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Louisiana’s Medicaid program provides health care coverage to nearly 2 million people, 42% of thepopulation, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. The percentage of state population enrolled in Medicaid increased about 5% from early 2020 to July 2021.
Louisiana’s unemployment rate was 4.3% in February 2022, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That is the lowest reported figure since June 2019.
Louisiana faces a two-pronged problem in maintaining adequate levels of teachers in its K-12 publicschools, with more than one in 10 teachers leaving the classroom each year while the pipeline of newteachers also is significantly decreasing.
Undergraduate enrollment at Louisiana public colleges fell 2.6% for fall 2021, according to the Board of Regents. The Louisiana State University and Southern University systems both increased nearly 2% inundergraduate enrollment. But the University of Louisiana System had a 5.7% decrease, and theLouisiana Community and Technical College System had a 2% drop.
This report by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) provides data analysis and further indications of COVID-19’s disparate impact on Black people in Louisiana.
Federal largesse and leadership cooperation got the new Legislature through its first budget crisis. Now on to the next one.
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) is presenting an analysis of state trendlines related to the COVID-19 pandemic.