For your listening pleasure, LABI has launched its own podcast series, each episode taking a “Deep Dive” into the origin stories of the policy makers, job creators, thinkers and doers shaping Louisiana. The inaugural episode features an “exit interview” with former Louisiana Education Superintendent John White. As we rethink delivery of education and workforce training in the midst of this pandemic, the debut episode of Deep Dive is especially timely. It was recorded before the far-reaching effects of the “Stay-at-Home” order, but the lessons most definitely apply.
Speaking about education reform that followed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, White said in the interview, “There's a burst of energy in government, in politics, in public service and in business that comes with responding to great tragedies and great catastrophes… The real question is, how do you sustain that momentum without needing that sort of catastrophic and catalytic event? I think you do it through focus, and through an unwavering sense that our people, our businesses, our communities, our students, our children can and should be on a level playing field with anyone in this country. And the minute you start compromising on that simple idea… then you go back. And it won't be until another horrible event happens that we begin to get the resurgence of energy.”