Back in 1995, Mike Foster seemed an unlikely candidate making a long-shot bid to lead the state of Louisiana. To most people, he was a big unknown. But he surprised all the “experts” and emerged from a field that included former-governor Buddy Roemer, and future U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, to become a two-term governor who […]

On September 10, Governor John Bel Edwards authorized the state to move into Phase 3 reopening in Louisiana’s continuing response to COVID-19. While that had a significant effect on what many businesses could do in offering services to the public, perhaps nowhere was the impact more profound than in public education. CABL has reviewed school […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]