Most education in Louisiana was provided through private (often parochial) schools until Reconstruction. Not until Huey Long's administration, when spending for education increased greatly and free textbooks were supplied, did education become a high priority of the state. As of 2000, still only 74.8% of adult Louisianians had completed high school, and 18.7% had completed four or more years of college.
Integration of New Orleans public schools began in 1960; two years later, the archbishop of New Orleans required that all Catholic schools under his jurisdiction be desegregated. However, it took a federal court order in 1966 to bring about integration in public schools throughout the state. By 1980, 36% of minority students in Louisiana were in schools with less than 50% minority enrollment, and 25% were in schools with 99–100% minority enrollment.
The total enrollment for fall 1999 in Louisiana's public schools stood at 756,579. Of these, 548,019 attended schools from kindergarten through grade eight, and 208,560 attended high school. Minority students made up approximately 50% of the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools. Total enrollment was estimated at 743,089 in fall 2000 but was expected to drop to 757,000 by fall 2005. For the 1999/2000 school year, expenditure per pupil was estimated at $5,441. Expenditures for public education in 2000/01 were estimated at $4,445,592. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2001 was 138,135.
As of fall 2000, there were 258,000 students enrolled in college or graduate school. In the same year Louisiana had 85 degree-granting institutions. In 1997, minority students comprised 33.1% of total postsecondary enrollment. In addition to 53 vocational-technical schools, there are 34 institutions of higher education in Louisiana, of which 22 are public and 12 private. The center of the state university system is Louisiana State University (LSU), founded at Baton Rouge; LSU also has campuses at Alexandria, Eunice, and Shreveport, and includes the University of New Orleans. Tulane University, founded in New Orleans in 1834, is one of the most distinguished private universities in the South, as is Loyola University, also in New Orleans. Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical System at Baton Rouge (1881) is one of the largest predominantly black universities in the country; other campuses are in New Orleans and Shreveport. Another mainly black institution is Grambling State University (1901).
The Governor's Special Commission on Education Services administers state loan, grant, and scholarship programs. The state Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) organizes student exchanges with Quebec, Belgium, and France and aids Louisianians studying French abroad.