re: Gov Jindal wants LSU to erect a statue of Pete Maravich outside PMAC

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Serious question. I haven't lived in Louisiana for pretty much all of the Jindal administration. But I've heard grumblings here and there that he's been instrumental in defunding higher education, not just at smaller schools but at LSU as well. If this is true, isn't it kind of a douche move to take money from a school then send it a letter asking why it hasn't spent money on a project like this? Again, i'm not up to speed on Louisiana politics so I may be speaking out of turn.

Anways, I'm for a statue nonetheless

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Louisiana faced a huge budget crisis when Jindal came into office. Much of that was due to the federal government ramping down their post Katrina spending and Governor Blanco using one time Katrina funds to pay for pay raises for teachers and other government employees.

Something had to be cut and by Louisiana's Constitution, the only things that could be cut were higher ed and healthcare. Jindal tried to make the cuts to LSU as easy as he could, hoping that the administrators would cut wasteful spending and operate more lean in the long run, but they refused to play ball. At LSU, they instead cut where they knew it would be the most noticeable, they fired all of their "instructors", increased class sizes, reduced class sections, and laid off most of their landscaping. The cuts the University chose to make were those that would most negatively impact students and be most visible. The idea was to upset students, their parents, and faculty enough to turn public opinion against Jindal. It didn't work as well as they'd hoped, but it did work.

What Jindal is truly responsible for, however, is not taking a leadership role to change the state Constitution to allow for cuts to fall elsewhere. He certainly deserves criticism for his lack of leadership on that issue.

Jindal was a great governor in his first term, but since he started the second one, he has been more concerned with building a resume for electibility on the national level then in governing his state, and it shows.