Katrina evacuees cross the Industrial Canal.

Tom Darden
Special to CNN

Copenhagen, Denmark, is 5,000 miles away from New Orleans, Louisiana. But representatives of the 192 nations gathering this week at the climate change conference need to keep the memory of a flooded New Orleans in mind.

Two years ago this month, the Make It Right Foundation was launched to help the families of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward rebuild their lives and community. That was already two years after Katrina, and the once-vibrant neighborhood was still in ruins, failed by government and frustrated by a lack of progress.

Working with the Lower 9th Ward community, with families who lost everything in Katrina, with cutting-edge architects and inventive builders, we learned some truths and made some discoveries we would like to share with the climate change negotiators in Copenhagen:

We need urgent action. Climate change is real and happening now. The world already is reeling from the consequences - rising sea levels, more violent storms, more frequent flooding and prolonged droughts. Hurricane Katrina, the killer heat wave in Europe, China's floods and the enduring drought in Australia are not anomalies, they are harbingers.

Keep Reading...

President Obama will visit New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday to talk about rebuilding efforts.

Harry Shearer
Special to CNN

I spent much of this month in my adopted hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Uncharacteristically for August, the streets and restaurants and galleries and music clubs were largely full and throbbing with energy.

There are hubs of entrepreneurs all over town trying to invent the future. And thankfully, Mayor Ray Nagin's term is only months away from its end.

Between my weeks in the Crescent City, I joined some local folks in traipsing up to the Aspen Institute to share the news of New Orleans with interested outsiders. One talked about the progress in rebuilding homes. Another discussed the reform of the public-school system, the decoupling of the schools from a centralized board, resulting in the city becoming the leader in charter-school enrollment.

Keep Reading...

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Stephen Flynn, Frank J. Cilluffo, and Sharon L. Cardash
AC360° Contributors

Katrina, the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, roared ashore on the Gulf Coast four years ago on August 29, 2005. The images of floating corpses and storm survivors stranded on rooftops and at the Superdome will long be seared in our collective memories. Even today, many families throughout the Gulf region are finding the road to recovery to be a long and arduous one.

For those of us during the late summer of 2005 who were fortunate enough to reside outside of harm’s way, we should pause on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to reflect on this sobering fact: 9 out of 10 Americans live in a place that faces a moderate to high risk of a natural disaster. North America is a beautiful continent, but Mother Nature is not always very kind to it. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, blizzards, and high-wind damage are always in the offing.

While Katrina serves as a forceful reminder of the inevitability of natural disasters, it underscores another important lesson: the risk we will become victims will rise dramatically if we neglect infrastructure. We now know that New Orleans should have survived the storm largely unscathed. The city’s flood protection system was supposed to withstand a direct hit by a powerful Category 3 hurricane. But New Orleans dodged the worst of the storm because at the last minute, Katrina’s center veered east so that the winds that buffeted New Orleans were barely above Category 1. Tragically, because the levees had been so shabbily maintained, they started to fail even before the full fury of the storm had arrived. In the end, it was not an Act of God that doomed so many New Orleanians. It was the neglect of man.

For too long, Americans have been taking for granted the critical infrastructure built by the sweat, ingenuity, and investment of our forebears. From roads and bridges to schools and dams, the foundations upon which are modern lives rely are aging, and not gracefully. For decades, we have been unwilling to invest in caring for the things that assure the safety and quality of our lives. Like the Roman Empire before us, we are beginning to experience the human and economic consequences of recklessly allowing our infrastructure to decay.

But there is a wiser and more responsible way, and we need look no further than America’s heartland to find it. In the spring of 1997, the citizens of Grand Forks, North Dakota had a New Orleans-like experience when the Red River overflowed its banks. The cost of that disaster came to roughly $2 billion. But this past April and May when the Red River crested at an even higher level than it had 12 years before, the city spent only $500,000 dealing with the flood. Indeed, daily life in North Dakota’s third largest city barely missed a beat thanks to an improved flood control system completed in 2007. This investment in resilient infrastructure meant that when Mother Nature did her worst, the city did not break. Instead of becoming victims, many of the residents of Grand Forks even ended up serving as rescuers, assisting smaller communities downriver.

