LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: Jun 4, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Voter rejection of constitutional amendments, including one that would have freed up money for teacher pay raises, complicated this spring’s legislative session and raised questions about whether the public is being asked to vote on too many amendments that are hard to understand, lawmakers said Thursday.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, said the failure of all five amendments in May was the biggest disappointment this session, and Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, shared this sentiment.

“There is extreme disappointment that the amendments failed,” McFarland said. ”I do think the amendments got caught up in some of the outside political issues with the congressional redistricting and the controversy there. And it’s unfortunate because now we’re back to square one.”

Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, said it’s time to reassess the strategy on constitutional amendments.

“While I respect the fact that there are some things that need to be changed, I think we need to hit the reset button and just stop with constitutional amendments for a few years and let people get a better understanding of what’s going on,” Boudreaux said.

Read more at KATC.

Published: Jun 2, 2026

By: Avery White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Tuesday to redirect $168 million from the administrative spending section of the public-school funding formula to pay for $2,000 teacher stipends for the 2026-27 academic year.

The executive order, which also includes $1,000 stipends for public-school support staff, would have to be approved by two-thirds of the state Legislature in a mail-in ballot. The $168 million figure does not include stipends for administrators, which would have raised the total cost to $200 million. You can read it yourself by scrolling down.

While Landy said he was unclear where school districts would have to cut spending to come up with the $168 million for the stipends, he said there was ample money to accomplish that goal since there is $1 billion in unassigned funds that school districts across the state have available.

The only areas of the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) that will not be touched are in transportation, security and food services, Landry said.

“Look, everyone I’ve talked to has said that there’s plenty enough money in the system,” Landry said. “In fact, there’s over a billion dollars in unassigned funds that school boards are sitting on. … Let me tell you, I’m separating teachers from the bureaucracy. Now we’re going to focus on those that matter the most, which are the teachers.”

Read more at KATC.

Published: Jun 2, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, Avery White and Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A push to redraw congressional maps and a fight to cut back the New Orleans court system produced the biggest fireworks in a legislative session that ended Monday with K-12 teachers still waiting to hear about possible salary stipends.

Bids to strengthen local control of carbon-capture projects fizzled out, as did Gov. Jeff Landry’s call to double state funding for parents who want to send their children to private schools.

Lawmakers passed a roughly standstill budget as they braced for a projected decline in revenues in coming years.

They voted to shield various records from the public about how athletic departments at LSU and other state universities are spending money derived from name, image and likeness deals.

Legislators also supported economic development in hopes of attracting space and aerospace businesses, created the first recreational alligator-hunting season and found more money to help pay for fortified roofs for homeowners. They voted to halt vehicle safety inspections and to ask voters if they want to limit governors to two terms overall.

“All in all, I think we continue to move this state forward and try to gain more in population, and hopefully we can go from six to seven congressional districts,” Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, said.

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

Published: May 29, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Senate passed the final version of a new congressional map in a 28-10 vote down party lines Friday, eliminating one majority-Black district.

Senate Bill 121, authored by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, creates 5 majority-Republican districts and 1 majority-Democratic district following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case restricting the use of race in the drawing of congressional maps. 

The map bill now goes to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who had suspended congressional primaries while waiting for the new maps. He is expected to sign it.

The Legislature was forced to redraw the maps quickly after the court decision. But the change from the current split of four Republican and two Democratic seats also fits with national Republican efforts to use redistricting to gain more seats in the midterm elections and try to hold onto control of the U.S. House.

Morris said the new map is similar to a 2022 map approved by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as a 2011 congressional map that had been green-lighted by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Read more at Houma Times.

Published: May 28, 2026

By: Sheridan White, Avery White and Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana House voted 66-35 Thursday to approve its final version of a new U.S. House map that would give Republicans majorities in five of the state’s six districts.

The amended Senate Bill 121 was passed Thursday afternoon after eight hours of floor debate, the final step before sending the bill back to the Senate to approve the last-minute changes.

Some constituents broke out in protests after the final vote shouting “shame, shame, shame.”

During final debate on the House floor, Democratic lawmakers who oppose seeing the current 4-2 map redrawn to give Republicans a 5-1 edge reignited heated arguments over the role of politics and race in drawing district lines.

“We’re trying to relitigate the Civil War,” said Rep. Wilford Carter, D-Lake Charles, who opposed the redrawn map. “The Civil War is over. We lost the Civil War. … This is just another back step.”

