The news comes as no surprise: Louisiana’s public school system ranks 49th in a recent study by a group of legislators.

Worse yet, Mississippi ranks below that.

The question remains though: What will the states do to improve their ranking and, more important, their public education system.

The report, released earlier this week by the Washington-based American Legislative Exchange Council, compiles 25 years of data and study. It ranks Louisiana 49th – just ahead of Mississippi and the District of Columbia – based on students’ scores in standardized national assessment tests. And, while educators can debate the merits of standardized tests, the reality is that those tests provide a standard measure of students’ aptitude and, overall, a fair assessment of the strengths – or in this case weaknesses – of educational systems.

Both Louisiana and Mississippi face uphill climbs in the battle to improve education. Teacher salaries, parental apathy and socio-economic conditions rank high among the list of challenges.

And so the question remains: What will our state leaders – on both sides of the Mississippi River – do to make a real, a measurable effort to boost our states from the bottom of the educational ranks to the top?

Someone needs to be asking that question – daily – and driving the educational leaders in both states to reach those higher standards.

Our children deserve better than 49th and 50th.