Resilient infrastructure is what Americans should be investing in nationwide. Unfortunately, we may be passing up an historic opportunity for doing so. President Obama has made rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure a centerpiece of his economic stimulus package. But the first priority of his economic team has been to spend money quickly on so-called “shovel-ready projects.” This has translated into passing up the chance of ensuring that new projects are evaluated to determine if they incorporate design features that assure that our critical foundations can survive foreseeable manmade and natural disasters. Future federal spending should correct this oversight and assign the highest priority to projects that will make communities safer in the face of hazards while providing meaningful economic and environmental benefits over the long-term.

In the past, catastrophes have served as a catalyst for changing the way we construct infrastructure. For instance, the great fires in Chicago in 1871, in Boston in 1872, and the earthquake of San Francisco in 1906 prompted the creation of new building codes. The recent experience of Grand Forks suggests we should and can be doing the same today. Moving forward, as infrastructure is repaired, upgraded, and modernized, we should insist that public funds are spent using disaster experiences as a guide.

Four years ago when Hurricane Katrina swept through the region, the Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) was among the casualties when the city’s flood control system failed. Four of SUNO’s eleven academic buildings were damaged beyond repair. A few weeks ago, on August 17, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was at Southern University to announce that funding would at last be provided to replace those buildings. Let us hope that the students who will be educated in those new facilities, as well as in schools and universities around the country, will learn and take to heart the most important lesson that Katrina should have taught all of us. Neglecting the foundations that have made us a resilient society is short-sighted and self-destructive.

Editor's Note: Stephen Flynn is the Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Frank J. Cilluffo is Director of The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI). Sharon L. Cardash is HSPI’s Associate Director.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he’s talking to locals about what the city is like today, four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.

Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy tries to rebuild. Anderson will also meet up with New Orleans native James Carville for a tour of the city.

@andersoncooper: From ac: just landed back in new orleans. Its great to be back here. Four years since katrina. I'm meeting up with James Carville shortly.

@andersoncooper: From ac: just finished shooting a tour around new orleans with james carville. Its great to see the growth in the life of the city!

Follow his tweets today here.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

AC360°

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he reports on how locals are coping four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Earlier today, Anderson met up with CNN Political Contributor and New Orleans native James Carville for a tour of the city. Check out this photo gallery of where they stopped.

Anderson and James Carville sit down at a Pascal Manale's restaurant in New Orleans.

Anderson meets a New Orleans resident who tells him she's glad he came back and shares her own story.

Outside of Pascal Manale's restaurant.

Anderson and James Carville make a stop at Freret Street Gym.

Inside Freret Street Gym, James Carville shows Anderson how high the water rose during Hurricane Katrina.

A close-up of the water line inside Freret Street Gym.

Inside Freret Street Gym, Anderson talks to the president of Loyola University New Orleans, Rev. Kevin Wildes.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

AC360°

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he is reporting on how the city is rebuilding four years after Hurricane Katrina.

Tonight we look into the work being done by New Orleans Habitat - an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity – which builds affordable homes in partnership with sponsors, families and volunteers.

Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Habitat has built 242 homes in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes, and more than 46 homes are currently under construction.

One project under way is the creation of the Musicians Village - a site that will consist of more than 75 homes for musicians in the city who, because of Katrina, are in need of affordable housing. The project was conceived by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis. Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalais Center for Music, dedicated to the music education and development of homeowners.

Learn more about the Musicians Village and the work of New Orleans Habitat here.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Sean Callebs and Jason Morris
CNN

While much of the nation struggles mightily to claw its way out of the punishing recession, New Orleans' rebirth is taking shape and bucking the national trend of an economic downturn. Visitors here will notice a steady flow of commercial and residential construction that is becoming a daily part of the city's life. In many ways, the billions of dollars that poured into New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina is providing a huge economic buffer.

We all know the horrible statistics from when Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the face of the map. More than 1800 lives were lost, 80 percent of the city was left under water, and the devastation left an estimated $100 billion in damage.

For the locals, the recession was the storm, and the stimulus was the influx of billions of dollars of federal and private money that continues to pour in and provide an economic buffer. This American city suffered a dramatic blow. After Katrina, close to 80,000 homes had to be rebuilt, attracting legions of construction workers and contractors. The effort helped to create jobs, and keep the city's unemployment rate at about 7.2 percent, while the national average dipped to around 9 percent. And even though the value of houses has plummeted nationwide, home prices in New Orleans have actually increased by about 1.1percent from 2008 to 2009.

"There's a significant amount of federal spending that is still going on here that is related to the flood catastrophe. And in many ways the city is benefiting from that, and propping us up. We're against the downward ties of the macro economy," says Sean Cummings, a life long New Orleanian, local developer, and hotel owner.

