Dear Editor,
Where were State leaders of all varieties, and particularly the current leadership of higher and K-12 education as decisions to eliminate the Support Fund were being made? Where are they now? Every college and university, every k-12 school and district, has benefited enormously, in diverse ways, from the Support Fund.
For higher education: Endowed Chairs and Professorships, research, enhancement, and graduate student scholarships.
For k-12: special monies for teacher professional development, curricula strengthening in key subject areas (such as math, science, early childhood, foreign languages, technical and workforce education), exemplary, remediation, special education, and preschool initiatives.
During its twenty-eight-year history, the Support Fund has had penetrating systemic benefits from K to graduate education. How can the Fund now be so preemptively and thoughtlessly terminated? Louisiana will soon do so unless enlightened leaders and informed citizens immediately act.
Those who had the lengthy vision to establish the Support Fund are asking some from their graves, will Louisiana allow this uniquely transformative venture to publicly die, alone, without serious challenge, in silence?
Apprehensive, but still cautiously optimistic.
Sincerely,
Kerry Davidson
(225-933-9962)
