Of all the alarming stats and reports regularly published about the economic future of our state, none is more sobering than the assessment by public school czar Paul Pastorek, who told a Rotary Club of Baton Rouge audience last week that Louisiana’s public school system is an abysmal failure.
What else can you conclude when Pastorek says the state’s four best performing districts—including top-rated Zachary—are no better than average. As for the rest? They’re either dismal (a D rating) or a failure (an F). It should come as little surprise that East Baton Rouge schools are firmly in the failure category.
Never in the 25 years I’ve now lived here have I heard a more blunt and depressing view of the state we’re in.
Seriously, it’s scary when the state’s new superintendent of education admits our government is absolutely pathetic at its most important obligation—providing a quality public education for its residents.
Four mediocre districts and 64 others that stink? That’s what we get for a $31 billion budget? Are you kidding me?
In a sue-happy state teeming with lawyers you’d think at least one would be rushing to the courthouse to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the stupid citizens of Louisiana. Hell, it worked in North Carolina and you can’t tell me the schools there were ever as deplorable as what we’ve got here.
Adding to our misery index is the report released earlier this month that ranks Louisiana 49th on the well-being of its children. Add it all together and you find most of this state’s future lives in poverty (assuming they make it out of infancy) and teenagers are more likely to die here than in almost every other state in the nation. And what do those who survive get as their reward? A crappy public education courtesy of the state of Louisiana.
Against that backdrop, how can anyone, especially members of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and teacher unions, offer any reasonable argument against vouchers, charter schools and other forms of choice? Why do school board members keep telling us that it’s getting better when it’s only getting worse?
They lie because they know we don’t care.
I can hear you—a 50-something C-level executive with a trophy wife and two kids—saying, “Well, that’s pretty bad, but my kids go to (insert name of private school) and they’re on a fast track for college.” (You’re not alone; Louisiana has the nation’s highest rate of private school attendance.)
Well, enjoy your kids while they’re here because yet another study shows Louisiana is one of the top 15 states at producing college graduates only to see them bolt for professional careers any place other than here. As for importing college-educated talent, no state is worse than ours.
In summary, our best and brightest leave and those failed by our state stay here forever.
No wonder the best our economic development wonks can do is lure low-paying call centers to town.
Call me negative. Call me a cynic. Call me whatever you want, but I’m not making this stuff up.
And the harsh truth is we’re on a death spiral toward economic oblivion.
Living in a global economy in a country that turns a blind eye toward its burgeoning illegal immigrant work force, there can be no debate that the future of this and almost every other state in America resides in knowledge-based industry. Even workers in the “old economy” sector, like those at refineries and petrochemical plants, need a much higher level of education than those who filled those jobs a generation ago.
This region is already struggling to fill its employment ranks and the problem is only going to get worse as baby boomers head off into the retirement sunset. The brutal truth is this: Those qualified to fill these jobs have left and those who remain are either too stupid or too hooked on drugs to land a job.
Complain about the traffic and ethics reform all you want. When it comes to economic development those problems are nothing compared to the quagmire that is public education.
Like Nero, we can continue to hide behind private schools and avoid the embarrassment that is our public school system. Just don’t be surprised to wake up one day soon to find the charred remains of economic prosperity.
Comments
Posted by americanhistoryatlee on August 15, 2007 at 10:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As a class of American History students at Robert E. Lee High School here in Baton Rouge, we respectfully disagree with the tone of your editorial. While we understand that our state school system has its problems, we would like to encourage Mr. Ball to take a more positive approach to his concerns. We encourage Mr. Ball, as well as any other concerned citizens, to become more involved by visiting local schools. After visiting, schools become personal and not just names and numbers. We think you would realize that the students in Baton Rouge wish nothing but the best for their own future as well as Louisiana's future. We wish to see the positive changes we are sure you also wish to see in our schools.
Posted by fourx5 on August 16, 2007 at 11:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
No kidding.
After leaving Louisiana twelve years ago, my new wife (who was raised in California) and I returned to the state one year ago.
What did we find?