Jazz-trumpet great Irvin Mayfield just opened a jazz club in the Royal Sonesta hotel in the heart of the French Quarter, but he knows that even though many parts of the city seem "normal," there is still a tremendous amount of work to do.

Mayfield is a Commissioner for the New Orleans Redevelopment Association, and he has played a large part in working with the city to rebuild homes and businesses. "The passion is about us investing in ourselves and city, and redevelopment is just another word for self investment in citizens. And I think that passion has always been important to New Orleans, we are trying to transport that passion of music and food to trying to rebuild our neighborhoods," Mayfield said. "New Orleans is a laboratory city, New Orleans is imaginative, and we are trying a lot of things and going to the drawing board."

The New Orleans economy has always been based on tourism and heavy industry but after Katrina, a number of tax breaks are giving entrepreneurs and investors incentives to move here and open up shop. Sean Cummings is a big part of that movement. To help his city come back, the local investor launched Startup New Orleans, one of many organizations that supports young businesses development.

His loft-style building in the business district is home to an upstart alternative energy company, a new online exchange for business receivables, and a start-up music licensing firm among many others. "There's a transformation going on here, it's a shift from a tourism and research based economy in the 20th century, to one that will be in the 21st century driven by artisans and entrepreneurs," said Cummings.

Another non-profit organization helping to re-invent the city is the Idea Village, who has a building called the I.P. (Intellectual Property) which serves as a hub for technology businesses and innovation.

Tim Williamson co-founded The Idea Village, “If you look at the people that have come since Katrina, there has been this influx of talent who has come to New Orleans, initially to help, but now they are here to stay and live and to grow new companies, Williamson said. ” This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvent an American city. So with what’s going on in the country, and what’s going on in other economies, New Orleans is kind of counter-cyclical.”

Michael Hecht, President and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc., points out that as the rest of the country has been hit with the worst economic events since pre-depression, New Orleans continues to add new jobs and business. "Creative professionals can thrive in an environment like this, because we've got the culture, we've got the cheaper labor costs for businesses that want to hire programmers, and we've got world beating incentives now."

But of course not everything in New Orleans is perfect. New residents know about all of the lingering, deep-rooted problems with which locals have been dealing long before Katrina. The crime rate continues to increase, the education system is poor overall, and some parts of the city aren't even rebuilt. But many are convinced the positive gains outweigh these issues.

Nic Perkin is the President of The Receivables Exchange, one of the start-up companies that has taken advantage of the New Orleans global brand. "To have an operation like this would be literally five, six, seven times more to do in New York, or San Francisco. The quality of life that we have here, you can live exceptionally well for a start up salary."

Another big question is sustainability – and whether or not these new ventures will be able to transform the city in the long run. Also, will the economic bubble eventually burst for New Orleans when the federal and non-profit money dry up?

Irvin Mayfield knows that even though there's been a lot of progress, there is still a tremendous amount of work to do.

"I think a lot of people who see this will say look you guys have been at this for four years, why isn't this done already? And I think people really need to understand the volume of things that have been done, and are doing."

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

The roof of the Louisiana Superdome, pictured on August 30, 2005, shows the scars of Hurricane Katrina.

Gary Tuchman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Four years after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, much of the aftermath is still shrouded in mystery. And that is what brought me to New Orleans this week for a story we are bringing you tonight.

In the days after the storm, doctors tell us they saw an inordinately large number of patients who were brought in to hospitals with gunshot wounds. Many of them were dead or ended up dying.

Because of the chaos in the storm’s aftermath, many autopsy records are incomplete or were never done. So officially, it’s not at all clear what was going on.

Well, one man who was shot twice and lived to tell about it has a theory.

An African-American man named Donnel Herrington says he was attacked by three white men who yelled racial epithets at him, with one of them shooting him in the neck and back. Herrington says the gunmen “were hunting black men.”

A journalist named A.C. Thompson, who writes for the investigative non-profit news organization called ProPublica, has been researching this story for about two years. And he writes in an article in “The Nation” magazine that he has found that “there were a series of attacks (in the mostly white) Algiers Point neighborhood, and these attacks were carried out by an organized group of white residents, and that the targets of their attacks, as far as I can tell, were African-American males.”

Indeed, many men in that neighborhood acknowledge setting up what they refer to as a “private militia.” They armed themselves and vowed that any looter or criminal who endangered them would be risking his or her life.

