Schools must end DEI efforts to keep federal funding

Louisiana public schools could lose federal funding if they do not comply with a Trump administration order to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to a letter sent out by the Department of Education on Thursday. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Patrick Wall explains how Louisiana could be affected, and the legal argument the White House is making to withhold funding: 

Any disruption in federal funding would be disastrous for Louisiana schools, which get nearly 20% of their money from the federal government. Thursday’s letter specifically threatens Title I funding, which supports schools with large shares of students from low-income families. Louisiana schools got about $395 million in Title I dollars last fiscal year. The Trump administration’s DEI crackdown is based on the controversial argument that any program that considers students’ race violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that restricted the use of race in college admissions.

Medicaid supports maternal and infant health

Medicaid covers 40% of births across the country, including 64% of births in Louisiana— yet this important lifeline is at risk as Congress eyes deep cuts to the program. A new brief from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families illustrates Medicaid’s role in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of new moms and their babies:

Medicaid also has a vital role to play in ensuring that parents and infants get the right care at the right time in the year following a birth to promote and protect maternal health, infant health, and early childhood development. Mothers and babies need access to care for well-visits including screening and treatment of physical and mental health needs. During pregnancy and following the birth of a new baby, Medicaid coverage⁴ includes services such as effective interventions for smoking, alcohol, and substance use, as well as treatment for chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression. 

State tax revenue is becoming more volatile

Dramatic swings in economic fortunes can wreak havoc on state budgets. Better-than-expected tax collections during the Covid-19 pandemic produced surplus and “excess” revenue for Louisiana. Conversely, an oil bust in the 1980s cratered the state’s economy and in turn the state budget, which at the time was heavily reliant on severance taxes. Pew’s Gayathri Venu and Justin Theal, using short-term and long-term volatility scores for state tax revenue, explain how tax collections are becoming more volatile nationwide:

A low score means that revenue growth rates were largely consistent throughout the analysis period, and a high score indicates that growth rates varied more dramatically. Overall, state tax revenue had a volatility score of 7.4 for the 15 years ending in fiscal 2023—ranging from 4.0 in Arkansas to 56.2 in Alaska. The results mean that, from fiscal 2009 to 2023, the growth rate of total tax revenue across the states typically fluctuated 7.4 percentage points above or below its average. For the five years ending in fiscal 2023, the volatility score increased to 10.3—nearly 40% higher than the long-term trend.

Louisiana’s volatility score for the 15 years ending in fiscal year 2023 was 7.9. Pew’s team lays out other toplines for the state during that time. 

• Sales tax revenue had a volatility score of 8.9 and averaged 33% of total state tax revenue over the past decade.
• Personal income tax revenue had a volatility score of 9.7 and averaged 30.5% of total state tax revenue over the past decade.

Louisiana’s volatility score has decreased in recent years: 

The five states that bucked the national trend and recorded lower volatility in recent years compared with their long-term trends were Louisiana (-3.8%), Delaware (-8.8%), Tennessee (-10.9%), Washington (-25.5%), and Virginia (-26.2%). In each case, the decline was largely driven by increased stability in key revenue sources, such as insurance premiums and personal income taxes in Louisiana, corporate and personal income in Delaware, general sales taxes in Tennessee and Washington, and motor fuel taxes in Washington.

Cutting university research funding is bad for Louisiana

The Trump administration’s plan to drastically reduce higher education research funding would have far-reaching consequences for colleges and universities and the states they are located in. Tulane University President Michael A. Fitts, writing in a guest column for The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate, explains how the cuts would reverberate throughout Louisiana’s economy and lays out the many benefits that his school and others provide to the state: 

Cuts to research funding will cause job losses in numerous sectors reliant on the success of universities, along with attendant decreases in tax revenue. Federal funding also provides financial aid, loans, work-study programs and other mechanisms that make it possible for more of our children to attend college, thus improving their own lives and increasing the number of higher-income, higher-taxpaying residents in our state. Tulane and its fellow universities also keep our best and brightest students here at home, while attracting the country’s leading researchers and scholars. Name another industry that both recruits and produces such an educated and skilled workforce for our state. 

Number of the Day

228,000 – Number of jobs the U.S. economy added in March. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)