NOW with David Brancaccio

47 Live and Learn Viewed before Hurricane Katrina as an institutional disaster, New Orleans’ public schools got a second shot at success as a result of the devastation. City planners ran with the opportunity, deciding not just to rebuild schools, but to implement a bold experiment in public schooling. A full 60 percent of the city’s reopened schools are now independently-run charter schools. NOW looks at the challenges, successes, and implications of one of these schools, Lafayette Academy, through the eyes of individual students, faculty, and parents. “I am convinced that this is all going to be the basis for the rebuilding process in New Orleans,” Lafayette Academy Principal Eileen Williams tells NOW. “I’m a firm believer that if we’re going to do away with poverty in this country and do things that are right, we’ve got to begin with educating our youth.