When New Orleans'failing public school system got washed away with the flood waters, the city embarked upon an ambitious and controversial overhaul with an emphasis on charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded, but independently managed, schools that proponents hail for innovation, and opponents argue have not yet proven themselves. 

NOW returns to Lafayette Academy, a charter school where students and teachers have struggled in the past school year with mismanagement and a lack of resources. NOW also visits the fifth graders at KIPP Believe College Prep, part of a successful national charter school network called the "Knowledge Is Power Program." 

"I think the great thing about being a charter school in New Orleans right now is that we have the autonomy and the power to create the school that we want to create,"KIPP school director Adam Meinig tells NOW's David Brancaccio.

Also on the show, a moving "Enterprising Ideas"profile of a novel program that makes new cars affordable for the working poor.

The NOW Web site at www.pbs.org/now will provide additional coverage starting Friday, June 22, 2007. Features include updates on profiled students and educators and a state report card on New Orleans'troubled public schools.

On the NOW on the News audio interview, Robert Redford tells David Brancaccio why he thinks environmental issues are gaining more traction than ever in American culture. Listen NOW: http://www.pbs.org/now/news/324.html