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The state budget crafted by the Louisiana House steers new money to public school programs at the expense of early childhood education, while maintaining the governor’s push to grow spending on state prisons and police.
Louisiana’s lawmakers have a significant opportunity to protect their constituents’ access to theinformation needed to hold public officials accountable and understand the decisions about howtheir tax dollars are used.
Education savings accounts are the newest, most expansive evolution of school choice programs in the United States, already adopted by several states and under consideration in many others, including Louisiana. The programs promise to revolutionize how K-12 education is structured, steering public tax dollars to private educational options for students.
Gov. Jeff Landry’s first set of budget recommendations as governor prioritizes increased spendingon Louisiana’s prison system and an expansion of the State Police force while keeping spending largely flat on most other programs and services.
Gov. Jeff Landry launched his first special session in office with a lengthy to-do list. Lawmakers gave him the congressional map he preferred and a portion of the election system redesign he desired. The rest of the agenda ended up on the cutting room floor, with the ideas likely to reappear in future legislative sessions.
Louisiana’s first legislative session of the new administration and new term will include proposals to change the state’s primary election system from an open primary to a closed one, an issue never highlighted by candidates in the 2023 elections.
As a majority of the Louisiana Supreme Court justices crafted a proposed map to redesign the court’s seven districts and include a second majority-minority seat, they forgot to include one highly important thing: Transparency.