> Gulf Area Schools


ItemEducation
Gulf Area SchoolsGrade
ED-29 The Promise: "Will help communities in the Gulf make necessary school infrastructure investments so all kids from all backgrounds have safe and supportive environments to learn."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Rebuilding the Gulf Coast and Preventing Future Catastrophes" dated 09/11/08.
Source: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/550006/barack-obama-2008-rebuilding-the-gulf-coast-and.pdf
Status:When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 08/05, it caused significant damage to 110 of New Orleans' 126 public schools among the 261 schools damaged/destroyed throughout Louisiana.

Soon after he was sworn in for his first term in office, President Obama's "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009" allocated $1.4B in education funds for Louisiana and $1.1B for Mississippi, the hardest hit states. In addition, as of CY2015, the two states had respectively received $3.37B and $334M for education infrastructure improvements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Of the $3.37B allocated to Louisiana, New Orleans received $1.8B in FEMA grants to rebuild and/or repair over 80 destroyed or damaged schools.

On top of ARRA funding, President Obama's FY2010 budget proposal included an additional $30M to improve both school infrastructures and programs in the Gulf Region. Additionally, FEMA was improving some schools in the region under a separate $650M allocation.

As of the start of the CY2015-16 school year, FEMA reported that 33 school projects had been completed, 31 were under construction, four were in the procurement phase, 16 were in the design phase and four had yet to begin, for a total of 88 schools.

As of CY2016, post-Katrina federal funding for Hurricane Katrina recovery totaled approximately $120.5B, $45.5B of which went toward infrastructure improvements/rebuilding projects, including schools.

The campaign promise was to "help" Gulf communities recover from the damage caused to the education infrastructure by Hurricane Katrina in CY2005.

This promise was fulfilled.
1.00