Tagged: WRKF News

The Board of Regents is thinking of ways to bring in new funds to make up for the past five years of budget cuts sustained by the Louisiana University System.

The Board of Regents met for the first time this year on Thursday morning. Newly appointed members Richard Lipsey, Joel Dupre, and Edward Markle were sworn in and got straight to business.

Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell addressed the Board with a presentation on the state of state higher education.

Chairman W. Clinton Rasberry requested the presentation.

Louisiana has jumped up in the ranks on a national education scorecard.

Education Week’s "Quality Counts" report, which combines measures of policy and performance, ranks the state 15th overall, up from 23rd last year.   

Louisiana gets an 'A' for accountability and curriculum policy, and an 'F' for student achievement.

Governor Bobby Jindal is calling for legislators to eliminate the state income tax in the upcoming session.

The details of Jindal’s tax reform plan have not been released, but according to a written statement Jindal says his goal is to replace both personal income tax and corporate income tax with revenue from an increased sales tax. Jindal says the reforms would be enacted in such a way as to not decrease or increase the state’s revenue.

In its municipal survey released in November, the Human Rights Campaign scored Baton Rouge a two out of 100 based on the policies and services the city has in place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.   

Only Montgomery, Al., Frankfort, Ky. and Jefferson City, Mo. scored lower.

So we wondered if Baton Rouge’s dismal score is indicative of life for LGBT people here.

A unique study released last week by the LSU/Tulane Early Childhood Policy and Data Center uses maps to show where certain risk factors that could impede early childhood development are most prevalent across the state.

LSU Public Policy Research Lab Director Kirby Goidel and Epidemiologist Lina Brou said their study found that 55 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have at least one high-risk factor that could impede childhood development such as high unemployment, high teen birth rate and high percentage of uninsured children. The nature of that risk was also found to differ from parish-to-parish.

Goidel said the initial step to addressing the needs of the children across Louisiana is to first understand the nature of the risk in each parish.