re: LSU: The Poorest School in the Conference?

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I was really surprised at how much time Bama spends at high school college fairs in Texas. They really do pursue out of state kids.

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I have a freshman (in-state) at Alabama this year. I was floored when we were told that 79% of the girls that went through rush last year were from OOS. My daughters sorority took +/-125 girls in Fall '14 rush and nearly 80% are OOS girls from all over the country, 20% from Texas alone.

The school is in trouble IMO because Bobby Jindal has aspirations for higher office and he always places them above the needs of his state

Oh well, this thread's been anchored.

good. the whole article is bullshite

Let me give folks a cliff notes on this whole ordeal:

Edwin Edwards-convicted felon and 4 time former Governor of La-rewrote the Constitution back in the early 70's and made every state agency's budget constitutionally protected from being cut. Every agency except for health care and higher education.

It was a brilliant strategy to fight conservative/Republican smaller government types. No Governor-R or D-has dared to rewrite the Constitution since, though it is badly in need of an overhaul.

As such, when economic difficulties hit the state-like giving away the farm in corporate subsidies, business tax credits, etc-we can only cut our budget in two areas: Higher Ed or Healthcare.

We have a balanced budget requirement in the state, and Jindal has spent 6 or 7 years now kicking the can down the road in order to use accounting tricks and spending one-time money in order to pay for the state to keep social services and other agency's doors open.

The chickens are now home to roost, and he's boxed himself in as a Conservative Republican by not calling the Constitutional Convention when he had a staggering electoral mandate. His signature on Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge also ties our hands.

So LSU is held hostage. Every. Single. Year. We've been raising capital to reduce our reliance on state funding. We're down to somewhere between 11-13% which is fantastic. But obviously our President isn't afraid of holding our AD hostage since Jindal's holding his University Hostage.

Meanwhile LSU will be negatively recruited like crazy because of his comments.

In summation: Jindal and Alexander are responsible for this.

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Some people think that there's something inherently wrong with open-enrolment, but I think there's a place for it in a largely rural state. You let anyone in, and then weed them out through the course work. If they can prove they can cut it, why not let them get an advanced education? It was anti-elitism at its core.

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Louisiana still has that policy, all you need to get into a community college in Louisiana is be 18 and take the ACT. You can score a 1, but you have to take it. If you maintain a 2.5 GPA for 30 hours of college (not vocational) credit you can transfer to LSU or any other state school.

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There is no reason in the world that a state with the natural resources and strategic geographic position as Louisiana should be as destitute as it is except for corruption, cronyism and neo-colonialism.

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It is corruption plain and simple. Huey P Long is considered a god in Louisiana and he was as corrupt as they come, EWE a convicted felon made the runoff for a congress seat. He spent the better part of a decade in the federal pen for corruption, but some of the fine folks in the La 3rd district thought that was ok. The previous mayor of NOLA is currently in jail for corruption. Same goes for the republicans, but there hasn't been as many big names recently.

The other big issue in Louisiana when I lived there 30 years ago was the homestead exemption. Everyone was given $75,000 homestead exemption which in those days pretty much insured most people never paid property taxes. When I moved to Texas I almost choked on the taxes but quickly realized you get what you pay for - better roads, schools, quality of life etc. Pretty simple actually.