With Declining Membership Rolls, New Orleans Union Clings to Life

The United Teachers of New Orleans, once a powerful force in the city, is today a shadow of its former self.

Membership in the union is down to 300, a fraction of what it was before Hurricane Katrina, when the district operated 117 schools and 90 percent of the teachers, paraprofessionals, and clerical staff were union members. Only five regular public schools have reopened, even as charter schools have sprouted around the city.

Still, the union refuses to dissolve, and the American Federation of Teachers, its parent organization, continues to...