[StBernard] Competing & Winning

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friends -

Four years ago we embarked on an incredible journey to transform our state,
and without question, we've made tremendous progress. On Monday I was
honored to officially begin my second term and I'm determined that as we
continue our journey together, we will not simply rest on our laurels. 

As I said in my Inaugural Address, there were cynics who said we couldn't
make our dreams of creating a New Louisiana into reality.  They questioned
our commitment to rooting out corruption and our ability to reverse the
trend of out-migration of our people.  They didn't think we could balance
our budget without raising taxes, or reduce the size of government while
improving government services.  They never guessed Louisiana would lead the
way on economic growth and job creation during the worst national recession
since the Great Depression.

Despite the doubters, we persevered and we made real and substantive reforms
that are improving the lives of all Louisianians.  But we must also admit
that our mission is far from accomplished.  We cannot be satisfied with our
past reforms.  

My top priority as we begin the second term is to continue to improve our
schools in Louisiana. Every child deserves a quality education.
Unfortunately, it's not a reality for far too many kids in our state and
it's critical that we fix this problem. The way forward is not higher taxes
and more spending. That idea has proven to be a failure. Instead, we must
give more choices and more opportunities to parents, families, and children.


I'm confident that when we reform our education system, Louisiana will
become even more attractive for companies to create jobs for our workers. In
turn, that will make Louisiana more competitive with every state and every
country in the world. But our goal is not to simply compete with everyone
else, we plan to win and make Louisiana the best place in the world to raise
a family and find a good-paying job. 

Sincerely,

Governor Bobby Jindal