Author: manshipxgr

Published: May 31, 2024

By: Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a stripped-down version of one of Gov. Jeff Landry’s biggest priorities—a move toward education savings accounts that could provide state money to parents who want to send their children to private schools. 

Senators voted 23-14 to concur with House changes to a bill that would authorize education officials to consider the accounts. But the compromise version would delay the implementation of the plan and make it easier for the Legislature to scale back the funding. 

State officials and private experts had estimated that Landry’s original plan would have eventually cost taxpayers $300 million to $500 million a year. Some lawmakers were concerned about the cost since the state will lose several hundred million in revenue when part of the state sales tax expires next year. 

Read more at KTBS.

Published: May 23, 2024

By: Maddie Scott, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–Lawmakers are adding back some of the money for public school teacher stipends next year, and they gave final approval Thursday to bills that would ban gender discussions and COVID-19 vaccines in schools. 

The Senate Finance Committee restored $33 million for teacher stipends Wednesday evening after the House had cut the funds last month. The money was added back into next year’s budget in response to recent projections that tax revenues will increase in fiscal 2025, which starts July 1.

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

Published: May 22, 2024

By: Maddie Scott, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Senate bill that would have required heating and air-conditioning systems in school buses failed on the Louisiana House floor Tuesday. 

The House rejected the measure 42-57 after nearly 1 ½ hours of debate.  

Senate Bill 26 would have required the systems on every school bus bought on and after Aug 1, 2024. The bill would have also required all school buses to be equipped with them in 2027. 

Read more at 4WWL.

Published: May 16, 2024

By: Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday advanced two bills limiting the discussion of gender issues or the use of alternate names or pronouns in schools.

Both bills passed the committee unanimously with no objection from the only Democrat present, Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews of Monroe

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

Published: May 8, 2024

By: Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A bill calling for a constitutional convention, a key part of Gov. Jeff Landry’s agenda, passed the House floor in a 75-27 Tuesday after a lengthy debate and various amendments.

Supporters said the aim would be to move provisions of the current constitution into statute, making it easier to change some of them in future legislative sessions.

Under the bill, some articles and provisions in the current constitution, including the homestead property tax exemption and public-school funding, would be protected from being moved out of the constitution.

“We are not rewriting the constitution,” Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, said. “This is a refresh of the constitution. We respect the previous authors’ work so much that we’re going to retain that language and simply move it into statute.”

Read more at Houma Today or Daily Advertiser.

Published: May 3,2024

By: Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The Senate Finance Committee voted 4-3 Thursday to pass an amended version of the education savings account program backed by Gov. Jeff Landry, slowing down its implementation and possibly setting the stage for it to be smaller than originally envisioned.

The education savings account program, called LA GATOR, would allow families to apply for state funding to send their children to private schools of their choice.

Read more at Shreveport Times.

Published: May 3, 2024

By: Jacob Matthews, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana House approved a bill this week to phase out a rule that a home insurer cannot cancel a customer’s policy for three years except for lack of payment or fraud, sending it to Gov. Jeff Landry for his signature.

The bill is at the center of a high stakes push by the new insurance commissioner, Tim Temple, and Landry to reduce regulations on insurers to try to attract more of them to the state.

Read more at The Daily Advertiser.

Published: May 3, 2024

By: Jacob Matthews, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The Louisiana House approved a bill this week to phase out a rule that a home insurer cannot cancel a customer’s policy for three years except for lack of payment or fraud, sending it to Gov. Jeff Landry for his signature.

The bill is at the center of a high stakes push by the new insurance commissioner, Tim Temple, and Landry to reduce regulations on insurers to try to attract more of them to the state.

Read more at Acadiana’s News Channel.

Published: April 25, 2024

By: Piper Naudin, LSU Manship School News Service

The House Health and Welfare Committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would require seafood sellers to clearly market whether the seafood is local or imported from other countries such as China. 

Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, showed an image of a package of frozen crawfish sold at a local supermarket. Connick explained that the item named “Boudreaux’s Crawfish” was not from Louisiana but instead a product of China. 

“They are using our label, our name, our image, our culture,” Connick said. “But it’s Chinese shrimp, Chinese crawfish.”

Read More at Louisiana Illuminator.