Louisiana has become one of the nation’s primary exit states. I’m not surprised. I returned home a decade ago to teach, determined to invest in my community. Today, many of the people I worked with left for other states. So did my childhood friends. So did my mother.
Sure it’s easier to leave when you’re up against skyrocketing insurance costs and limited economic opportunity. But the ones who feel it most: our children. Staffing shortages mean fewer teachers in classrooms, fewer caseworkers responding to abuse reports and fewer professionals able to intervene before harm occurs.
Years ago, as a classroom teacher, I witnessed how turnover hollowed out schools—not just classrooms, but institutional memory. Each departure meant teachers stretched thinner, fewer mentors, fewer advocates, fewer resources and fewer adults who knew the students and the context well enough to provide equitable, transformative educational experiences…