Louisiana

As of 2023, Louisiana has the highest poverty rate among U.S. states. And the below linked paper cites a lot of usual suspects, like systemic racism -- which occurs throughout the US, so I call BS -- and lack of education and proposes that the cure for poverty includes goals like pouring funds they don't have into education.

Louisiana, a state renowned for its rich cultural heritage, vibrant music scene, and unique cuisine, also grapples with a stark reality: persistent poverty.

I did do some searching on louisiana law different from other states and you can readily find multiple articles on the fact that Louisiana defaults to French Civil Law and the rest of the US defaults to English Common Law. So I'm not going to provide supporting citations, in part because I got an A- in Environmental Law in college in spite of studying for that class while getting a 107 in Statistics that quarter after they curved the grade and I was kind of phoning it in after the midterm to conserve my study time for my law class.

Then I dumped on my sister by phone because I got an A-. It was traumatic.

So law isn't really my strong suit to begin with. But I will suggest that Louisiana suffers substantially from being out of step with the rest of the country in the legal landscape and most likely the Federal Superior Courts or Supreme Court or whatever likely routinely makes decisions that bite Louisiana in the butt because they are contemplating English Common Law and the needs of the other 49 states and spending no time asking themselves how this plays with Louisiana French Civil Law.

And I'm not seeing that cited as a factor in their intractable poverty. Someone who doesn't make A minuses in law in spite of working at it should look into that.

The War of Northern Aggression and The Gutting of the South are pieces by me elsewhere covering some information about the nasty legacy of the Civil War on Southern states. I suggest you read them for some context.

Louisiana's rich cultural heritage, vibrant music scene, and unique cuisine referenced above includes:

1. Cajun and Creole cuisine, which credits West Africa as one of its influences.

2. Jazz which gave birth to Rock and Roll and all of that can be traced to Louisiana allowing slaves to preserve their culture one day a week, including their music. So rock and roll is a uniquely American fusion of European lyrics and African music, including strong drums and beats.

I shall suggest that in some ways they are more inclusive than most Southern states and this probably makes them family rejects. And rest assured, no one else in the US wants to give any love to the Southern states, so poo poo on you for being too good to those people.

Coastal degradation from storm surge and floods can be improved with mangroves. I looked and the Internet says mangroves -- especially one variety -- do grow there. They have a track record of providing substantial protection from bad storm events.

When I was involved with The TAG Project, I became aware that neighborhood schools with very involved parents did far better than average even in poor neighborhoods. This was a stronger factor than the oft cited per pupil spending.

Neighborhood schools are schools where upwards of 90 percent of the students can walk to school. My difficult oldest son benefited enormously from attending such a school in a poor neighborhood with lots of kids getting free lunches and never enough money for infrastructure.

That's not necessarily a factor that requires money per se to improve results. You can also work on figuring out how to get parents more involved with their children's education. That does good things.

Like reading to them at night, not like throwing money at tutors because we are rich and your test scores are an embarrassment.

Last, round, hexagonal and octagonal buildings are more storm resistant. It doesn't per se cost any money for the government to insist people start building those the next time they rebuild again because some storm flattened the buildings. 

You may also wish to speak to an architect or such about other architectural details, like carports under the house or stilt houses, for buildings that do better in flood zones.