How many times do I hear that the answer to Louisiana being last in so many good categories is education. The simple truth is that unless that statement is qualified, it must be viewed as political gaslighting.

Education would be a part of the solution if our focus remains on results and not on adult issues like jobs, unions, taxes, corruption, state and local political power, and so forth. We are a state that graduates large numbers of high schoolers whose results are just approaching basic. That is our problem and it is unacceptable. Everything else pales in comparison to putting the expectation of far stronger education outcomes far above all else and we must realize that.

While education results are improving, the fact is that the education process is a generational solution to better outcomes. So many of our students start school unprepared because they come from homes in which the level of education in the home is low and/or its significance and the discipline required to succeed is not as high a priority as it should be. Only over the slow progression of generations of students exposed to high expectations will we see broad, sustained results.

Finally, our culture to a large extent hampers the ability of our system of education to produce meaningful results and to fulfill the promise of education. Much is written about the negative impact of poverty on educational outcomes. That is a proven fact, but almost no one discusses one of the fundamental causes of poverty. It is political inconvenient for leaders to address the fact that 40 plus % of all kids in the state, and in cities 70 plus % of black kids, come from what today are culturally acceptable single parent (or other guardian) homes. Yet a well-documented result of single parent homes is guess what, poverty; and I might add to that, also all sorts of other societal ills. So as long as political leaders run away from addressing one of the most impactful causes of poverty by finding comfort in blaming everything but our own cultural fault, we will never address the root cause of one of the main drivers of bad educational outcomes.

Education can lift Louisiana, but only if we are honest about what it takes to overcome inherent obstacles. When next a politician says that the first thing we need is better education, ask them what that really means and how would they propose we get to there. If they answer with the usual claptrap, don’t expect anything to change. These issues are solvable, but they are deeply rooted and require sustained effort and clear vision to overcome.