Herrington says he was merely walking to a ferry boat landing to evacuate the area, and there is no reason to doubt that. But residents of Algiers Point acknowledge that shots were fired by members of their militia because they claim there were looters in the area. But did those shots hit anybody?

In a documentary filmed by a Danish production team in the days after Katrina, several residents of Algiers Point say things like this on camera:

“It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it.”

“You had to do what you had to do. If you had to shoot somebody, you shot somebody. It was that simple.”

“We shot ‘em. They were looters.”

My mission on this trip to New Orleans was to find these people who said these things four years ago, and find out what exactly they meant. Were they serious? Was it alcohol talking? Well, we did indeed find them, and got them on camera. What they told us, we will tell you tonight.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Matt Petersen
President & CEO, Global Green USA

In four years of working closely with the residents of New Orleans, I have seen one trait remain paramount among its citizens —their deep love for their city.

To understand New Orleans is to appreciate its beauty and uniqueness, music, food, art, warts and all. Although Hurricane Katrina may have damaged much of the physical city, the strength and love of New Orleans citizens has never wavered, and their enthusiasm to rebuild their city better and more sustainably is inspiring.

In the days following August 29, 2005, I, like millions of others, watched our federal government’s pathetic, tragically inadequate, response to the drowning of a major American city play out on CNN. After pondering what more I could do besides send a donation, I began to feel galvanized, by a force that at times seemed to originate outside myself – to help rebuild New Orleans green. There were those who questioned whether we should rebuild at all, but in my heart I not only knew that rebuilding would occur but that my organization would be there to help.

One week after the storm, I had a vision of how to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf region with three goals – help rebuild 10,000 homes to be green, rebuild schools to be sustainable, and adopt a neighborhood. New Orleans could not only be resurrected, but it could provide a blueprint for creating a truly green 21st-century urban community – one that is sustainable, highly energy-efficient, and also serves its most underprivileged citizens. After all of the hardship and heartache, this seemed to be the silver lining that the storm presented.

During my first tour of New Orleans, I realized that Katrina was not responsible for many of the ills facing the city. The city’s schools were dilapidated, but what was most disturbing was the realization that the decay and disrepair predated the storm because of many years of neglect.

Today, while the rebuilding of New Orleans’ schools still has a long way to go, the city has become a national leader in building environmentally-sound classrooms that dramatically improve educational conditions for students. Global Green’s Green Schools Initiative – made possible in part by the support of the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund – has created healthier classrooms and more energy-efficient schools that in turn improve student performance and save money, while helping to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions. To date, we have helped green over $100 million in existing and new school facilities, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for the New Orleans Recovery School District.

The road to rebuilding has not always been an easy one. Many of us faced doubts from those along the way who did not believe that we could successfully implement our vision. Many have all made tremendous personal and professional sacrifices, including myself and everyone we work with, to ensure that this city is not forgotten. Yet, we somehow managed to persevere and now, thanks to those we have worked with and others, both local and from afar, our dream is today becoming a reality. New Orleans is indeed coming back to life in a way that was unimaginable only four years ago.

Thanks to donations from staff and donors, we were able to start this work and remarkably make progress on all three goals. After hiring staff and opening a local office a few months after the storm, we partnered with Brad Pitt in April 2006 to create the sustainable design competition that resulted in our Holy Cross Project (a 23-unit sustainable village that we are constructing in the Lower 9th Ward). Now we have three green, LEED Platinum affordable homes completed, two of which go up for sale in the next week to residents of the Lower 9th and the other open to the public as a visitor’s center.

In 2007, the Make It Right Foundation, founded by Brad Pitt after being inspired by his work with Global Green, has joined with us and other local groups to be a catalyst for redevelopment of the Lower 9th Ward. Central City Muses, slated to be the city’s first green apartment building, is a result of the co-developer of our Holy Cross Project learning first-hand how to create highly efficient, healthier homes.

When I gave former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev a tour of the devastated 9th Ward of New Orleans and our Holy Cross Project two years after Hurricane Katrina, he said that if the neighborhood had not been improved by his return in five years, the public might demand a revolution.

I don’t think we’ll have to declare that revolution, but New Orleans still needs our help as it rebuilds. We must remember that New Orleans is on the front lines of global warming. Global warming legislation is potentially stalled in Congress and negotiations for the upcoming Copenhagen meeting don’t look promising. If we do not stem climate change, much of New Orleans, and other coastal cities, will be lost to sea-level rise, causing massive problems for our entire country.

