Louisiana is the second poorest state in the country, according to the newly released Census Bureau data. This state has 21.6 percent, or 958,000 people, who live below the official poverty level of $22,314 a year for a family of four. We have more than 20 percent of our people — about 886,000 — who lack any health insurance.
In the past four years, Louisiana’s unemployment rate has doubled to 7.5 percent. Approximately 66 percent of the children in our public schools are on free or reduced-price lunches, a primary indicator of poverty.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks Louisiana 49th in child well-being, which means this state is failing on all major indicators — including infant mortality, teen pregnancy, juvenile incarceration and high school dropout rates, just to name a few.
We need to use the latest data as a reason to focus on solutions to poverty. If Louisiana wants to improve the quality of life for our state’s children and families and improve our public education and health care systems while promoting economic development, then we must seriously address the main challenge in this state — too many people are extremely poor.
Multifront challenge
Too many citizens lack education, parental skills, jobs and decent housing and are not in the mainstream economy. We have to find ways to create pathways to prosperity for families trapped in poverty. We have families — both black and white — in every corner of the state living lives of quiet desperation without access to quality education, health care and job training and who continually are dismissed as the problem, not as fellow citizens worthy of concern and care.
Government, businesses and nonprofits must work with neighborhood leaders, churches, schools and parents to create expectations for children and families. We have to move past a sense of isolation and victimhood to focus on individual and community responsibility. But there is a role for government in alleviating human suffering and helping families move out of poverty.
Our leaders need a push
Our elected officials are not talking about poverty or solving our systemic problems. They gloss over the tragic reality many of Louisiana’s families face every day. The agenda of systematic cuts to child care, prekindergarten, elementary and secondary education and universities only compounds the situation for Louisiana’s working families.
Parents can’t work without access to quality, affordable day care. With cuts to public transportation, people can’t get to work to support their families. Without access to quality education and work force development, many adults continue to be unemployed. And with adult illiteracy rates at astoundingly high levels, many are unable to find jobs.
Time for pathways
Louisiana always finds money to build more prisons since we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. But we do a terrible job of educating and employing people to stay out of prison. We have to address the problems of pervasive poverty and the cradle-to-prison pipeline.
We do a great job of blaming the poor, scapegoating children and driving up the heated political rhetoric of class warfare — us against them. We need to realize that we are all Louisiana citizens and worthy of respect. We need a strategy to help families help themselves. Most people need and want a hand up, not a handout. Yet we fail to help families find the pathways out of poverty to self-sufficiency and ultimately to prosperity. We all share in the failure, and we will all benefit from success.
Now is the time to refocus on strategies to help families move from poverty to prosperity. Louisiana Progress is launching a Pathways to Prosperity initiative to focus on solving problems in Louisiana and encourage philanthropic investment in programs that are making a difference to help families move from poverty to prosperity.
Partners in the effort
We should work with the private sector on job creation targeted to local neighborhoods that have the highest unemployment and poverty and identify enterprise opportunities for small businesses to put people to work.
The state of Louisiana has an opportunity to work across its departments and agencies and partner with local governments, nonprofits and churches to focus on reducing the number of families living in poverty.
Improve services
There is a role for state government. Health and Hospitals (DHH) could make health care services more accessible for children and families on Medicaid or without insurance. DHH could expand family planning services to help young women and men plan for their future, and avoid unwanted pregnancies so they can finish their educations and be self-sufficient. If young people have unplanned pregnancies, the state could fully fund the Nurse Family Partnership to help young mothers get the parenting skills and support they need.
The Department of Children and Family Services should focus on helping strengthen families by funding access to child care and parental education programs to ensure families are self-sufficient. The Education Department could fully fund the LA-4 program.
We need to work across party and political lines to focus on what Louisiana needs to move forward. For this to be a state to be proud of, we need to help all Louisianans be self-sufficient, better educated, employed and contributing members of society. We know the problems Louisiana faces, and we know what the solutions are. We all share the responsibility. If we want to move Louisiana forward, we need to commit to reducing the number of families living in poverty. Together, we can solve problems and help families be self-sufficient.
