S5 E123: Louisiana’s AP Success, and the UL Board’s Silly Idea for Lafayette, Tech, and Monroe

Now, Let's start the day with the good news.

Louisiana's AP exams.

You guys know I'm very much into local education and just education issues in general.

Louisiana, the kids who take AP courses, more and more of them, a higher and higher percentage of them, are getting passing scores on at least one of the tests they take every year.

And this is great news.

Lots more college credits going around.

Our kids are getting ready, getting more prepared for college, which is fantastic news.

And the state is touting this, obviously, as there's a 6% growth in the number of kids who achieved a passing score of three or more on an AP test last year.

70% of students who took an AP test got college credits.

That's phenomenal.

Now, if you listen to Acadiana's Morning News this morning, you heard me talk about this already.

But I think this is an important point.

The story at The Advocate on this makes it all go, this is good news, but there's a bunch of kids who don't have access to AP courses.

And the story does a couple things that I really, really don't like.

The first thing it does is it falsely equivocates race and socioeconomic status, which is something a lot of folks who talk negatively about education, and that's one thing they do a lot.

You talk about education access and everything.

They make it about race when it's really not nearly as much about race as it is socioeconomic status.

It's more of a class issue, honestly, when you get down to it than a race issue.

In the areas where it's harder to find a school that has AP courses, it's because those schools have fewer resources.

They're trying at times just to get enough teachers to run the regular, to teach the regular courses, not any extra courses like AP and other things like that.

They're trying to meet the bare minimum in their teaching requirements.

And so there's not always AP courses at those schools.

And so those schools with fewer resources, they fall into two categories.

They're going to be urban, what we would call in some areas inner city, but urban schools inside cities in lower income parts of the city.

And they're going to be in rural areas.

Now, Let's start the day with the good news.

Louisiana's AP exams.

You guys know I'm very much into local education and just education issues in general.

Louisiana, the kids who take AP courses, more and more of them, a higher and higher percentage of them, are getting passing scores on at least one of the tests they take every year.

And this is great news.

Lots more college credits going around.

Our kids are getting ready, getting more prepared for college, which is fantastic news.

And the state is touting this, obviously, as there's a 6% growth in the number of kids who achieved a passing score of three or more on an AP test last year.

70% of students who took an AP test got college credits.

That's phenomenal.

Now, if you listen to Acadiana's Morning News this morning, you heard me talk about this already.

But I think this is an important point.

The story at The Advocate on this makes it all go, this is good news, but there's a bunch of kids who don't have access to AP courses.

And the story does a couple things that I really, really don't like.

The first thing it does is it falsely equivocates race and socioeconomic status, which is something a lot of folks who talk negatively about education, and that's one thing they do a lot.

You talk about education access and everything.

They make it about race when it's really not nearly as much about race as it is socioeconomic status.

It's more of a class issue, honestly, when you get down to it than a race issue.

In the areas where it's harder to find a school that has AP courses, it's because those schools have fewer resources.

They're trying at times just to get enough teachers to run the regular, to teach the regular courses, not any extra courses like AP and other things like that.

They're trying to meet the bare minimum in their teaching requirements.

And so there's not always AP courses at those schools.

And so those schools with fewer resources, they fall into two categories.

They're going to be urban, what we would call in some areas inner city, but urban schools inside cities in lower income parts of the city.

And they're going to be in rural areas.