Although the city is on the edge of a renaissance, it continues to struggle as financial donations are harder to obtain for fellow social entrepreneurs, and various other roadblocks have popped up along the way. No matter how far we’ve come, we mustn’t forget how far we still have to go.

As Americans learned on August 29, 2005 and the days after, how we responded to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reflects on our nation. How we continue to respond both to the still-needed rebuilding and the larger problem of global warming will determine our future, and that of this unique city.

In short, we are New Orleans.

Editor's Note: Matt Petersen is the President & CEO of Global Green USA , the national environmental organization that has been instrumental in the green rebuilding of New Orleans

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Impact Your World

Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild.

For those of you looking to contribute to the ongoing rebuilding effort in New Orleans, go here to find out how. CNN's Impact Your World has put together a list of resources that will help you get involved.

Find more here....

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Eighth grade students at Carver School, a public school in New Orleans.

Sean Callebs
CNN Correspondent

Katrina washed away so much in New Orleans. Neighborhoods, homes, and lives.

It also washed away a horribly under-performing public education system, but is now giving the city a rare opportunity: the chance to rebuild public schools from the ground up.

Spend some time with 14-year-old Donnell Bailey and it is possible to see signs of improvement from what was once a broken school system.

By his own admission, Donnell was a lazy student. He failed the fourth grade and didn’t focus at all on his future.

Now, after four years of reform, he’s done so well in public school he just earned a scholarship to a $17,000-a-year private school.

He credits the teachers who came to the city in the aftermath of Katrina.

“The expectations were higher,” Bailey said. “My teachers expected me to live up to those expectations. So, the drive that my teachers gave me, it really pushed me up to that level.”

There is no denying public schools were horrific in New Orleans before the storm.

So many students were failing so badly, the state had taken control of about 85 percent of the city’s schools.

Bailey said now most kids want to learn, and want to be challenged.

“Stereotypes are going to be there. There are going to be critics out there who say the kids in New Orleans aren’t doing their jobs,” Bailey argues. “You actually have to be here to know what’s going on. I believe each kid here works hard.”

The man responsible for this rebirth, for turning around the city’s schools, is long-time educator Paul Vallas.

Vallas came to New Orleans after improving schools in Philadelphia and Chicago. He wants change, and quickly.

“Prior to the hurricane, the overall vast majority of these schools were failing, or near failing and the vast majority of the kids were below grade level,” Vallas said.

As schools superintendent, one of the first things he did was allow students to apply to attend any school in the district. The storm wiped out entire neighborhoods, and in the process wiped out a number of schools.

Vallas also gave principals incredible autonomy. Administrators were able to hire new teachers and also dismiss those who were underperforming.

“It is very exciting to be able to build a district from the ground up like this,” the superintendent said.

Vallas hired a small army of young, motivated teachers from around the country from the organization, “Teach for America”.

“They bring a certain energy and a certain personality and drive into the schools that really creates a culture of high expectations,” Vallas said. “So I think for the students in our schools, they are realizing that schools are a different place. That schools could be an avenue for success.”

Todd Purvis, 28, is the principal of the Kipp Central City Academy which stands in the shadow of the New Orleans Superdome. Louisiana and Mississippi go back-and-forth year after year as the state with the worst ranking in public education in the country. But Purvis believes that will change.

“I am very optimistic,” Purvis said. “When I talk to teachers and families, especially teachers that we are trying to convince to move here, I tell them I firmly believe that New Orleans in five or 10 years will become the model for how we reform a school system.”

But New Orleans is a long way from whole. Crime remains a huge problem, as does the dropout rate.

Vallas himself admits a staggeringly small number of public school students actually go on to graduate from college.

“I have no reason to doubt that fewer than 10 percent of the kids who ultimately graduate from high school went to college, completed college,” he says.

After doing some quick math, we realize that number is actually a paltry 7 percent. That’s right, just about 7 percent of New Orleans public school kids graduate from college.

Vallas is spending millions of federal dollars to improve schools. The money buys better teachers, and provides smaller class sizes that offer more one-on-one training.

High school students get their own laptops. Dilapidated schools are being upgraded and outfitted with all the latest technological advances.

Still, not all the stories are positive.

While we were out reporting this story, an apparent disgruntled teacher left an envelope near our equipment. In the letter, the unnamed teacher wrote that many educators don’t like what Vallas is doing and fear that speaking out could lead to their dismissal.

There were only a handful of words in the letter, and the apparent unhappy instructor misspelled the word “losing.” The letter also said teachers would talk, but left no contact information so that we could follow up.

