Why some LSU grads are Texas bound

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By Madeline Brown

As the graduation date draws near for Louisiana State University’s class of 2008, Texas remains the number one destination for graduates moving out of state.

The question of whether this hurts the state of Louisiana is still a debate in academic circles. There is certainly a more convincing debate that non-LSU students leaving for Texas hurts Louisiana.

LSU Career Services conducts a graduating student survey after every class graduates. The December 2007 survey numbers show that out of 479 respondents who shared information about full-time jobs, 291 are employed in Louisiana. Forty-six respondents said they are employed in Texas (9.6 percent). Houston is the most popular city for relocated LSU grads, as 34 answered they were living in the city.

In May 2007, 479 LSU graduates said they were going to attend graduate school. The highest number of respondents said they were attending LSU (170), LSU Health Sciences Center (88) and LSU Law Center (27).

Texas colleges are high on the list of potential graduate schools for LSU graduates. Relatively high numbers of students are going to University of Texas (7), University of Texas at Austin (6) and Baylor College (4).

“Those numbers pretty much stay tight together from year to year,” Career Services Communications Manager Sara Crow said.

She said three full-time jobs LSU graduates seek in Texas are teaching, accounting and, “certainly we hear about students going to work for large petroleum companies in Texas.”

Of course, there are a couple of factors to consider when talking about graduates leaving the state.

“LSU draws quite a bit of people from Texas,” Crow said. Therefore, some of these numbers likely include graduates simply going back home.

Also, Career Services sees a trend of students temporarily moving to larger cities in Texas and Washington, D.C., and then moving back to Louisiana.

“It’s also common for people to go away to work for a little while and come back,” Crow said.

LSU graduate Curt Bordelon is not one of those temporary relocated workers. Before he graduated in 2007, the secondary education major was looking forward to leaving Louisiana.

“During my final semester I was driving out to Austin and Houston, going to job fairs,” Bordelon said. “The main reason I moved was to get a teaching job.”

Right now Bordelon is working at The Texas Optometric Association, but he plans to get hired as a teacher in Austin.

“Teacher pay is a lot better, and the cost of living is equal to Baton Rouge,” Bordelon said.

This Texas market for Louisiana teachers might decrease as Louisiana makes improvements in the education system.

“Many Louisiana schools now pay as much or close to what Texas schools pay,” Crow said.

“It doesn’t seem like we have this big problem with students leaving the state,” Crow said.

“There’s a big push for jobs in the technical field,” Crow added. “We hear a lot about ‘brain drain,’ but we can’t liken the workforce development needs and problems of the entire state to what happens in the LSU community.”

Certainly residents in South Louisiana leaving after hurricanes Katrina and Rita have contributed to the worker brain drain. While the numbers are not clear now, the 2010 Census will provide answers as to how many people have left the state. They will at least find 250,000 evacuees in Texas.

Originally Published: Issue 607 - May 6, 2008

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