I can see this creating horrible ghettos full of evacuees who aren’t getting good education and can’t make money to move away:
The Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will ask Congress to waive a federal law that bans educational segregation for homeless children. The Bush administration is arguing, along with states like Utah and Texas, that providing schooling for evacuees — who, in this case, are likened to homeless children — will be disruptive to public school systems, so they want to have sound legal backing for creating separate educational facilities for the 372,000 schoolchildren displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The State of Mississippi is opposed to waiving the Act because they argue the law helps evacuees enroll in schools without red tape. (Think Progress)
I’m sure if I had a better grasp on history I could point to very similar circumstances where this has gone awry in other countries. We’re lucky not to have major disasters as often, but I think we can do better.