Yesterday’s announcement by Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley that there were no plans for teachers in Louisiana’s public schools to “indoctrinate” students by teaching them about this country’s history of slavery or Jim Crow or the civil rights struggle of the 1960s falls right in line with a LouisianaVoice story of last July 24.
In that story, I quoted State Rep. RAY GAROFALO (R-Chalmette) who said, “There is no reason to make students feel guilty. We should teach the good things about this country.”
To paraphrase the late comic Brother Dave Gardner, “Dear hearts, that ain’t education, that’s propaganda”
I wrote in that July post that Garofalo would forbid the teaching of the Trail of Tears, or that women in this country weren’t allowed to vote until the 20th century, or that enslaved blacks were considered 3/5 of a person. That last provision, by the way, was embedded in the US Constitution in Article I, Section 2 despite the Declaration of Independence insistence that “all men are created equal.”
That’s the same Constitution, by the way, that Rep. Lauren Boebert seems to think does not EVOLVE.
But back to the issue of what can and cannot be taught in Louisiana’s educational system and how Louisiana ranks in education achievement.
Out of 51 systems – 50 states and the District of Columbia – Louisiana ranks 50th in quality of education, ahead of only New Mexico, according to a WALLETHUB survey released last July.
WalletHub’s ranking of educated states had up just a nudge at 48th, ahead of only Mississippi and West Virginia among the 50 states.
Louisiana was 47th in the percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree (the next three were Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia), and 47th again in the percentage of graduate or professional degree holders (ahead of Arkansas, West Virginia, and North Dakota). Louisiana ranks 48th for Educational Attainment and 44th for Quality of Education.
The metrics for WalletHub’s rankings included adults 25 and over with a high school diploma; with at least some college; with a bachelor’s degree, and with a graduate or professional degree.
Louisiana has a dropout rate of 21.9 percent despite a per-student expenditure of $11,038. The state’s student to teacher ratio is 14.8:1 And while Massachusetts, the highest-ranked state, has a student to teacher ratio of 13.32:1, which is comparable to Louisiana, that state spends $15,593 per student and has a dropout rate of 11.7, 10 points lower than Louisiana’s.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks Louisiana 48th overall of the 51 systems, including the District of Columbia. The only states with lower rankings, in order, are South Carolina, Mississippi and New Mexico.
That survey has Louisiana ranked 48th in academic performance, 47th in bachelor degree rates and in high school graduation rates.
So, bottom line, it’s fine for Louisiana to wallow at the bottom of the pile in education attainment so long as we don’t tell students about slavery, genocide of Native Americans, the denial of the right to vote for women and blacks, and probably the Holocaust.
Hell, we may as well burn a few books along the way.
Louisiana Voice 
Being big Pink Floyd fans, we Louisianans are proud to proclaim:
“We don’t need no education.”
If we can’t learn it from Mama and/or Daddy or our buds, we don’t need to know it. If that puts us at the bottom, who cares? Obviously not our so-called leaders.
Back in the 1980s I heard a School Board Member say at one of their meetings where consolidation of his school was being considered: “We know we don’t have much….but, we like it that way!” What he really meant was that they didn’t have very many Black students….this small, inefficient school is still open.
Webster defines a culture “as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization.” I learned a long time ago that one of the most difficult things to change in any organization is the culture. Hard because it requires people to change and change for most people is hard to do. The more people the greater the challenge. Change requires acceptance of new ideas and ways of doing things. One hundred and fifty-seven years after the end of the Civil War, the south is only now dismantling the relics of confederate statutes, and which was met with stiff resistance. And it was not until 1964 that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which legally ended the segregation that had been institutionalized by Jim Crow laws, so, should we be surprised by this latest attempt to “indoctrinate” students? As Sam Cooke sang in his song, “A Change is Gonna Come” but it’s a long time coming.
CJG, how can a song written and sung so long ago be relevant today? It’s a sad commentary.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post says it better than I ever could.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/09/republicans-trying-to-turn-red-america-into-dystopia/