The Big Blank Canvas

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One thing that seems sure to improve is levee maintenance. For decades, the levee system was overseen by a multitude of local boards that were packed with political appointees, few of them experts in flood control. By the time Katrina arrived, the boards had a reputation for being more effective at handing out sweetheart contracts than at maintaining levees. Last month a special session of the state legislature succeeded in consolidating the boards into two bodies (one for each bank of the Mississippi) consisting of engineers and other specialists. The consolidation, which must still be approved by voters in September, was an essential signal to Congress that money sent to Louisiana would not drop down a sinkhole. "These boards will operate to the highest ethical standards," promised Blanco. "No politics. No patronage. No brother-in-law deals."

If there's one area of New Orleans life in which catastrophe is most likely to mean opportunity, it's education. The city's public school system was a perennial disaster, always ranking toward the bottom among U.S. schools in student performance. In the weeks just before Katrina hit, a federal audit found that $69 million in federal education funds had not been properly accounted for. By that time, the FBI had a field office in the school-district headquarters.

Then came Katrina, which left 99 of the city's 117 public schools destroyed or badly damaged. Of the 60,000 students enrolled before the storm, just 9,831 have returned (that number is expected to more than double by fall of 2007, when a lot of children will find themselves crammed into temporary classrooms). The devastation created an opening for Blanco and the state legislature to achieve a longtime goal of education reformers. During a special legislative session in November, the state took control of the 102 schools that had been performing below state standards. The state now has the power to decide which schools get rebuilt, how much is spent to rebuild them and how to run the ones that are back in business.

Only 20 schools are up and running in Orleans Parish, the majority of them charters. By their nature, charters favor spreading decision-making authority away from central boards. That's roughly in accord with the philosophy growing out of an exercise conducted by the city to rethink the school system as it comes back to life. Under the direction of Scott Cowen, president of Tulane University, the BNOB education committee interviewed 20 national experts, examined school programs from New York City to Oakland, Calif., and called in the Rand Corp. for advice.

If the committee's recommendations are adopted, the old district offices would be reborn as strategic centers, setting academic standards, analyzing data and imposing accountability for a network of schools. Cowen says schools would have more autonomy, with principals hiring teachers and controlling 80% of school dollars.