Legislators discuss reason for amendment failures

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.