Author: manshipxgr

Published: Apr. 16, 2019

By: Sheridan Wall and Charlotte Bellotte, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Gov. John Bel Edwards placed K-12 education near the top of his priorities in his 2015 campaign, and he has emphasized his support for teacher pay raises in this year’s re-election bid.

But given opposition in the Legislature, Edwards has not reversed controversial Jindal-era education policies that he routinely opposed as a state representative.

Back then, Edwards voted against measures to amend the school voucher program, base teacher evaluations in part on student achievement, make it tougher for teachers to get tenure and limit benefits for teachers who are rehired after they retired.

Rep. Stephen Carter, R-Baton Rouge, the former chairman of the House Education Committee, said that when Republican Bobby Jindal was governor, Edwards “argued against some of the things we were trying to do.”

“John Bel was on the committee, and he was not for them,” said Carter, who sponsored some of the bills. Carter said that teacher unions “backed him heavily” when Edwards ran for governor saying he would undo some of the changes.

But Edwards’ main success in this area has been to reduce the impact of students’ standardized test scores on teacher evaluations, something that the pro-Jindal camp in the Legislature did not oppose.

Edwards’ lack of headway on K-12 initiatives also has been due to the budget crises that dominated his first three years as governor, aides say.

Read more in the Shreveport Times.

Published: Apr. 11, 2019

By: Sydney Tardy

BATON ROUGE– A survey revealed that 76 percent of Louisiana residents support a program that expanded Medicaid among the working poor, but Republicans are more likely to be concerned about the potential cost of the program.

The Public Policy Research Lab at the LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication conducted the survey of 917 adults across Louisiana.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, expanded Medicaid in 2016 to include people earning up to 38 percent above the poverty line, and that has added nearly 500,000 people to the rolls. Edwards, who is running for re-election, cites the expansion as one of his main accomplishments.

But Republican gubernatorial candidates and lawmakers have complained that the program has not been as tightly managed as it should be. And even though the federal government now pays more than 90 more of the costs, they have expressed concerns about the future cost to the state.

Read more in KALB.

Published: April 25, 2019

By: Jace Mallory, Caroline Fenton and Brennen Normand

Published: Apr. 25, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

Higher education leaders called on legislators Wednesday to increase funding for state colleges in next year’s budget. The budget bill, proposed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, would maintain current funding for colleges, but fall about $12 million short of fully financing the popular TOPS scholarship program.

That version of the budget did not include the $119 million of additional state revenue projected by the Revenue Estimating Conference earlier that day. So lawmakers will have more money at their disposal and will face pressure from parents and students to avoid cuts to the scholarship program. Louisiana lags behind most states in re-investing in higher education, Daniel Waguespack, a House fiscal analyst, told the committee. “Remember, we’re really just now starting to stabilize higher education in the state of Louisiana,” he said.

In his opening address to the Legislature on Monday, Gov. John Bel Edwards said he wanted to increase funding for higher education. Education leaders credit Edwards with stabilizing state universities after years of budget cuts by former Gov. Bobby Jindal. Public universities and community colleges across the state are still funded below the Southern Regional Educational Board average for each full-time student.

Among the 16 member states, Louisiana ranks last, according to a report by the House Fiscal Division. While the enrollment for four-year and specialized colleges has remained consistent since the fall of 2010, they still had to raise tuition and fees to pay faculty and offset rising mandated costs for pensions and other expenses that are not funded by the state, administrators said.

Read more in the Natchitoches Times.

Published: Apr. 10, 2019

By: Trey Couvillion, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Two months have come and gone since the first meeting of the Capital Area Road and Bridge District, the newly formed coalition trying to develop a new bridge over the Mississippi River.

Drivers from all over the capital region and commuters from Lafayette, New Orleans and Lake Charles feel the strain of the more than 100,000 vehicles crossing the Mississippi River daily. The new bridge, supporters hope, will solve traffic woes in the Baton Rouge area.

But the price tag and location are still unclear.

Officials of the five parishes in the area met again on Tuesday. They selected Jay Campbell, the former president and chief executive of Associated Grocers, appointed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, as chairman of the board and discussed plans to pick a project manager.

Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development estimates that the bridge alone could cost anywhere between $733 million and $1.06 billion in the five options laid out in a 2016 study.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Eric Kallivoda said agency officials would meet with the modeling staff of the Capital Region Planning Commission to discuss the best locations.

West Baton Rouge Parish President Riley Berthelot Jr. said, however, that state officials had eliminated the most northern and southern options, leaving three possible bridge sites.

Read more in the Daily Advertiser.

Published: Apr. 10, 2019

By: James A. Smith, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The group that projects the state’s revenue finally recognized a brighter outlook after months of partisan infighting.

The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference on Wednesday reached the unanimous vote needed to increase this year’s state general fund forecast by $110 million and next year’s forecast by $119 million.

