A little more than two years ago, Hurricane Katrina set its sights on the New Orleans area, and the storm and flooding that followed killed more than 1,400 Louisiana residents, destroyed billions of dollars of property, and sent more than 1 million people fleeing the storm's devastation. Many of those displaced in the days following the storm were among the 65,000 students who attended public schools in the struggling Orleans Parish district. As those families have returned to New Orleans over the last two years, they have found that the school system they left behind is no more. The hurricane damage inflicted a deathblow to an education institution already teetering from academic failures, financial mismanagement, corruption and deteriorating facilities. A clear sign of hope came in September, when officials of the Recovery School District (RSD), the state-run entity that has assumed control of most New Orleans public schools, announced the five campuses that will be rebuilt, beginning later this year, as part of the "Quick Start" reconstruction program. This article describes how New Orleans schools and higher-education institutions are trying to get back on their feet after Katrina.