Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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Nov. 22
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune on New Orleans’ recently elected mayor transitioning into her new role:
LaToya Cantrell made history Saturday (Nov. 18) as the first woman elected mayor in New Orleans’ almost 300-year history. She also is the rare mayor who wasn’t born here. She is a native of California, who moved to the city to attend Xavier University in 1990 and decided to stay.
It is a bit surprising that New Orleans, a city with progressive attitudes, is only now joining Baton Rouge and Shreveport with a woman as mayor.
Ms. Cantrell made note of the milestone in her victory speech Saturday night in Central City. “Almost 300 years, my friends, and New Orleans, we’re still making history.” Her election, a grass roots campaign that attracted a diverse group of voters, signals openness to new people and ideas. That is vital as the city works to find the balance between preservation and progress.
Now, she will have six months to get ready to serve. A 2014 charter amendment changed the city’s election dates from early in the year to fall, but the first mayor and City Council elected on the new cycle will have a gap before being sworn in May 5.
Ms. Cantrell’s experience on the City Council should help make her transition easier. She understands the vital issues facing New Orleans. But she has not been in an administrative role in government, and she will have to immerse herself in the details of what it takes to run the city.
She inherits a far better situation that Mayor Mitch Landrieu did. He has improved city finances in his two terms in office, erasing a massive deficit he inherited from Ray Nagin and turning around the city’s credit rating. His administration has renovated playgrounds and community centers, is building a new airport terminal and got FEMA to agree to pay more than $2 billion for infrastructure repairs. The city’s most recent coup is the decision by DXC Technology to bring 2,000 jobs to New Orleans over the next seven years.
Still, New Orleans’ crime rate is stubbornly high, and the Police Department is severely short of officers. Flooding in Mid-City, Gentilly and Lakeview in August revealed that the city’s drainage pumping system was essentially broken. A temporary management team was put in place at the Sewerage & Water Board to speed up repairs to power turbines and pumps, but the system is still below capacity and needs long-term leadership.
Ms. Cantrell will inherit those and other chronic problems, including the lack of affordable housing post-Katrina and inequalities in employment opportunities.
Deputy Mayor Ryan Berni said the Landrieu administration has been putting together briefing memos for the incoming mayor and hired a firm to help manage the transition period. He said the Landrieu team understands the importance of a smooth transfer to Ms. Cantrell because the Nagin administration left such a mess.
That is a good sign for Ms. Cantrell’s transition.
The new mayor will have to choose a leadership team, including a chief administrative officer to oversee day-to-day operations. These are crucial decisions. The quality of a mayor’s top aides can have a major impact on how successful an administration will be.
Ms. Cantrell has said that she plans to do a search for a new police superintendent, but she didn’t rule out current Superintendent Michael Harrison keeping the position. The choice of superintendent will be one of her most important decisions. The Police Department, which is under a federal consent decree to correct abusive behavior, lost hundreds of officers during a hiring freeze put in place by Mayor Landrieu. It hasn’t been able to recover from that, and violent crime remains high compared with other cities.
The Landrieu administration has professionalized the city’s contracting process and put rules in place to reduce political patronage. He also put stricter credit card rules in place for the mayor’s office. Ms. Cantrell must continue that effort.
There are lingering questions raised during the campaign about how she used her City Council credit card and about the lack of rules in place for council spending. Mayor Landrieu’s process is more rigorous, and that is what residents expect from the new mayor.
In her victory speech, Ms. Cantrell promised to dedicate herself to ensuring that the city as a whole prospers and that every resident will have a chance to succeed. New Orleanians deserve nothing less.
Online: http://www.nola.com/
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Nov. 19
The Advocate on a new focus on left-out kids:
Education is about changing lives, but the hardest challenges are very hard for teachers, students with deep social problems or learning disabilities that compound, year by year.
The left-out kids often end up in alternative education, but the changes in those lives become harder to achieve as each school year goes by - and each year is often attended by failure instead of success.
That is the fundamental problem that schools across Louisiana have tried to deal with through alternative education.
There are 35 alternative schools and 139 alternative education programs. A tough assessment of them commissioned by the state Department of Education suggests those programs are failing the some 18,000 students in them.
They typically get there as behavior problems or children who are chronically behind academically, and of course the combination of the two often occurs. As a percentage, far more African-American students end up in the alternative schools or programs; as a percentage in society, of course, black families are more often plagued by poverty and its accompanying ills.
Without prejudice to the dedicated educators trying to deal every day with the hardest cases, the system is clearly not working well enough.
“I think we have ignored the evaluation of the programs too long and ignored what the program should consist of in addition to academics,” said St. Bernard Parish Superintendent Doris Voitier.
Voitier is one of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ appointees on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It will fall to BESE, school boards and the state department to plot a path forward.
The Oct. 17 report puts a focus on the most-troubled students but it is expensive and difficult to provide the portfolio of services that will help them.
Many are getting too old for middle school, but academically not succeeding enough for high school.
Or, regrettably, parked in alternative schools until age allows them to depart, quite often without the basics they will need to succeed in a rapidly changing workforce, much less comprehend the post-high school training needed for a good job.
It is not surprising that alternative education students are five times more likely than others to quit school, according to the study. Teachers need the help of social workers or nurses or psychologists who can work with young people before they become troubled young adults.
We are glad that leaders and educators are taking an unflinching look at alternative education, but it is clearly not an easy problem: Changing lives is a labor-intensive business, whether in regular school or alternative settings.
Online: http://www.theadvocate.com/
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Nov. 21
The Courier of Houma on treating Louisiana’s aging population better:
A report released Monday is the latest to paint a disturbing picture of the care many Louisiana nursing homes offer and the price taxpayers pay for it.
The state Legislative Auditor’s found that the state has increased payments to nursing homes significantly over the past 10 years while occupancy remained about the same and quality rankings are among the nation’s worst.
Among specifics:
- Louisiana’s formula to determine how much nursing homes receive in public money, mostly Medicaid, is more generous than most states. The Legislature could save taxpayers almost $80 million a year simply by paying nursing homes the way other states do.
- On average, Louisiana increased prices 54 percent over the past decade, from $112.34 to $172.82 per person per day, though occupancy remained flat.
The report confirms many of the findings of a series earlier this year by The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge, reprinted in The Courier and Daily Comet. And Monday’s report cites an AARP study released this summer that ranks Louisiana 40th among states when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents and people with disabilities. In some categories, Louisiana nursing home care ranks worst in the country.
The Advocate’s series, the AARP’s study and the latest report all make it clear that Louisiana needs to reform a system that channels more Medicaid money to nursing homes than into care that keeps people in their own homes, which is where surveys show most want to be. Among the biggest obstacles will be the millions of dollars nursing home interests have channeled into the campaign coffers of state legislators and governors over the years and the influence that apparently wields on many of them.
Everyone should care about the elderly and other people who rely on nursing homes for their most basic daily needs. That could include you or someone you love - either now or later. And taxpayers should demand that the Legislature and state administration spend their money more wisely, especially in a state that for years has bumbled along from one budget crises to the next.
You can help kick start reform by contacting you legislators and letting them know you want them to lead the way on changes that will lead to better nursing home care at a more reasonable cost to taxpayers. Some of Louisiana’s most vulnerable residents are depending on you.
Online: http://www.houmatoday.com/
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