Now that the forecast is approved, lawmakers are tasked with deciding what to do with the extra revenue.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has proposed spending it on a pay raise for teachers and other state programs. But before the new forecast was approved, legislators had begun debating cuts in some programs since they cannot pass a budget that is not balanced.

The legislative session just started Monday. So approval of the new forecast now could make it easier for Democrats and Republicans to agree on a budget with less rancor than has been the case in recent years.

Read more in the Minden Press-Herald.

Published: Apr. 9, 2019

By: Sheridan Wall, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Health acknowledged Tuesday that 1,672 people had received Medicaid coverage even though they earned at least $100,000 in 2017. Department officials said nearly all of them had since been stripped from the rolls.

An additional 8,474 people were enrolled in Medicaid even though the Louisiana Department of Revenue later found that they had reported incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 on their 2017 tax returns.

Jen Steele, the state Medicaid director, said that 3,550 of those people are no longer enrolled, and 540 have supplied wage data supporting their current eligibility. She said the other 4,384 cases remain under review.

The data about these cases came to light at a House Appropriations Committee hearing as Republican legislators renewed their attacks on how the administration of Gov. John Bel Edwards has managed the program.

Edwards, a Democrat who is running for re-election this year, has cited his support for the basic Medicaid program and his expansion of it to include nearly 500,000 residents making more than poverty-level wages as among his most significant achievements.

Republicans have questioned the cost of the expansion, and state auditors have said the program had been managed too loosely. The Health Department has since beefed up computer systems to check eligibility and recently kicked 30,000 people off the rolls.

Read more in the Shreveport Times.

Published: Apr. 8, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell and James A. Smith, LSU Manship School News Service

“Our teachers deserve more,” Edwards said, urging lawmakers to “step up” for teachers across the state.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards presented a hopeful State of the State address today at the Capitol to open the 2019 legislative session.

Edwards’ tone stood in sharp contrast to the last few sessions in which lawmakers fought extensively over how to solve state budget problems.

Edwards, a Democrat who is campaigning for re-election, pointed to how the state’s $2 billion deficit has turned into a surplus and said his top priority this year is pay raises for teachers.

He is seeking $1,000 pay raises for public school teachers and $500 raises for school support personnel.

“Our teachers deserve more,” Edwards said, urging lawmakers to “step up” for teachers across the state.

Read more in the Donaldsonville CHIEF.

Published: Mar. 15, 2019

By: Abbie Shull, LSU Manship School News Service

Even though Republicans dominate Louisiana politics, only one GOP woman, Suzanne Terrell, has ever held statewide elected office. Her term as elections commissioner ended in 2004.

Terrell and three Republican women serving in the Legislature say their party could be doing more to recruit women to run for office.

“You don’t know if someone is good because they aren’t in office yet,” Terrell said. “I’m not saying to vote for a candidate just because they’re a woman, but the Republicans don’t know all the capable people out there because the party hasn’t tried.”

While female Democrats saw record-breaking success nationally in 2018, Republican women have had much more limited success in running for office. In Louisiana, some say they have struggled to find a place in the state’s traditional “boys’ club” political structure.

Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, an engineer and manager at Shell Oil for nearly 35 years, had chaired a parish recreation board when she started her first campaign for the state Senate in 2015. She said she was openly discouraged from seeking office.

Hewitt said the campaign manager of her Republican opponent, Pete Schneider, called her and said that “the powers that be met in Slidell and decided that it was my opponent’s seat.”

Read more in Nola.com.

Published: Jan. 31, 2019

By: Sheridan Wall and Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

A growing number of Louisiana politicos, from pundits to donors, believe that the 2019 race for governor will be one of the most expensive ever waged on Louisiana soil.

But how much will all that money matter?

It matters a lot, said consultant Roy Fletcher. It’s not just the total dollar amount that will be important, but how the cash ebbs and flows in the campaigns, he added.

Analysts say money is most critical for increasing name recognition, and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has an advantage there. For Congressman Ralph Abraham and Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, the first priority is establishing their GOP image to voters.

Edwards’ campaign announced it has raised a total of $8.4 million so far, while Rispone pledged to use $5 million of his personal cash and has raised an additional $554,000. Abraham has not yet reported donations or spending for this race.

The fundraising game will be crucial early on as challengers need to simultaneously build name recognition and define their messages to voters before Edwards has the opportunity to do it for them, Fletcher said. “So, the fight isn’t just over name recognition,” he said, “but it’s over definition.”

But the election also could be determined by party affiliation in a red state, as Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, takes on challengers who will automatically win support from some GOP voters. And given Louisiana’s off-kilter election schedule as one of only three states with governor’s races this year, most experts expect money to pour into the state from outside groups in both parties.

Printed in LaPolitics.