-A business that initially didn't understand the nature of a professional contractor for high tech companies, and wrote off my resume as "shiftless". I had to explain to them that working six month contracts to help companies out of problems they'd created was not shiftless....so they wrote me off as overqualified.
-A business that bungled planning for emergency preparedness in New Orleans and decided - after offering me a job - that they didn't want to hire me based on my credit score and party affiliation. They're still looking for someone to fill their "professional" position over eight months later.
-A business that hired me for a short-term contract and had me sit around for three weeks while they "worked on" getting me a computer.
-A "young professionals" organization that seemed more interested in hoovering up cocktails at the Hilton than networking with people from out of town.
-A spirited college town hell-bent on preserving the "heritage" of a flag made famous by seditionists and more interested in the sports section than in listening to a different opinion about...well, about anything.
-A daily newspaper concerned with trivia and politics instead of the larger, more important issues which actually keep the city mired in the 1970s. (Maybe giving a few column-inches to a traffic column instead of Yet More Articles About Sports might improve the competency of drivers in the Capitol.)
-Insurance rates DOUBLE what we paid in California - despite the far lower median value of cars in Louisiana. (Terrible roads and drivers.)
-Last, but not least, a city of people who complain about traffic constantly, but can't understand the need for sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike paths between housing and businesses.
We gave up and moved back to California after six unproductive an frustrating months in Baton Rouge. We both landed great jobs that we love within a few days (not weeks or months). Crime here in San Jose is nearly nonexistent (sixteen murders so far this year in a city of over a million) and we have modern traffic management, planners who actually plan (instead of reacting) and schools that do better every year, producing kids who stick around to enrich the state's economic and intellectual future.
Did I mention the incredible weather?
I'm doing exciting work. It takes me less time to drive across a city of a million people than it used to for me to get from Bluebonnet to BTR at 9:00 a.m. My insurance is cheaper, and the rent on our beautiful, renovated hardwood-floored house isn't much higher than what we were paying for an early-80s apartment in Baton Rouge.
In short, we could have stayed in Louisiana, but why? Family, for one - but airfare is cheap.
Posted by ebjb2 on August 27, 2007 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Brutal? Yes. The Truth? Yes. And, as a Louisiana native who has lived in Birmingham Alabama for nearly 2 years since Katrina uprooted our lives (at the time, I was still working in BR, though), I really understand what Mr. Ball and fourX5 are talking about.
I was happy in Louisiana--never had plans to move away. It's where my husband and I were born and raised, where we got our private school education, where we went to college and grad school, where we got our first "real" jobs.
I would love to move back. But, the truth is, I don't believe Louisiana wants us to move back. With higher taxes, a poor public education system, and this "pave paradise to put up a parking lot" mentality, the state is not making it easy for us to come "home." If you look at the quality of life issues that matter most to make a decent living and raise a family in a healthy environment, we would be foolish to leave where we are now. Sure, the food in good 'ole Loosiana will always be better, but, I can ship almost anything here. So, thanks for the brutal truth, Mr. Ball. My heart is in Louisiana, my head in Alabama. ~Sounds like a country song in the making.
Posted by spinso71 on September 27, 2007 at 9:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Who failed the education system? The state? For it's share, yes. But, who is ultimately to blame? The people.
When women have six children who do not live with them by as many fathers and cannot take care of them, who is to blame? When sports casts a shadow over academics at our flagship university, who is to blame? When people who work in Baton Rouge then move to Prairieville only to commute back to work in Baton Rouge don't understand why money needs to be invested in public transit, sidewalks, street interconnectivity, who is to blame. When people who throw their trash out the window of their car (certainly in plain view of their children) see that as acceptable. Who is to blame? Seems like we need a statewide Katrina-style disaster to wash out the ignorance. Though I agree with you that the state is doing poorly for it's share, no amount of investment in our public educational system will succeed until there is a solid, worldly, educated class of people willing to invest their share.
Posted by ebjb2 on October 1, 2007 at 3:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Spinso71, your tongue-in-cheek reference to a need for "a statewide Katrina-style disaster to wash out the ignorance" isn't appreciated. I believe it is evidence of your own ignorance regarding the situation.
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