Read more at American Press.

Published: May 26, 2026

By: Avery White and Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Despite the failure of a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed Louisiana public school teachers a permanent $2,000 pay raise, Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday he will find the money for stipends.

But he left unclear where the money would come from, as lawmakers had said there was no room in the budget with the legislative session concluding on Monday.

Landry hosted a press conference at the Capitol early Tuesday morning in which he laid out his intent to provide teacher stipends as well as a long-term pay raise with support from the Senate and House.

In recent years, teachers and support staff have received $2,000 and $1,000 stipends, respectively.

However, due to voters’ rejection May 16 of Amendment No. 3, which intended to give teachers a permanent pay raise through the liquidation of three state education funds, the lawmakers had said prospects had dimmed stipends in 2026.

Read more at KATC.

Published: May 21, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas and Sherian White, LSU Manship School News Service

An amended congressional district map eliminating one of Louisiana’s two majority-Democratic districts was approved by the House and Governmental Affairs Committee in a 10-7 vote down party lines Thursday after a 10-hour hearing highlighted by vocal opposition.

The new district map, amended successfully by Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, maintains the five Republican districts and one Democratic district, offering “tweaks and slight movements” to the original Senate Bill 121.

The amended bill will be heard on the House floor next week.

Morehouse, Lincoln, and Jackson parishes would be moved from District 5 to District 4. Grant and St. Landry parishes would be made whole, joining the 5th District, and Calcasieu Parish would be made whole as well, joining the 3rd District. District 6 would be shifted to include parts of Point Coupee, St. Martin, and Lafayette parishes.

Under questioning from Rep. C. Denice Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, McMakin said the amendments had nothing to do with any future congressional aspirations that he might have.

Read more at WWLTV.

Published: May 21, 2026

By: Veronica Camenzuli, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – After a 30-minute meeting with no debate, a Senate committee voted 9-0 to advance the state budget Thursday, removing the $43.5 million expansion of the school voucher program that had been included in the House and governor’s budgets.

The Revenue Estimating Conference had reduced next year’s state general fund forecast by $104 million on May 8, prompting the Senate Finance Committee to advance amendments to remove the expansion to the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise voucher program.

The committee also removed the change in the public-school funding formula that would increase per-student spending.

The cut in LA GATOR and education funding would amount to a $75 million reduction in spending.

The committee added an amendment that would allow the Legislature to spend $800 million from the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, with $387 million of it used for transportation projects. Economic development, local projects, capital outlay, higher-education projects and Medicaid rate increases for disabled residents accounted for the rest of the spending.

Read more at KATC.

Published: May 20, 2026

By: Avery White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — A flurry of bills that would have given broader local control to carbon-capture projects failed Tuesday in a House committee.

The House Natural Resources and Environment Committee heard more than a dozen bills and almost five hours of debate and testimony on Tuesday regarding local government’s concern for carbon-capture sequestration and storage.

The failure of these bills could mark the end of this year’s battle for local control in carbon-capture projects as the end of the session looms, but the push will likely revive during next year’s session, as it has in previous years.

Several bills brought by representatives such as Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson, R- Pineville, Rep. Robby Carter, D-Greensburg and Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Hornbeck, sought to grant parishes more control in authorizing or prohibiting carbon capture.

“When a project affects an entire community, the community deserves a voice. The people of that community deserve a voice,” Johnson said. “This is not anti-business, it’s not anti-property rights, it’s just about respecting local self-government and allowing communities to share and to shape their own future.”

Read more at WWLTV.

Published: May 19, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas and Avery White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — After 58% of voters rejected a constitutional amendment Saturday that would have given public school teachers a permanent pay raise, the chances of finding money for any types of raises have dimmed, lawmakers say.

Voters also shot down four other constitutional amendments proposed by Gov. Jeff Landry and the Legislature.

Constitutional Amendment No. 3 sought to fund a $2,250 teacher pay raise and a $1,125 support staff pay raise by dissolving three education trust funds, using that money to pay down the debt of the Teachers’ Retirement System. Those savings would have been allocated for the pay increase.

Teachers had hoped that the Legislature, which is in session through June 1, might find some money for a raise if the amendment failed. But given a recent drop in projected state tax revenues, lawmakers say voters probably had the final say on the matter.

“If the people of Louisiana vote not to give teachers a pay raise, then the Legislature can’t come behind them and say ‘Oh, then we’ll do it,’” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said last week.

Read more at The Advertiser.