Our Views: Faring poorly in recession

We’re not surprised that a recent national report ranked Louisiana 11th in the nation in the financial insecurity of its residents. Poverty is a large problem in Louisiana, and in a recession the poor tend to get poorer.

The global recession has touched many families, of course, including households that had fared quite well before the recession struck. But the poor and uneducated, not surprisingly, are the most vulnerable when the economy sours.

One in five Louisiana residents lost at least a quarter of his available income between 2008 and 2012, according to an economic insecurity index released by the Rockefeller Foundation and Yale University. Index researcher Stuart Craig said that those who lost income could include everyone from the working poor to middle-class residents hit by a layoff to a wealthier family suffering losses in the stock market. But Craig noted that higher economic insecurity is correlated with lower education levels.

That makes sense. Workers with more education have more options in finding other work when the economy contracts. This kind of flexibility is increasingly important as the global economy continues to evolve.

Where does that leave Louisiana, where state spending on higher education has been drastically cut in recent years? That kind of short-sighted thinking seems like a prescription for continuing economic insecurity among our residents for years to come, even as the world economy improves.

Comments

1) Comment by Whatnow - 06/07/2012

Just because Thomas Jefferson felt this way doesn't mean that all have to agree with him just because he's Thomas Jefferson. You have to remember that this was said during his time and not ours. There are limits to broadness and liberal ideas. It is the people's choice to those limits, is it not?

2) Comment by 8.3 - 05/07/2012

Thomas Jefferson on a secular university: "we wish to establish in the upper & healthier country, & more centrally for the state an University on a plan so broad & liberal & modern, as to be worth patronising with the public support, and be a temptation to the youth of other states to come, and drink of the cup of knolege & fraternize with us." Louisianians like being last., its their only claim to fame.

3) Comment by Whatnow - 05/07/2012

@twinkie1cat, after reading your comments, I wouldn't go near your classroom with a ten foot pole. You only want parents around to serve you. You said that "My best parent was mildly mentally handicapped." Maybe your students mentality is rubbing off on you or if parents aren't mildly mentally handicapped, you cannot deal with them on an intellectual level. Your tirade about parents and students only proves what is wrong with teachers in our education system. You are the perfect example. You may say that you feel sympathy for the poor, but in reality, you are a mean spirited blamer. It's always someone else's fault. You sound like a very unprofessional person by berating parents and students. Have you ever thought that the problems you have may stem from you? Ms. Browning would be proud of you. That's the good thing about anonymity, isn't it? If I were a principal and knew that one of my teachers wrote about students and parents like you have, you would be fired in an instant.

4) Comment by ScotB - 04/07/2012

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." I don't know who said this, but I think it apt when describing our educational failures in Louisiana. There is a lot of blame on the system, society, state funding, teachers, etc. How about the students? You can have the finest facilities, most expensive texts, highest technology, and best paid teachers - none of it matters if a quality education doesn't matter to the individual student. And in Louisiana's case, many of the students DO NOT CARE. It is a cultural problem not so easily fixed. In fact, many of the kids who actually do want to learn cannot do to the disruptions of these kids who do not care. And these kids slow down the pace of the whole class in moving forward. Not to mention the whole system is dumbed down to accomodate the lowest common demoninator. Until we find a way to cull the chaff from the wheat, we will never achieve at the highest levels needed in a global economic competition. More meritocracy is needed in schools to give kids the opportunity to learn at their own levels. Those who excel need to be in excel classes, those who are median level learners in those classes, and those unable or unwilling to learn put in classes with one another. It is not the politically correct thing to say, but maybe it will motivate some to value education.

5) Comment by twinkie1cat - 04/07/2012

TRADEWINNS: Your comment did not show much thought. If you put the parents in jail then the child goes to foster care. A child in foster care has a place to sleep and eat. Sometimes that is all he or she gets. Caseworkers don't have time. If they have a CASA he or she will try to help but has limited power. Parents who don't get involved with the schools are often working two or three jobs or have poor educational experiences themselves and are afraid of the schools. In some cases they cannot help with school work because they cannot read and write well themselves. Locking up the parents, unless they are abusive, severely neglectful, or cooking meth in the house is counterproductive and only serves to punish the children whose families, however dysfunctional, are ripped asunder.

