Early education fund could soon run out of money

A state program that provides access to affordable child care will run out of money over the next five years, according to a new report from Leaders for a Better Louisiana. The Louisiana Early Care and Education Fund offers local communities a dollar-for-dollar match on their early childhood education investments. But the fund has been supported by a one-time appropriation of $40 million that state lawmakers approved in 2023. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Elyse Carmosino reports: 

As participation in the program has grown by 18% over the past two years, the state’s funding will likely be depleted by 2030 at the latest, the report found, even if the number of children served each year remains flat. If enrollment continues to increase at a steady rate, the funds could be exhausted as soon as the 2027-28 fiscal year, the report says. To meet growing demand, the report suggests that lawmakers allocate $30 million annually for the program — a big ask of the state’s Legislature, which made $10 million in cuts to early education last year. The annual funding would allow the program to serve 10% more students each year and keep the program sustainable through the mid-2030s.

Trump administration to release half of SNAP benefits

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will use U.S. Department of Agriculture contingency funds to pay half of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in November. The move comes after a federal judge ordered the USDA on Saturday to restart benefits using the reserve dollars. The Washington Post’s Mariana Alfaro reports: 

In the Monday brief, Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at USDA, said that the Food and Nutrition Service, which administers SNAP, will spend about $450 million of the contingency funds paying for states to administer the program this month. An additional $150 million will be used for food assistance programs in Puerto Rico and American Samoa, and the remaining $4.65 billion in the fund will be used to pay for SNAP benefits. That money, Penn said, will cover 50 percent of each eligible household’s current allotment.

Gov. Jeff Landry and legislative leaders had worked prior to Monday’s announcement to use state dollars to provide November SNAP benefits to recipients who are elderly, disabled and families with children. Other recipients are being pushed to already strained food banks. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Mark Ballard reports: 

“If everyone rushes to the food bank, there will definitely be some food shortages going on in the state of Louisiana and across the country,” [Executive Director of Feeding Louisiana Pat R] Van Burkleo said Monday. “We just don’t have the dollars, the manpower, the food, to give that much food out at one time, at a time that was already at an all-time low.” Louisiana food banks, which are seeking additional funds from private sources and the government, don’t have the resources to cover the onslaught. For every meal a food bank can provide, SNAP can provide nine meals, Van Burkleo said.

The initial $150 million the state plans to spend to keep food assistance benefits running in November would come from the Louisiana Department of Health. Ballard explains where the rest of the funds will come from and the trouble Louisiana could run into if the federal shutdown lasts into next year: 

After that money is used up, the state will tap the $2.5 billion Revenue Stabilization Fund, which was set aside generally for emergencies. Louisiana is okay for November and December but if the government doesn’t reopen, the state will have some problems. “I mean, we just couldn’t keep going to revenue stabilization, because then you start jeopardizing your bond rating and other things that would cost you on the back end,” [Louisiana House Appropriations Committee Chair Jack] McFarland said. McFarland said Monday he doesn’t know yet how the Trump administration’s decision to start funding part of SNAP will impact Louisiana’s finances. No details have been released yet.

Health insurance premiums spike

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act began on Saturday, and now millions of Americans who buy health insurance through the federal marketplace can see the looming increases to their insurance premiums. The price hikes are due to the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits that helped keep coverage affordable. A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides a breakdown of the price increases and the tough choices many people face if Congress does not renew the credits:

Recent focus groups convened by CBPP show the real-world impacts that the PTC enhancements have had on people’s lives — and the repercussions if they expire.^[19] For Tracy, a 57-year-old customer service representative from Georgia whose plan’s out-of-pocket premiums are set to rise by $350 per month, the rise in marketplace premiums would “most likely mean sacrificing essentials: groceries, gas, basic necessities that I rely on.” Losing the PTC enhancements would force tough decisions, including for people with chronic conditions. M. M., a 45-year-old IT consultant from Illinois, might “hold back on some of those medications, eat less … take less insulin to treat my diabetes.”

According to CBPP’s analysis, the premium for a Louisiana family of four (with two 40-year-old parents, a 10-year-old, and a 5-year-old) earning $130,000 who purchase coverage through the federal marketplace would increase from $11,050 to $24,785 per year – a 124.3% increase.

Louisiana slow to warn about deadly whooping cough outbreak

Two babies in Louisiana died from pertussis, a vaccine-preventable disease more commonly known as whooping cough, last January. But as WWNO’s Rosemary Westwood reports, it took state leaders months to warn the public:

But the Louisiana Department of Health waited two months to send out a social media post suggesting people talk to their doctors about getting vaccinated. The department took even longer to issue a statewide health alert to physicians, send out a press release, or hold a news conference. That lag is not typical, according to Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Particularly for these childhood diseases, we usually jump all over these,” said Benjamin, a physician who has led health departments in Maryland and Washington, D.C. “These are preventable diseases and preventable deaths.”

The tragic deaths were part of the state’s worst whooping cough outbreak in 35 years. Unfortunately, the state continued to take a lackadaisical approach to public awareness: 

Then on May 1 — at least three months after the second infant death — the health department issued what appears to be its first and so far only official alert to physicians. It put out its first press release the next day and then held a news conference about pertussis on May 14. By then, 42 people had been hospitalized for whooping cough since the outbreak began, three-quarters of whom were not up to date on their whooping cough immunizations, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. More than two-thirds of those hospitalized were babies under the age of 1. Throughout the summer, pertussis cases continued to climb in Louisiana. But there were no further public communications from the state health department.

Number of the Day

202,076 – Total school bus driver employment in the United States as of August 1, 2025, compared to 232,416 on January 1, 2020. Bus driver employment has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. (Source: Economic Policy Institute)