Displaying items by tag: higher education

by Ron Chapman

It has taken a while, but Louisiana has finally achieved the distinction of passing up Mississippi.  After a lot of effort, finally, we are LAST in Education. 

According to Wallethub, a credit scoring company, “Louisiana has the worst public school system in the nation.”  The state scored 48th in Math, 48th in Reading, 45th in drop-out rates, and 47th in ACT scores.   Only 29% of the population is college educated.  That should not be surprising when the state scores 40th in college readiness and 44th in High School graduation percentages. 

An issue the Louisiana Legislature continues to address poorly a House of Representatives panel this week kept that pattern going.   Yesterday, the House Education Committee passed along HB 399 by state Rep. Gary Carter. It would alter, whenever the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students did not receive full appropriation, the present across-the-board reduction algorithm. Instead, higher-achieving students, defined as those earning the top two categories, would receive no cuts although losing their extra stipends while the remainder would keep theirs only if their families had annual incomes below around $50,000, although they could recoup some from Pell Grants.

How dee is the real hole in the Louisiana budget are we? Does the state really willing to cut governmental services without raising revenues, which is what the Speaker of the House Taylor Barras seemed to indicate yesterday, when questioned, which could prevent another revenue-raising special session?