Louisiana is among the top ten states in spending on early childhood education and Gov. Bobby Jindal is pushing to add another $2.5 million to that cause, the governor's wife said today at a gathering of New Orleans area women dedicated to making the post-Katrina world better for the state's youngsters.

Speaking only hours before her husband is scheduled to appear on tonight's Jay Leno Show, Supriya Jindal delivered the good news to the Women's Leadership Council of the United Way for the Greater New Orleans area.

The $2.5 million boost would bring the spending total for early childhood education to $85 million, the governor's wife said.

 

But Jindal reminded the gathering of several hundred civic, corporate and community leaders that problems remain, among them chronically low scores posted by Louisiana students on standardized math and science tests.

 

Jindal, by training a chemical engineer with a master's degree in business administration, said she will use her professional background to increase student interest in math and science.

 

Jindal, a mother of three, said she will also make children's health care one of her priorities. The subject got her attention a few years ago when her second child as born with a heart defect. Medical experts addressed his problem, she said, and "he is now a healthy four year old."

 

The Women's Leadership Conference, formed in 2002, supports the health and human service needs of women and children through their members' leadership, philanthropy and advocacy.

 

The council has focused on high quality child care as a necessary ingredient, along with jobs and housings, for bringing displaced young families back to New Orleans.

 

In addition to marshaling money and volunteer labor to rebuild playgrounds and child development centers, the WLC and its Success by Six program have helped establish a statewide quality rating system for child-care facilities and successfully lobbied the state Legislature for a school-readiness tax credit that benefits workers, parents and businesses that support child care centers.

 

Full article available at http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/governors_wife_delivers_dose_o.html.