There is no question some students fall through the cracks.

Kids like 15-year-old Curtisha Davis.

She does academic work at her kitchen table because she isn’t enrolled in school right now. Davis failed the eighth grade twice, and doesn’t want to go back a third time.

Under state law, students must pass an exit exam before being promoted to high school. Davis has failed that test every time.

Her mom, Dana Johnson, says her daughter is depressed, and embarrassed.

“I feel that she has already fallen through the cracks,” Johnson says. “I mean she is already three grades behind where it stands now. I mean she is going on 16-years-old and we’re looking at her returning to an 8th grade elementary setting.

Johnson says the district hasn’t provided necessary tutoring, and other assistance that would help Davis.

Vallas says, ‘it’s disappointing”, and that he doesn’t like one-shot, pass or fail tests.

“I’ve always felt that you give the high stakes test, and if a child doesn’t pass all the components of that test, then you conditionally pass the student if the student hits other benchmarks.

Vallas originally signed a two-year contract following Katrina, but he just signed one for two more years given all of the work still to be done.

“In the last two years we saw an increase in test scores in every subject and in every grade level,” Vallas says.

So, he will continue to watch the district, and its students.

And many are also watching him.

Vallas knows the city only has this one chance to overhaul the schools and do it right.

And in a few years he will be known as the man who turned around the program, or allowed a golden opportunity to slip away.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Louisiana is moving slowly on Katrina cottage building. Will it lose FEMA money because of it? CNN's Sean Callebs reports.

A volunteer project in NOLA is a needed stress reliever during tough economic times. Anderson Cooper reports.

Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more about the project and the situation in the region as Anderson reports live from New Orleans on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

The St. Bernard Project is a nonprofit organization in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, that helps people return to their homes that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

One house that is being rebuilt by the St. Bernard Project.

Kay Jones
AC360° Coordinating Editorial Producer

Is the economy hurting volunteerism? Not in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. I spent yesterday afternoon touring the business offices of the St. Bernard Project and was amazed at how much co-founders Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg have going on. Right now, they have 35 houses in some phase of rebuilding. By Wednesday, they will have completed their 200th home in this parish that was so devastated by Katrina.

When I talked to them about donations to the organization, they said while they can always use more, they haven’t seen any significant drop off in donations so far, and that is helping more and more families move back to the homes they love.

After touring the offices, I went to the home where we’ll be tonight bringing you the latest on the economy. The home is about two weeks away from when the homeowner will move in. She wasn’t there, but I heard from several of the volunteers about how excited she is to finally get back into the home in which she grew up.

The St. Bernard Project is making so much progress and will be expanding soon. I’m not sure I can give you all of the details yet, but hopefully Anderson can tonight.

After I finished my visit with the volunteers at the SBP, I made the drive to the Lower 9th Ward. The last time I was in that area, Hurricane Gustav was hitting and the waters of the Industrial Canal were lapping over the rebuilt levee. It’s amazing how much has been done for those who want to move back to that neighborhood, with several houses from the Make It Right Foundation already occupied and many in the process of being built. I ran into many people trying to break ground on a new home, and they were not letting the light rain deter their efforts.

While on my trek through some areas familiar to the 360 gang, I stopped by Mr. Herbert Gettridge’s home. Nobody was there, but I’m hoping to get by there today and say hello. I will let you know how it goes!

John Pope
The Times-Picayune

Restoring New Orleans and the fragile Gulf Coast coastline are priorities of the Obama administration, Kenner-born political strategist Donna Brazile said today, adding that she'll keep pressing President Barack Obama and his staff to ensure they don't forget.

Obama is coming to inspect the damage and recovery, Brazile said at Tulane University, but she doesn't know when yet.

"I know that this is a priority for him and the first lady," she said. "I'm going to keep on pressing. . . . I will fight."

Speaking to a Newcomb College Institute forum, Brazile said she hopes Obama will discuss storm and coastal relief in his first speech to a joint session of Congress. That address is scheduled for Feb. 24, which happens to be Mardi Gras.

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The roof of the Lousiana Superdome, pictured on August 30, 2005, shows the scars of Hurricane Katrina.

The Times-Picayune Editorial Staff

Metro New Orleans residents will never forget the despair of those dark days after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures flooded much of the region.

The wound of those memories is still raw just below the surface. Thus, President George W. Bush's defense Monday of the federal response immediately after the storm stirs deep emotions.

In his last scheduled press conference, the president vigorously dismissed criticism of the government's performance.

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