Although considerable work has been done around the supposed successes and failures of education reform in post-Katrina New Orleans, concerns about the public/private qualities of new policies are often not discussed explicitly. In kind, this article serves to investigate theoretical conceptions of the public as they relate to education while providing a brief overview of the formation of the system of public education in New Orleans from the Louisiana Purchase through to 2005. Through a better understanding of the historical antecedents to contemporary policies, as well as of the question of their public/private characteristics, an improved understanding of how the public/private characteristics of current reforms relate to lived experiences is possible.