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Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
Feb. 7
The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, on state child support efforts:
Nationally, child support collections took a hit during the recession, but in Louisiana aggressive efforts have brought about the opposite result: two years of increased collections.
That's good news for children, and all the more important during tough economic times.
Louisiana, which has about 280,000 child support collection cases, saw collections rise from $346.1 million in 2008 to $354 million in 2009 and $365.3 million in 2010. That's against the backdrop of the first national decline since 1975.
The more robust collections are due in part to the fact that the recession and attendant job losses were less severe in Louisiana. But the director of Child Support Enforcement for the Department of Children and Family Services also credited aggressive enforcement.
Louisiana already uses computer software to match government benefits with the names of parents who owe child support, for example, and plans to expand that next year.
Legislation signed into law last year will allow the state to work with casinos to check the names of jackpot winners against child support delinquency lists.
Those are worthwhile efforts, and they've paid off for children.
Online:
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Feb. 7
Monroe (La.) News-Star on state higher-education funding:
With state budget cuts and tuition increases looming for Louisiana's higher education institutions, a new study by the Southern Regional Education Board couldn't have come at a better time.
The study of funding, enrollment, graduation rates and faculty salary averages at two- and four-year institutions in 16 southern states shows Louisiana last in total funding, second lowest in tuition and low in the percentage of students earning degrees.
While Gov. Bobby Jindal has begun the discussion of focusing on performance metrics like graduation rates and tying them to tuition hikes through implementation of the Graduation Really Achieves Dreams Act, he also acknowledges that further tuition increases will be part of the equation that will help fund higher education. The facts show the dramatic need for higher education institutions to improve their financial picture. In the past two years, higher education has been cut $350 million. It is a foregone conclusion that institutions will have to increase tuition every time they have the opportunity to do so. But that is little comfort to families who are trying to educate their children. ...
It's important to remember the cost of a college education in Louisiana is still a bargain, when compared to the region and the nation. Yet, families that have budgeted for college still have to cope with ever-increasing costs.
Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
Feb. 7
The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, on state child support efforts:
Nationally, child support collections took a hit during the recession, but in Louisiana aggressive efforts have brought about the opposite result: two years of increased collections.
That's good news for children, and all the more important during tough economic times.
Louisiana, which has about 280,000 child support collection cases, saw collections rise from $346.1 million in 2008 to $354 million in 2009 and $365.3 million in 2010. That's against the backdrop of the first national decline since 1975.
The more robust collections are due in part to the fact that the recession and attendant job losses were less severe in Louisiana. But the director of Child Support Enforcement for the Department of Children and Family Services also credited aggressive enforcement.
Louisiana already uses computer software to match government benefits with the names of parents who owe child support, for example, and plans to expand that next year.
Legislation signed into law last year will allow the state to work with casinos to check the names of jackpot winners against child support delinquency lists.
Those are worthwhile efforts, and they've paid off for children.
Online:
___
Feb. 7
Monroe (La.) News-Star on state higher-education funding:
With state budget cuts and tuition increases looming for Louisiana's higher education institutions, a new study by the Southern Regional Education Board couldn't have come at a better time.
The study of funding, enrollment, graduation rates and faculty salary averages at two- and four-year institutions in 16 southern states shows Louisiana last in total funding, second lowest in tuition and low in the percentage of students earning degrees.
While Gov. Bobby Jindal has begun the discussion of focusing on performance metrics like graduation rates and tying them to tuition hikes through implementation of the Graduation Really Achieves Dreams Act, he also acknowledges that further tuition increases will be part of the equation that will help fund higher education. The facts show the dramatic need for higher education institutions to improve their financial picture. In the past two years, higher education has been cut $350 million. It is a foregone conclusion that institutions will have to increase tuition every time they have the opportunity to do so. But that is little comfort to families who are trying to educate their children. ...
It's important to remember the cost of a college education in Louisiana is still a bargain, when compared to the region and the nation. Yet, families that have budgeted for college still have to cope with ever-increasing costs.
Here's where higher ed's financial aid offices should really step up with significant outreach to make sure students and their families are aware of all the sources available. Student loans, grants and scholarships continue to provide sources of support for students who need assistance with costs, but it's remarkable how few families fully understand these resources or when to apply for them. The bureaucracy of a university's financial aid operation and red tape of the application processes can be an obstacle for many families.
Increased tuition costs in the short term will actually lower graduation rates by pricing some current students out of school, forcing them to slow their progress by working until they can afford to return. Part of any institution's retention plan needs to include highly visible and customer friendly financial aid information.
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Feb. 3
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., on splitting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement:
Perhaps it would not be good for morale to work for an agency that can be nicknamed something as malicious as "Bummer."
That might end up the nickname of the newly created and cumbersomely labeled Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
BOEMRE is the former MMS, or federal Mineral Management Service, for which no colorful and pejorative nickname ever appeared. However, MMS got called a lot of unflattering things in the wake of last year's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In government, when bad things happen, there is an irresistible impulse to reorganize, and particularly to rename. That has the double benefit of government appearing to do something, and providing a little cover for those in higher office who were in charge of the policies that actually led to disaster - that was then, this is now.
However, BOEMRE is more than just renaming. The agency will be split, with one part being the Bureau of Ocean Management, which will do the business side of assessing and exploiting oil and gas deposits offshore.
A new agency is the second part, the Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement, or BOSEE. That cries out for pronunciation as well, particularly as it is created to be more bossy about drilling safety than its MMS predecessor.
The idea of the split is reasonable enough, as MMS was in charge of both making big bucks for the government through offshore leasing, and being a tough overseer of the safety and environmental compliance of the same energy companies that it was soliciting for leases.
This conflict of interest made rearrangement of the bureaucratic chairs almost inevitable in the wake of the Macondo disaster off Louisiana's coast.
Inexplicably, the Louisiana congressional delegation continues to murmur about over-regulation and bureaucracy, when the old MMS bureaucracy failed at one of its principal tasks.
Eleven workers died in that rig explosion. The environmental impact was substantial and continues in parts of our state's critical marshlands.
We don't know if the bureaucracy will make the new agency a bummer for the environment or too bossy to the oil companies. But the separation of two obviously conflicting priorities is a reasonable enough response to disaster.
Online:
