Louisiana officials listened to depressing statistics on Monday, when they gathered for a two-day summit called by Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Titled &uot;Solutions to Poverty Summit,&uot; the meeting in Monroe heard news about how Louisiana is doing in its efforts to eradicate poverty and to improve job opportunities. The answer is, not good.

Participants heard facts such as these:

More than 750,000 Louisiana residents live in poverty; it’s the fourth highest rate in the nation.

The median income of a household is $34,307, 47th in the country.

Twenty percent of the adult working-age population has less than a high school diploma.

The young people who go on to get higher education degrees leave the state for jobs elsewhere.

The data is similar in Mississippi; so all of us who live in the Miss-Lou must be attentive to Gov. Blanco’s efforts in holding the summit. She called the findings &uot;a cold shower,&uot; a wake-up call, indeed.

Still, getting the numbers out in the open gives fresh impetus to efforts to change them. &uot;While the statistics are bleak, hope is not dead,&uot; Blanco said.

On Tuesday, summit attendees heard some recommendations from the experts who had come to present the bad news and offer solutions.

Their advice was to eliminate taxes for families whose income is below the poverty line; to make it easier for low-income families to get loans; and to raise the minimum wage.

These suggestions are not new, but they are worth reviewing with fresh eyes.

States such as Louisiana and Mississippi, with their high percentages of people living in poverty, have struggled for many decades to find solutions. Blanco has decided her state must make a renewed effort. Poverty affects all residents of the state, who bear the higher costs of social, health and education programs to lift the poor from their dismal conditions, she said.

Getting the subject out into the open, calling on out-of-state experts to give advice and planning to appoint a task force to continue studying the issues are steps Blanco has taken. She has made a first step, and that is commendable.