The Louisiana Legislature finished its business last week and, considering a projected revenue drop of $1.3 billion — before their federal “cousins” passed the onerous “Cap and Trade” bill — key elements to keeping this state moving forward faired fairly well.

Education and health care were cut below current levels, but nowhere close to the initial levels that were proposed.

And while some felt the failure to wrest power away from local school boards and revamp the curriculum was bad, the bottom line is that locals who help fund the district should have more than a passing say in what happens. Additionally, the creation of a new “career track” high school diploma while lowering the minimum academic requirement for promotion from eighth grade would do nothing to keep educational progress under way.

A bill-by-bill breakdown is difficult at best, but these were key bills the legislature handled properly.