Education Week provides regular rankings of public education by state, assigning each a letter grade. Numerous factors are taken into account, including kindergarten enrollment, elementary grade-level reading achievement, math scores in middle school and the high school graduation rate.
In 2021, five states scraped the bottom, earning a grade of D+: Alabama, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma – and Louisiana.
Last month, U.S. News & World Report ranked the public schools of every state. Louisiana was ranked 40th. That’s the highest number it has ever hit. (When it comes to overall quality of life, Louisiana is again a cellar dweller.)
Louisiana educators undoubtedly do their best, but support from the state just isn’t there. Taxpayer money is diverted to private religious schools, and many lawmakers are fixated on divisive culture war issues.
Commenting on the state of public education in Louisiana, United Teachers of New Orleans, a branch of the American Federation of Teachers, was blunt: “Too often, the focus has been on diverting resources away from public schools in favor of private and religious schools and corporate-styled charter schools. For several years, disruption has been the order of the day. From the controversy over Common Core standards to evaluation schemes that constantly changed, teachers and parents have been at a loss to understand the direction that elected leaders were taking public education in Louisiana.”
The state’s decision to mandate the posting of Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms is yet another example of this disruption. Rather than deal with the actual problems facing public education in the state, too many lawmakers would rather toss red meat to their base.
The measure is an affront to religious freedom. The state has gone so far as to adopt an officially approved version of the Ten Commandments, which, confusingly, includes 12. That state officials would presume to play theological referee is bad enough, but at the end of the day, it is the young people of Louisiana who are the real victims here.
Those kids deserve so much more – chiefly, the promise of an education that spurs them to learn and succeed, an education that launches them into leadership positions in their communities, an education that prepares them for life in 2024 and beyond. Instead, they’re handed religious extremism. They’re given yet another front in a seemingly unending culture war, fueled by legislators who are more interested in stirring the pot than helping young people learn.
That is the ultimate tragedy of Louisiana’s new law, which Americans United and its allies will soon challenge in court. And it’s why our success is crucial.
The children of Louisiana deserve better. We hope our lawsuit will help them get it.
