Compared to sessions and special sessions over most of the last decade in which the nicest way to describe them would probably be contentious, the 2019 legislative session seemed downright tame. The reason in a word – money. They had some this time and instead of fighting over budget cuts or new taxes, the focus […]

Sometimes it seems good news about academic achievement in Louisiana can be hard to come by. But the truth is, Louisiana students have shown significant progress over the last two decades and some recently released data reiterate what we should already know – that when it comes to the state education policies that we have […]

As the Legislature convenes for another legislative session – this one focusing on fiscal matters – there will be a great deal of discussion about taxes, but it appears the state budget will once again end up being issue number one. That’s despite the fact that over more special sessions than most would want to […]

In the late 1990s Governor Mike Foster’s administration came up with what was essentially a strategic plan for the state called Vision 2020. It focused on three areas: the economy, education, and quality of life, and it started, as you would expect from the name, with a vision for the state. With elections this year […]

The state’s Early Childhood Care and Education Commission is coming out with recommendations urging Louisiana to invest more in early education for children from birth to age three. The total cost of what’s needed to make quality child care available to all of the state’s economically disadvantaged children is huge, but that doesn’t mean we […]

For decades Louisiana high schools have faced major challenges. We were losing too many students, the percentage of students who needed remedial help when they got to college was hovering close to 40-percent, and we had large numbers of students enrolled in college who never graduated or took more than the normal 4-6 years to […]

Happy New Year from CABL! It’s 2019 and that means in Louisiana election year is here. The primaries may not be until October, but it’s not too early to begin thinking about what this year’s elections should be about when it comes to the issues that are most important to our state. During statewide elections […]

Recently, the Louisiana Department of Education released the latest round of School Performance Scores and it drew a good bit of attention, primarily because a number of the scores went down. But what some may have missed is the fact that the scores went down because our expectations for students went up. The truth is, […]

There’s a lot to digest in the new School Performance Scores that were just released. The line that grabs you first is that the number of Louisiana schools earning an A for performance declined while the number of F schools went up. While that sounds discouraging, there’s a lot more to it than that. The […]

The early election period in Louisiana ended this past Tuesday and approximately 10% (307,000) of the voting population cast their ballots.  Even though those numbers are the highest outside of a presidential election, the Secretary of State is still only predicting total voter turnout of between 30-35%, well below the 67% of the 2016 presidential […]