College students are heading back to class this week, but for close to 50,000 of them, the experience is a little different than it was at this time last year. That’s because in 2016 they were returning under the threat of a coming cut in their TOPS scholarships. It didn’t happen for that fall semester, […]

There was some progress on the education front this week. No, this time it wasn’t about something that happened in the classroom, though that’s the thing that really counts. Instead two things happened that will keep our education improvement efforts moving forward. The first was the news that the U.S. Department of Education has approved […]

It’s not great news, but at least it’s encouraging. Louisiana’s economy which had been shedding jobs by the thousands for months seems to be stabilizing. Whether the slow uptick that’s beginning to materialize is enough to translate into a more stable state budget remains to be seen, but if the state’s recession is indeed over, […]

CNBC recently released its annual ranking of “America’s Top States for Business.” It would have been nice if it had contained a big surprise for Louisiana, because that would have meant we were not in the bottom 10 of states for the 7th year in a row. But sadly, no surprises. It did, however, come […]

This week the state Department of Education released the results of the 2016-2017 LEAP tests for students in grades 3-8. Overall, they show that Louisiana maintained the growth in scores that we have achieved over the last few years, but we were unable to build on them. That’s disappointing, but when looking at long-term trends […]

It is with bittersweet feelings that all of us at CABL bid “farewell” to Stephanie Desselle. Stephanie has been a part of the CABL family for more than 20 years. She officially retired at the end of June after serving the organization – and in turn – our state, in a variety of impactful capacities. […]

For the second time in less than a week an independent national organization has praised the education improvement plan Louisiana submitted to the federal government as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed by Congress in 2015. ESSA provides states with new flexibility to chart their own paths for educational improvement, but it […]

If the just-completed legislative sessions tell us anything about where we stand right now, it’s that Louisiana’s fiscal future is anything but certain. On the downside, that’s not where CABL or a lot of others wanted us to be right now, but looking at the glass half full we still have time to figure things […]

Whatever happens in terms of revenue during the current special session, it seems like higher education is going to end up on the short end of the stick again. At least that’s what it feels like right now. The Legislature has revenue measures still in play that would restore around half of the $600 million […]