Lafayette has been toasted as the Crown Jewel of Louisiana. Our publicly educated students have proven they can compete with the best and win.
But that jewel has had a serious flaw. Thirty percent of our students do not finish the race, and a significant number are not proficient when they do finish. Do the math. Thirty percent. That means 9,000 of 30,000 our students did not graduate.
Enter Dr. Pat Cooper and his “100% In, 100% Out Turnaround Plan” for the Lafayette Public School System. In just its first year of adoption and implementation, the results are already apparent. You can see it and feel it. We have a bona fide written plan. Go to Northside High School, or to a Lafayette Parish School Board meeting, or the halls of the central office. Talk about it in the community. Folks are excited. Expectations are high. Facilities are being renewed at a fraction of the projected costs. The silos are coming down. It is beginning to operate as the third-of-a-billion dollar enterprise that it is.
Remarkably, the cause and the effects of these changes are bigger than public education. They are integral to the essence of our community and our ability to compete in the world.
Take three examples: health care, early childhood education and technology. All three are essential components to the Turnaround Plan. All three are essential components to a high-quality community. All three have been lacking, at best, until now.
But there is more. We learned at the recent well attended, highly informative school board retreat that our French Immersion program has a profound impact upon student learning that increases over time. And that the Community Foundation of Acadian has partnered with the school system to direct private contributions to specific improvements. And we have subject matter professionals leading departments such as human resources, health and wellness, and community relations. And we are starting to address our facilities on a very cost-effective basis.
Mission accomplished? Not yet. The wheels are in motion but much remains to be done, and community involvement is essential to sustain this momentum and achieve our goal of 100% In, 100% Out.
A great way to get up to speed is by attending Dr. Cooper’s “Progress Report from the Front Line” on Nov. 14 at noon in the Picard Center, 200 Devalcourt (by LITE and LEDA).
Gary McGoffin, Lafayette
LaPESC Public Relations Chairman
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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