Our Views: Not just jobs, but a future - Advocate Opinion

For community leaders in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the importance of quality in higher education is paramount. We hope their legislative delegations are listening. Civic and political leaders in both communities have decried budget cuts that will force layoffs and other cutbacks at four-year campuses and the growing community colleges. True, there is also a specific economic impact on the two cities because of the scale of the universities’ direct spending in the local economies. LSU has an estimated $1 billion annual impact in Baton Rouge, for example.