Citing state budget cuts in the last legislative session, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities announced this week that it has suspended its 2011-2012 grant cycle for five programs: Public Humanities, Teacher Institutes for Advanced Study, Outreach, the Louisiana Publishing Initiative and Documentary Film & Radio. The organization says its annual state appropriation is $1.5 million lower than it was four years ago.
According to LEH President Michael Sartisky, funding for the group, which in turn funds community-based cultural projects like documentary films and reading programs for at-risk children through grants, peaked at $2 million annually and created an economic impact of $14 million. Competitive grants issued by LEH peaked at more than $800,000; this year there will be none.
“The impact of these funding cuts does not fall solely on the LEH, but more importantly on the 605 organizations we have partnered with over the last 40 years, threatening the partnerships that have resulted in hundreds of festivals and exhibits benefiting thousands of our fellow citizens,” Sartisky writes in a press release announcing the suspension of the grant cycle.
Sartisky adds that LEH will tap into reserve finances to keep some critical partnerships viable during lean times. “Through cooperative agreements with the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Liteary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge and the LEH-founded Poet Laureate program, we will provide reduced but sustained funding to ensure that these organizations persevere through our present challenges,” he writes. “While fully committed to this support, our ability to reach into these reserves is limited, and vulnerable to future cuts in funding.”
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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Michael Sartisky, PhD
LEH President