By ADAM DAIGLE | Acadiana business editor | Published Nov 28, 2019 at 6:00 pm | Updated Nov 29, 2019 at 12:56 pm

Louisiana still has a problem keeping its people.

That itself is nothing new. The Bayou State has long been a donor state when it comes to people, with hundreds moving to Texas for work. State and local elected officials have used the words “brain drain” for decades.

But according to data compiled by Gary Wagner, Acadiana Business Economist with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, it's getting worse. Among college-educated residents, Louisiana had the worst net migration — the number of people moving in minus the number of those moving out — with Texas in 2017 than in the previous 10 years.

The data shows the younger adults are behind the change. Net migration to Texas for those ages 24 and under with a degree in 2017 was at -2,140, the worst since 2004. For ages 25-34, that year it was -1,343 after being at -1,275 in 2016.

It means the Lone Star State is taking Louisiana’s biggest investments — its best and brightest people educated at LSU and other taxpayer-supported universities.

They are people like Isabella Hundley, a Lafayette native who graduated from LSU in May with a 4.0-plus GPA with a degree in information system and decision sciences who was one of 18 to receive a medal for academic achievement from the E.J. Ourso School of Business.

She left Louisiana to take a job with Exxon Mobil in Houston after interning with the company the previous summer.

Louisiana's net migration with Texas of college-educated residents in 2017 was the highest since 2006. Here's the last five years:

“The company really laid out the red carpet for her,” said her mom, Nicole Lachance. “They offered her a salary that most people in Lafayette don’t make. They will pay for her grad school. They have a focus on recruiting young talent and giving them incentive to stay with the company.”

Hundley’s story, however, is a double-punch on her home state. Mom Lachance and her husband are also leaving and will move to Colorado, which led the nation in net migration among college-educated residents per 10,000 residents between 2007 and 2017, data shows.