The Council for a Better Louisiana is calling for bold action in restructuring post-secondary education in Louisiana. The action suggested by the nonprofit, nonpartisan good government organization may look overly bold to the average Louisiana politician, but the logic of it is hard to dispute. We believe it is worthy of the level of public support that could embolden the state's political and governmental sectors.

The absence of bold and creative thinking has already cost the state an opportunity for change and progress - generated by Hurricane Katrina. CABL points out that, even before the storm, Southern University at New Orleans was broken - achieving a dismal graduation rate of only nine percent. The bold action that should have been taken after SUNO was devastated by the hurricane, CABL says, would have been shutting the school down instead of rebuilding. "Its good programs could be preserved and placed at the University of New Orleans, which has the capacity to take them on," CABL argues. It's a good argument.

Such restructuring of post-secondary education is urgent. Bold action is needed now. Among the questions CABL poses to public officials and concerned citizens are:

  • Why are two-year community colleges like LSU-Eunice and Southern in Shreveport not in the community college system?

  • Why does Alexandria have a four-year university in LSU-A, but no community college?

  • Why does the University of Louisiana System operate four north Louisiana colleges in fairly close proximity - in some of the state's least populated areas?

    And the really bold query: should we consider merging or consolidating some of our four-year universities? CABL points out that basically the same percentage of the Louisiana population goes to four-year colleges as does that in other states, but we have more institutions and administration. That translates to greater costs. As CABL notes, "Spreading scarce resources around to so many administrative bureaucracies doesn't breed excellence."

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