Council for A Better Louisiana says state wellbeing is trending downwards

The Council for A Better Louisiana , or CABL, says the state is making progress on less than half of the thirty-five indicators for wellbeing, and trending slightly downwards from last year. CABL president Barry Erwin says one problem area is health and wellness: “In terms of life expectancy, low birth weight babies, infant mortality, food insecurity… [we’re] just not moving in the right direction on those things.”

CABL monitored Louisiana’s progress in five areas: economy, which showed a decline; health and wellbeing, which also declined; infrastructure, which largely improved; environment and energy, which was a mixed bag; and education, which Erwin says improved a lot.

“For third grade reading, for mastery for economically-disadvantaged kids, for education attainment, we’re moving in the right direction,” he explains. “Not where we need to be, but at least in the right direction.”

Sixteen indicators are trending downwards, compared to thirteen last year, and 7 were down for 2 years in a row. Plus, only sixteen are trending upwards compared to eighteen last year. Erwin says the best way to improve these numbers is to create policy to address problem areas like the economy and healthcare.

“What this shows is that on some [indicators] that are really very important, we are not going in the right direction, and we need to kind of reverse gear,” he says.

The complete report can be found on CABL’s website or by clicking here.