LSU Student Government Issues Higher Education Report Card

Report card day was always a day of much joy or complete sorry around my house when I was a kid. When I did the work and studied hard there was usually a treat involved on report card day. When I approached my school work like an elected official I usually found myself at home on weekend nights and missing a lot of television.

The current session of the Louisiana Legislature has been under the microscope from the higher education community. That's because the current budget crisis had placed funding for higher education in a rather precarious position. So how did the legislators do, as far as higher education is concerned?

LSU's Student Government Association has just released their first "Higher Education Report Card". This report card gradeed lawmakers on how they performed in the task of protecting and funding higher education.  Andrew Mahtook is Student Government Association President at LSU and he explained how the budget was a main area of focus in coming up with grades for this report.

Also long term revenue raising measures for higher ed and increased administrative autonomies that bring decision making closer to students.

To come up with a grade, lawmakers were scored based upon this set of criteria. They were graded on bills that were supported and voted for. Each of those bills carried a specific weight based upon its importance to higher education.  Mahtook's group found the results were very favorable for most lawmakers.

In the full report, 40 lawmakers were given a grade of "A". 35 lawmakers earned a grade of "B". There were 21 "C" grades, 28 "D" grades issues and 20 lawmakers earned an "F" or failing grade according the report.This information is according  to a story published by the Louisiana Radio Network.

Mahtook says this report is just the beginning for what he hopes will become a new relationship between legislators and students. In future Mahtook is hoping to see a student lobby organization created that would insure that the needs of higher education are brought to the attention of all legislators.