Is Louisiana preparing its public students to be successful later on in life?

“Studies such as this one continue to illustrate the need and the urgency for aggressive public education reforms and other educational options that provide choices for students and families,” Eduweek said.

The Department of Education has continued to brag about its efforts to improve rankings, the advances they have made and their ongoing plans for improvement.

Louisiana’s drop-out rates, low ACT scores, low GPAs and lack of students advancing to higher education shows its strategies are not working.

Louisiana public schools were ranked a disturbing 46th in the nation.

Louisiana’s government continues to cut budgets in education, and the federal government is pushing the common core standard way of learning, which is failing in many states, including Louisiana.

Kaitlynn Kai Harris, a senior education major, said, “They have made ‘core guidebooks’ that public-school teachers are supposed to follow to a T with some unnecessary stuff in it, as well as not giving teachers’ a realistic time period to do it all in.”

Common Core was created to standardize all schools in every city to teach the same lessons, ways and materials.

It causes students to learn at an even slower pace.

However, it hinders the faster learners, because they cannot move forward until the slower learners have caught up.

Harris believes that “the best thing that the government could do for themselves and the future of Louisiana’s education is to get back down to the actual classroom and spend one-on-one time with the youth.”

Louisiana public schools receive money from taxpayer dollars.

According to an article in Ballot Pedia, education received only 28.7 percent of state expenditures in fiscal year 2015, and the remainder of the budget was assigned to various other programs.

Some students education is affected by living in a certain area and attending specific schools within their area, so students with different demographics are affected by the different tax bases in their particular area.

The schools in areas with a lower tax base suffer with only funding from the state and very little from taxpayers.

While schools in areas with a higher tax base, in addition to state funding, are able to provide better school conditions and have higher paid teachers.

Senior education major, Storme Sebren, “feels the state is neglecting its public education system and allowing it to suffer because of a deficit in funds to provide students with textbook and technology resources, which prevent the student from getting the maximum benefits of their education possible.”

Senior education major, Caroline Herring, also agreed with this and said, “They (student classrooms) are using outdated textbooks, which aren’t supposed to be taught from anymore. Teachers are also required to print out a lot of resources they have to find for their students but are only given a certain amount of paper.”

Because of the low appropriation of the state budget that education receives, it is not funded properly to supply public school districts with the necessary funds to purchase books, increase teacher salaries, maintain conditions of schools and provide the necessary technology for students to remain actively engaged and interested in their learning.

With the world advancing in technology, schools are less likely to be using paper anymore and are using electronic devices to supplement lesson plans.

Today’s classroom is more online than before. As the years pass it takes more money to properly outfit a classroom.

Computers allow for students to engage in and out of the classroom in different ways. Both are beneficial for student success, but many public schools in Louisiana do not have the funding to pay for these benefits or other resources needed for a proper education. The one thing we all can do is pressure our local and state government to increase funding towards the state’s education.