For most of my life, Louisiana has pretty much ranked at the bottom of every single metric possible–excluding notable exceptions like insurance rates, overall tax burden, and murder rates.

For many years, Louisiana was notoriously a bottom-dweller when it came to K-12 education rankings. In 2019 alone, US News & World Report ranked Louisiana #46 in K-12 education. Then in 2020, Louisiana education finally made a move in the right direction.

Dr. Cade Brumley became the Superintendent of BESE in June 2020, and he immediately started promoting positive educational reform in Louisiana. When other states were forcing children to learn from home in 2020 and 2021, Dr. Brumley and other state educational leaders emphasized in-person learning–saving Louisiana students from falling behind in their education.

Additionally, education freedom has remained a central tenet of Dr. Brumley’s tenure in the Louisiana Department of Education. Dr. Brumley and his staff have promoted educational savings accounts (ESAs) for Louisiana families–despite fierce opposition from local establishment media outlets. Fortunately, the Louisiana state legislature passed a pared down version of ESAs called the “LA GATOR scholarship.” Nevertheless, Louisiana’s ESA legislation was certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to educational freedom.

Louisiana’s positive strides in K-12 education have not gone unnoticed. Last year, US News & World Report ranked Louisiana at #40th in K-12 education—which is six spots higher than in 2019.

Even better, the Heritage Foundation ranked Louisiana at #4 in its 2024 education freedom report card earlier this month! Louisiana jumped up fourteen spots from its previous ranking of #18 in the 2023 edition of this ranking.

As you can probably guess, Louisiana’s high ranking in the educational freedom report card is due to Louisiana’s recent passage of ESA legislation. Here is what the Heritage Foundation said about Louisiana’s ranking in the education choice category:

Louisiana ranks eighth for education choice, up 17 spots since 2023, due in large part to its enactment of a universal K–12 education savings account (ESA) policy in 2024. Louisiana does exceptionally well in empowering families to choose among private, charter, and district schools. Additionally, Louisiana generally respects the autonomy of homeschooling families.

For the four components of the education freedom report card, Louisiana ranked #8 in education choice, #14 in transparency, #7 in teacher freedom, and #6 in return on investment (ROI).

Following the publication of this positive ranking, the Louisiana Department of Education published the following quote from Dr. Brumley in its press release:

“Expanding education freedom is a priority in Louisiana, and I’m glad to see our progress recognized nationally” said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “I want to thank Governor Landry, the legislature, and BESE for their shared commitment to provide all families with quality school choice options.”

Louisiana education finally looks like it is on the right track under the leadership of BESE superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley. Louisiana residents certainly have a state superintendent we can trust to promote educational freedom and the interests of our K-12 students.

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