'Priorities out of whack': Louisiana slates $101 million for new sports arena while ignoring education and health care

U.S. News & World Report has offered state-by-state rankings on education, health care and other quality-of-life matters. Louisiana does not fare well, coming in at #45 for health care and #46 for education. And economically, U.S. News & World Report places Louisiana last at #50.

But The Guardian reports that despite these rankings, Louisiana is using $101 million to renovate the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.

The Guardian's Poet Wolfe explains, "The last-minute line funding renovations at the facility nicknamed the PMAC came at the request of Kim Mulkey, the women's basketball team's head coach who is known for her flamboyant fashion sense as well as her outspokenness about the venue's need for repairs. But giving fees and self-generated revenue from the state to the private foundation in question would also be illegal, Louisiana's Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, has recently said."

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Kevin Cope, faculty senate president at Louisiana State University (LSU), is vehemently critical of the PMAC funding.

Cope told The Guardian, "Such a sluicing of funds into a structure that serves primarily as a basketball court demonstrates that the leaders of our state grant a higher priority to chasing balls up and down a wooden court than to the improvement of its citizens."

Robert Mann, an LSU professor and historian, believes that it is ridiculous that a new LSU library is underfunded while the state can come up with millions for PMAC renovations.

Mann told The Guardian, "If that disgraceful episode doesn't convince people that our state's priorities are out of whack, I don't know what will."

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Find The Guardian's full report at this link.