Students are Succeeding

When I took the oath of office, I said our top priority was to make Louisiana the best place in the world to find a job and raise a family. To do that, we had to move Louisiana from the bottom of the bad lists to the top of the good lists.

Through our work to overhaul the ethics code, revamp the workforce development system and eliminate burdensome business taxes, we’ve moved from the bottom to the top of major national rankings for ethics, workforce training and business climate. The latest area where we have moved to the top of the good lists is education.

If we want Louisiana’s economy to continue to grow and remain a top destination for new businesses investment, we must put a premium on student achievement. Ask any job creator what he values most, and chances are they’ll tell you it’s a highly skilled workforce. That’s why we need to make sure every child has the opportunity to get a great education so they have the skills to succeed in the workforce.

The inflection point to change our education system happened over seven years ago when Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans’ school infrastructure – a system that frankly was already failing our kids. The storm made us rethink the way we deliver services to our people – especially in our education system. So we set out to improve our schools in New Orleans and across the state to make sure we focused on what’s best for parents and students.

In 2008, we started a scholarship program in New Orleans to give parents with kids trapped in failing schools a choice. We also fought to expand school choice beyond New Orleans in 2009 by removing the state cap on charter schools. This year, 104 charter schools are educating nearly 57,000 students across Louisiana. We created the ultimate tool in 2011 to empower parents and improve Louisiana’s education system: we stopped hiding failing schools by attaching letter grades to school performance.

Last year, we passed legislation that combines reforms that have worked well for children in Louisiana and across the country. We expanded the Scholarship Program to all parishes, increased access to educational enhancements like virtual schools, advancement placement courses and dual enrollment, and created parent triggers for improving failing schools.

We also passed landmark reforms to finally reward good teachers and ensure that there is a great teacher in every classroom.

Every single reform we passed is tied back to improving student achievement to make sure that kids are not simply going through the motions in school, but instead, that students are in environments where they are getting the skills they need to be successful in the classroom and in the workforce.

Because of these reforms, our students have made incredible progress. In New Orleans, where many of our reforms were started, the results are staggering. In 2005, 77 percent of New Orleans students attended a failing school. Today, 29 percent of students are in a failing school. Since 2007, the percentages of students in New Orleans that are reading and doing math at grade level have more than doubled.

Statewide, the results also show we are moving in the right direction. In 2009-10, 50 percent of our schools would have been considered a “D” or “F.” In 2011-12, 36 percent of schools are now receiving a “D” or “F”. The number of schools earning an “A” rose from 98 in October 2011 to 163 in October 2012 – a 66 percent increase. Louisiana’s cohort dropout rate has decreased from 17 percent to 14.6 percent between 2010 and 2011. Overall, our state’s cohort dropout rate represents a 4-point decrease since I took office, when the rate was 18.6 percent.

Students First – one of the nation’s premier education reform advocacy groups – ranked Louisiana number one in its 2013 State Policy Report Cards. According to Students First, “Louisiana has established itself as a national leader in putting students first in its education policies.” Education Week ranked Louisiana’s education system 15th nationally in its annual “Quality Counts” report card.

Test scores and compensation for teachers have gone up, but now is not the time to declare victory. It’s clear that students will be successful when you empower parents with more choices and make sure the education dollars follow the child, not the other way around. But we still have work to do.

I don’t accept the notion that equal opportunity in education should be a partisan issue, and I’ll continue to work to improve Louisiana schools so we can give our kids the skills they need to find a job in the 21st century workforce.