6) Comment by twinkie1cat - 04/07/2012

Yall listen. This comes from an expert, a long time teacher. Parental involvement can be a great thing. It can also be a horrible mess if they try to undermine what the teacher is doing and she knows her profession. These are the parents that go to the principal with complaints without talking to the teacher, think they are better than the teacher becasue they make more money, and also those who believe without question, everything their little darling says is true or have unrealistic expectations. That given, I have had parents I never met, talked to, or saw. They didn't even show up for IEP staffings. I had others who tended to dominate and did not know how to interpret what they were seeing. My best parent was mildly mentally handicapped. She was there to help with field trips and activities and if I needed her. She rode the school bus with her daughter because she could not drive. She listened when I gave her advice about her child and read the principal when she chose a spot that was not accessible for the school picnic. The lady smoked and cussed and had a background of drug use. My para freaked out because I went to her home to do the IEP because a family member had once been busted for selling drugs. But this lady was my best room mother in 27 years! I had another, fairly well off parent who pressured the school into getting some expensive equipment I needed. I taught her child for 5 years and went to her funeral and testified. But in the same class I had one whose mother was so dumb,racist and disloyal that she let a racist principal twist some things I told the parent into lies. I had one in another system that I never met until the end of the year who had a "little darling" who was an abusive little devil. In fact I had three of those, including two in the same class in Ascension Parish. Middle class parents can be a pain in the butt! I love involved fathers. Their heads are often more clear than those of the mothers. Parent involvement can be a two-edged sword. A parent who throws her weight around because she knows administrators or is otherwise connected (like the one in Ascension whose baby daddy was on the school board and whose current husband provided an excellent work site for the community based program) is extremely dangerous, especially if they are not particularly bright or well educated. A low income parent will often lap up attention and respect and become your best ally. A parent who has a child who has been mistreated in the past and you love her child even though she is difficult can be a friend. And some parents are mentally ill or racist. I think I had 4 of those. One was a crack addict who swore her filthy dirty (I bathed him more than once) multihandicapped child could rollerskate. I had one with a child in the same class in New Orleans with my best parent, who would not look at me or speak to me because I was white!! Got that? She spoke to my paraprofessional, the principal, the coordinator, the secretary, and any AA at the school, but not to "that white woman". Wouldn't even LOOK at me in the eye. But she would send real good muchies from her family bakery via the school bus driver! Parent involvement can be a good thing. It can also hinder the child, like the one whose mother let him get away with faking illness so much that he had to be taught most of his school work directly by me instead of being mainstreamed most of the day like his classmates. Mama sent a mad note when I asked her to make sure he came on standardized testing day. He admitted later that he was not sick that day, but wanted to get the essay topic from a friend in advance, in other words, cheat. (He was a middle class and actively Republican teenager. The topic was different for the make up test. He had a cow! Passed though. I had been telling him he was a lot brighter than he thought he was because it was true.) So yall got it now? Parental involvement is usually a plus, but can easily become a problem. You can do just as well with it as without it except in cases of students with autism. Then you seriously need cooperation and if you don't get it, your life or health can be in danger. You can do better without it in the case of parents who have "little darlings who can do no wrong." Watch for the sneaky ones. They can cost you your job.

7) Comment by twinkie1cat - 04/07/2012

Yes we are suffering, especially the poor, working and middle classes are. As Mr. Stelly pointed out in yesterday's Advocate, a major reason Louisianians are suffering is because the state has given too much money to large corporations in the form of tax credits without making up for lost revenue in other areas. Jindal's agenda was clear a few years ago when he stated that Louisiana did not have a revenue problem but a spending problem. Now we know that it WAS a revenue problem after all and that his persistent budget cuts are causing the state to have difficulty paying for basic services like schools and medical services. We have terrible roads and the Battered Women's program has to sell fireworks to make ends meet so Bobby can cut out cancer and gynecological care for poor women! (I find it ironic that their abusers can buy fireworks to terrorize them from an organization that helps women get their lives back together! And it's in ridiculously Republican Livingston Parish!) It's all political. Our governor is stepping all over his own people in order to enhance his own political future. He knows he is too short and too ethnic to win the presidency on his own. Historically, short, brown men do not become our nation's leaders. But maybe, now that he Democrats have broken the color barrier, he thinks, if he is conservative enough, the GOP will accept him. I do have another thought, however, and I know this sounds racist, but it worries me: In the Hindu religion people are poor because they did something wrong in their previous life. In the caste system, part of their religious beliefs and pervasive in India, the poor are purposely oppressed, given the worst jobs, denied education and medical care and stepped over as they lie homeless and dying in the streets rather than helped. There is even a very low caste called "Untouchables" who are considered too nasty to ever catch up. They would equivocate to America's chronically homeless. It was for these that Mother Theresa conducted her ministries. I wonder how much of his Hindu upbringing still affects Bobby Jindal. It certainly looks like a prime influence to me!

