Leslie Jacobs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leslie Rosenthal Jacobs (born 1959, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an education reform advocate, business executive, and philanthropist. Born in New Orleans and a graduate of Cornell University, she built her family's small, independent insurance agency into one of the largest in the South, before merging the Rosenthal Agency with Hibernia National Bank (now Capital One). While President of Rosenthal Agency, Jacobs worked with the business community and the legislature to create the Louisiana Workers Compensation Corporation (LWCC) and served on its inaugural board of directors. The LWCC solved a state workers compensation crisis and today Louisiana has competitive and stable workers compensation rates.[1] She went on to become a co-founder of Strategic Comp, a workers compensation insurance company that sold to Great American in 2008.[2]
Jacobs has been active in the New Orleans business and startup community serving as past chair of GNO, Inc., a non-profit economic development corporation dedicated to cultivating the Greater New Orleans area's economy, the vice-chair of the and CEO and co-founders of the New Orleans Startup Fund, a nonprofit venture fund focused on business creation and innovation in the 10-parish Greater New Orleans region.
Jacobs has been engaged in education reform for more than 35 years. She began as a business partner with an elementary school, served as an elected member of the Orleans Parish School Board, and then, as a member of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) for twelve years, first appointed by Governor Foster (R) and then re-appointed by Governor Blanco (D).[3] Jacobs is credited as one of the prime architects for reform of the Louisiana Public Schools throughout the 1990s and 2000s.[4] Jacobs was honored as the “Twenty People Who Influenced Louisiana from 1981-2001” by Louisiana Life Magazine in 2001, and Forbes awarded Jacobs the “World's Most Powerful Educators” award in 2011.
Jacobs is married to Scott Jacobs. She has two daughters and four grandchildren.
The Rosenthal Agency
Jacobs began work at her family's independent insurance agency in 1981 after graduating from Cornell University. Under her leadership, the company became one of the top 100 insurance brokers in the United States.[5] In 2000, Hibernia National Bank purchased the agency, and Jacobs became President of the merged Hibernia Rosenthal Agency.[6] She remained president until 2002. In 2006, Hibernia, the largest deposit holder in Southeast Louisiana, was purchased by Capital One and re-branded under the Capital One banner.[7] Jacobs was also co-founder and owner of Strategic Comp, a multi-state workers compensation insurance company that was purchased in 2008 by Great American Insurance.[8]
Orleans Parish School Board
In 1992, Jacobs ran for a position on the Orleans Parish School Board from District 6, a majority African-American district comprising much of southwestern Orleans Parish, including parts of Dixon, Uptown, Mid-City and the Black Pearl. She ran in an open primary and placed first, taking 29% of the vote, or about 3,575 votes. In the run-off election, Jacobs received 13,909 votes and defeated fellow Democrat Henry Julien 59% to 41%. She served on the board until 1996, and in her final year, served as board vice-president.[9]
Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
Jacobs was appointed in 1996 to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and served as a gubernatorial appointee until 2008, serving both Republican Governor Mike Foster[3] and Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco.[10] Jacobs is credited as one of the prime architects for reform of Louisiana's Public Schools throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including developing and implementing the number one ranked school accountability system in the country and implementing major steps to improve teacher quality.[11] According to the 2009 Education Watch Report released by the Education Trust, Louisiana is the only state in which the gap between African American and white students has narrowed significantly in both 4th grade reading and 8th grade math.[12]
As part of Louisiana's school accountability system, Jacobs was instrumental in creating the Recovery School District (RSD) in 2003. The RSD is administered by the Department of Education, and is designed to take over academically failing schools.[13]
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish Schools were the worst performing in the state. 63% of the Parish's schools were failing.[14] After Hurricane Katrina, Jacobs worked with Governor Blanco and State Superintendent Cecil Picard to place most of the Orleans public schools into the Recovery School District and to recruit high quality charter operators, like the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), to come to New Orleans and be part of the rebuilding.[15]
Today, New Orleans has 99% of public school students in charter schools which is the largest in the nation.[16] Student performance has improved significantly in all measures: performance on state tests, reduction in the drop out rate, and percentage of seniors qualifying for Louisiana's merit based scholarship program.[17] Doug Harris, Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Tulane University wrote in a 2018 report: "To summarize, the reforms increased outcomes on average and seem to have improved equity as well. Black and low-income students saw higher test scores, high graduation rates, and college results."[18]
President Barack Obama has praised the rejuvenation of Orleans Parish schools as a model for the rest of the country, stating: "And because a lot of your public schools opened themselves up to new ideas and innovative reforms, we're actually seeing an improvement in overall achievement that is making the city a model for reform nationwide."[19]