Bayou State Breakthrough: Louisiana Jumps in Latest Education Study

The public education system in Louisiana has struggled in a lot of national studies, often relying on the old phrase, "Thank God for Mississippi," because the idea is that without them, we'd be dead last in most rankings. Compared to previous years, Louisiana jumped several places higher, spelling a hopeful future for the Bayou State's youth.

Louisiana Schools: Progress Made, Room for Growth

Wallethub's annual study of each state's public school system dropped for 2025 and shows impressive growth for Louisiana over the last 5 years of the study. The earliest record we found of Louisiana's ranking in this study placed Louisiana as the 5th worst public school system as of 2020.

The 2025 edition of the study placed Louisiana as the 8th least educated state in the United States of America. Though the grades for Louisiana were higher than they have been, there's still lots of room for improvement. According to WalletHub, Louisiana is categorized as having high spending on education but a weaker education system.

Key Hurdles for Louisiana Schools

According to WalletHub's experts, the two biggest issues for Louisiana's school system are having the 2nd lowest median ACT scores and the highest % of threatened and/or injured high school students. On top of the school system itself, Louisiana has also been ranked by WalletHub as being the 9th worst state for teachers and the 4th least educated state overall.

Louisiana's education system could be facing a constant feedback loop when it comes to education. With brain drain being a known issue for Louisiana, it would make sense that the bright young and fresh graduates looking to enter the education field would want to look into moving somewhere with a better ranking for teachers. When these people leave the state, it hurts the education system further when retiring teachers can't be replaced.