8) Comment by tradewinns - 04/07/2012

dmj: and their performance with their parent(s) at home is stellar? so what will change if nothing is done? anything is preferable to the status quo.

9) Comment by spqr - 04/07/2012

Also add that education is available in Louisiana for those THAT WANT ONE. We are dealing with a lazy population with an entitlement mentality.

10) Comment by Scrooge - 03/07/2012

Also add that lower education levels are correlated with low performing states in quality of life measures and economics..

11) Comment by Scrooge - 03/07/2012

The results speak for themselves, while "higher economic insecurity is correlated with lower education levels." Might add that "lower education levels is correlated with gullibility", that's why the viability of a politician is measured in terms of money. As seen on tv!

12) Comment by Springer98 - 03/07/2012

DMJ, instead of putting down on everybody else's solutions to the problem, why don't you offer some solutions of your own?

13) Comment by DMJ - 03/07/2012

Yeah, they were great. Just great. You know....when the things you actually think and say are repeated and then people laugh because they assume you're being ironic, you may want to reconsider your positions. Just a thought...

14) Comment by 8point6 - 03/07/2012

@[e-mail]: Great comments. Thanks!

15) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 03/07/2012

actually tradewinns brings up a good point about parental involvement (which has been discussed many times here). The question (without being as heavy-handed as some of his suggestions) is how do you force parents to become involved in their child's education... I wish I had the answer

16) Comment by DMJ - 03/07/2012

Tradewins, great plan. I'm sure a child will perform better when their parents are in jail. Keep those great ideas comin...

17) Comment by tradewinns - 03/07/2012

if anyone truly wants to better education, they must start with the first step-the home. if noone wants to hold the parents responsible for their childrens education, it is no wonder education flounders and fails. if you look at failing students, you will find failing parents. they go hand in hand. so, to take a page out of the "dream act", you can not blame the children for their parent's actions, but you dang sure can blame the parents! fine 'em; pentilize 'em; jail 'em; garnish their wages; kick them out of all subsidy programs. make their life a living h+++. if the current losers (failing parents) don't catch on perhaps future ones will. the current crop of HS students are fairly well cooked anyway. if you can not read, write, perform math, understand history and civic duty AND RESPONSIBILITY by HS, there's little hope you will be anything of substance.

18) Comment by [e-mail] - 03/07/2012

I'm with you Whatnow. Although I've always admired scolars and paid for my children to go to school, the fact is that some people just don't do well in an academic setting. Society, government programs, and "educators" today all stress the importance of a four year education but there's nothing wrong in a young person learning vocational skills and getting a real job; as the person progresses in that field they'll have opportunities to further their education in areas that will benefit them and their employer without the benevolent activism of the state.

19) Comment by [e-mail] - 03/07/2012

Where it leaves us is in a leaky boat that some are tring to feverishly bail out while some are tying to sink it faster. One thing I noticed is the whining tone about education; that's always a sop to "higher" education, i.e. give more money to those who are always shouting for more state money while they enlarge their salaries to attract "good" people while they raise tuition and give less real education in return! Why not talk about education in the context of actual job skills such as Delgado offers? They don't have any trouble with their graduates getting and holding jobs.

20) Comment by bourbon-soda - 03/07/2012

Jindal's plan sounds like Obama's plan.

21) Comment by Whatnow - 03/07/2012

In order to receive a higher education, one has to graduate from high school and receive decent grades. Well, that leaves quite a few out of the loop doesn't it?

22) Comment by lovemykids - 03/07/2012

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