“So many New Orleanians seem to think of public schools as places of last resort, campuses they’d send their children to only if they lacked the money to send them somewhere else. The repulsion seems to be reflexive: What good, people ask, can come from a New Orleans public school?

Plenty, Deirdre Johnson Burel says. The executive director of the Orleans Parish Education Network says New Orleans has a “rich history of public education” and a roster of accomplished adults who were prepared for their careers at schools that charged them no tuition…

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