Special Session Will Have Lots to Talk About, But Needs Sharp Focus

There had been talk of a special session in the fall since early summer, but as recently as a week or so ago, it didn’t seem to be on the immediate horizon. But over the weekend the chatter began picking up and by Monday, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House had […]

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Elections & Voting, CABL, Louisiana Elections


Leadership Louisiana Alumni Leading in Hurricane Recovery – You Can Help, Too

Alumni of CABL’s Leadership Louisiana program are always in the middle of major issues, events, and happenings in Louisiana. That’s true once again in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. It’s unfortunate, but also uplifting. Louisiana happens to be a disaster-prone state, or at least it feels that way to all of us who live here. […]

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A new resilience in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura

It seems particularly ironic that just shy of the 15th anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an even more powerful storm named Laura rammed through the southwest Louisiana coast bringing with it hundreds of miles of devastation. It’s a reminder of how vulnerable we are, but it also showcases many of our strengths. The silver […]

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Bridging the Digital Divide in Education

As students return to school for both elementary and secondary classes and higher education, we all know the settings will be much different than any time before. The COVID crisis has led to a wide variety of approaches to instruction that are unprecedented, to say the least. One thing most of them will have in […]

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Despite Dip in Graduation Rates, Strong Education Efforts Must Continue

It was discouraging to see that Louisiana’s high school graduation rate fell slightly in 2019 compared to the previous year. The drop wasn’t huge – 1.3 percentage points – and our graduation rate remains above 80-percent, which is a milestone Louisiana cracked for only the first time in 2018. But it sends a message that […]

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Thanks to Our Educators Who Are Frontline Workers in the World of COVID

For months we have shown support for the essential workers who have been at the frontline of protecting us or keeping our economy running during the COVID-19 crisis. Whether it’s health care workers, grocery clerks, or those who help transport people and goods, there have been various efforts to show public appreciation to people with […]

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It’s Up to Us to Stop the Spread of COVID in Louisiana

On any given day when you open the home page of the Washington Post, readers are greeted with a graphic that should give every citizen in Louisiana pause. It’s a chart that shows the five states with the highest daily reported cases of COVID-19 on a per capita basis. Over the course of the last […]

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Schools Will Reopen With Big Changes

There is suddenly a lot of discussion going on at the national level about the reopening of schools in the fall. While it’s gotten a good deal of media attention, it may be something of a moot point since those kinds of decisions are typically made at the state or local level. Here in Louisiana, […]

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The End of a “Viral” Special Session

In many ways, this special session was always going to be about two major issues: 1) passing a budget for the new fiscal year, and 2) passing legislation to change civil litigation laws, or “tort reform,” as it’s often called. And throw in some efforts to add, extend, and sweeten various tax credit and incentive […]

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A Time to Think About Equity in Public Education

This is an extraordinary time. For the last few months people across the state and across the country have been struggling to cope with the spread of the COVID virus. In the midst of that, events from places far from Louisiana have forced us all to confront the issue of racial injustice in ways that […]

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