Louisiana residents recently placed education at the top of a list of issues facing the state but rated the state’s colleges in good shape.
The LSU Public Policy Lab conducted a telephone survey of 1,386 residents aged 18 and older who were randomly selected. The lab asked half the residents questions about education and half about the economy and health care between May 1 and 31.
According to the study, 40 percent of residents polled said primary and secondary education present the state’s most important problem, but 29 percent said college education in Louisiana was above average when compared to other states in the Southeast.
Graphic design freshman Elizabeth George agreed with this finding.
“College-level education in Louisiana is a lot better than high school, and funding is better,” she said. “LSU is a really good school.”
George said she feels like she will be able to compete in the graphic design job market because of her education at the University.
Kirby Goidel, LSU Public Policy Lab director, said the University helps bring life to Baton Rouge.
“Universities are playing important roles in technology and cutting-edge research, and LSU plays that role,” he said. “People seem to recognize it.”
Though most University students are not parents, they still are concerned about the children and teen-agers in the primary and secondary education system.
“It’s the basis of everything,” said wildlife and fisheries senior Wayne Lawless. “You’ve got to start with the education of youth in order to keep the state prospering.”
Lawless said today’s youth are the key to tomorrow’s success.
“They’ll be the one’s in leadership one day,” he said.
Lara Lazarre, a biochemistry freshman, said she would like to increase spending in public education, but with stipulations.
“Funding should only be increased if it is used efficiently,” she said.
Lazarre attended public school in Denham Springs until she was in the 11th grade, when she transferred to the Dunham School in Baton Rouge.
“Private schools use money in the correct way,” she said.
Goidel said there are more than just obvious benefits to improvements in public education – along with improved test scores comes a better economy.
“One of the critical things about primary and secondary education is that it creates a climate,” Goidel said. “There is a direct connection between economic opportunity and quality of education.
Though education was on top, 65 percent of Louisiana residents said they had “heard much” about coastal erosion, though it was not the most important issue on the list.
University students did not seem to have “heard much” about Louisiana’s coastal erosion problem when asked, but one student said the environment should be a top priority.
Kenneth Manda, a mechanical engineering senior, was one of the few students who said he had heard much about coastal erosion.
“We have so many pollution and coastal issues,” he said. “I fish and hunt so I see erosion taking place, invasion of the environment and less trees because of parking lots and everything else.”
Though Manda thought the environment should be a higher priority in Louisiana, he did not place it above education.
“[They’re on] the same plain,” he said. “A broad education informs people on more than just math and science but the world you live in.”
Goidel said he hopes the issues presented in the survey, particularly primary and secondary education, will be addressed in the current governor’s race.
“What I’m reading is people recognize the economy needs a stimulus and that the education system helps that,” he said. “We need a leader who can persuade candidates that he can make that [education system] better.”