By Jesse Russell

7,500 New Orleans public school employees will be fired on January 31 and cut off from catastrophic coverage that was originally supposed to run out in June. The New Orleans Public School system was originally offering furloughed workers health insurance to assist the employees, but when 102 of the 117 schools in the system were put in a so-called "recovery district" controlled by the state, the district no longer had the finances available to do so. Many of the employees will find jobs within the state controlled schools.