CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • “This Worry Is My Only Friend.” A Soundtrack For Tomorrow:

    Suggestions welcomed.

  • Bobby Jindal’s Voucher Program: Public Dollars Will Enrich and Fund Radical, Fringe “Religious” Schools

    Bobby Jindal’s Voucher Program: Public Dollars Will Enrich and Fund Radical, Fringe “Religious” Schools

    A month ago, the Jindal administration and State Superintendent John White announced a list of private and charter schools that had qualified to receive taxpayer-funded vouchers, the cornerstone of Governor Jindal’s controversial plan to “reform” the Louisiana education system. According to an analysis by my friends at The Daily Kingfish, of the 125 schools that were approved, 115 of them (or 92%) “are affiliated with a church or other religious organization.” This, in and of itself, should not be too surprising; after all, the overwhelming majority of private schools in Louisiana are either affiliated with a church or a religious organization, and…

  • “Twelve Years A Slave” Being Adapted Into Major Motion Picture With All-Star Cast

    “Twelve Years A Slave” Being Adapted Into Major Motion Picture With All-Star Cast

    Only a few months before she passed away, I passed along a “top secret” message to my Great Aunt Sue Eakin. Aunt Sue was, arguably, Central Louisiana’s most accomplished historian. She and her sister Manie wrote the textbook that, for decades, was used in seventh and eighth grade Louisiana history classes, so chances are, if you attended junior high in Louisiana, you’ve read her work. But without question, her greatest professional accomplishment was editing Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave, reintroducing the seminal slave narrative to the American public, 115 years after it was originally published. Northup’s story, in many ways,…