With the end of May I have completed the first half of my internship for the Women’s Leadership Council in New Orleans. I have learned so much about some of the most crucial public policy issues for Louisiana and I am continuously impressed by the perseverance of the women on the WLC. Many of these policy issues have been around for years, decades even, but they haven’t given up hope. During the last two weeks or so I have been heavily focused on the landscape of early child care and education in the state. And let me tell you, things aren’t looking too good.
In the last few years the funding for early child education programs have been cut by 58% and the number of children served by these programs (LA4, for example) has also been reduced by half. This isn’t due to a lack of demand, but rather a lack of funds. Louisiana also doesn’t require children to attend school until the age of 7, even though we know that early intervention and learning make a world of difference in the academic development of children. Our only pre-K programs are for 4-year olds, and none of them are funded at cost. It is hard, in the current budget crisis, for us to be thinking long-term because our problems will become very real at the end of the session this month, but data shows that to save money Louisiana must spend more on early childhood care and education. Programs are too expensive and oftentimes, too poor in quality to be of any benefit to families.
All of my research is preparing the way for the questionnaire/voter’s guide. I will be meeting with the women of the WLC next week to discuss my preliminary questions and I am excited to see what other work needs to be done! My experiences so far have taught me to sincerely appreciate the hard-work and long-hours put in by special interest groups and lobbyists. I hope that I can continue working in the public policy arena in the future, especially considering the serious crisis Louisiana is going to be facing in the coming year.
My next goal for this internship is to create some simple ‘fact-sheets’ for each of the policy issues to be included with the questionnaire. Election season is right around the corner, we’ve got to be prepared!