At the inaugural meeting of the Governance Commission for Louisiana post-secondary education Friday, Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell asked the question the commission was formed to resolve — “What can we do to maximize success?”
The commission was created by House Concurrent Resolution 184 — co-authored by representatives Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, and John Schroder, R-Covington, — to monitor the governing bodies of postsecondary education in Louisiana and provide recommendations for a more cohesive system.
A bill, authored by House Speaker Jim Tucker, proposed to replace the Board of Regents and the Board of Supervisors with a single board, the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Board of Trustees, but the proposal failed to pass during the recent legislative session while Resolution 184 passed instead.
“This is a compromise,” Schroder said in his opening remarks on the legislation.  If the Governance Commission does not produce results, he said, “I will support a one-board solution in the next command.”
Some of the commission members believe the root of the problem lies in Louisiana’s secondary education system.
Randy Moffett, president of the University of Louisiana System, agreed, pointing out that 37 percent of 18-year-olds in Louisiana do not graduate high school.
The Commission will meet four more times to prepare a report which they will submit to the legislature by Jan. 12, 2012.
 
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