LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: April 28, 2023

By: McKinley Cobb, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 Thursday to advance a bill prohibiting flavored nicotine products used in vaping.

HB 179 was authored by Rep. William Wheat, R-Ponchatoula. Wheat was concerned with the rising use of vapor and tobacco products by younger people. He described it as being “in epidemic proportions.”

Witnesses testified about the dangers of vaping. One witness was the mother of a Baton Rouge boy who died after using vapor and nicotine products.

According to Wheat, 52% of high school students have tried e-cigarettes–three times as many as in a study done in 2015.

Read more at the Daily Advertiser

Published: April 27, 2023

By: Gabby Jimenez, LSU Manship School News Service

State officials are trying to figure out how to remedy a decline in TOPS scholarship participation throughout the state. 

The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, known as TOPS, is a merit-based scholarship funded by the state. The program offers scholarships to Louisiana residents attending public colleges, universities and vocational schools in the state. 

Kim Hunter Reed, Louisiana’s commissioner on higher education, spoke to the House Committee on Appropriations last week about the declining participation numbers during its meeting to discuss the 2024 fiscal year budget for higher education. 

As the number of high school graduates in the state has declined, so has the number of eligible TOPS recipients, Reed said. Acceptance rates for TOPS scholarships have also seen a decline, she said. 

Read more at The Ouachita Citizen

Published: April 27, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan and Gabby Jimenez, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – A bill that would ban classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation outside of school curriculum passed the House Committee on Education 7-5 on Wednesday.

The proposal, House Bill 466 by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, also would require transgender students to get a permission slip from their parents for teachers to use the pronouns matching their gender identity.

And it enshrines in law that school employees do not have to use those pronouns “if doing so is contrary to the employee’s religious or moral convictions.”

A similar proposal authored by Rep. Raymond J. Crews, R-Bossier City, requiring signed permission from parents for trans students to use a different name and pronouns at school also passed 7-5. Both bills will go next to the House floor.

Read more at KTBS

Published: April 26, 2023

By: Molly Ryan | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The Senate Finance Committee advanced a resolution Wednesday that would increase the state’s spending cap with a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature.

Senate Resolution 3, brought by Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, would increase the cap for both the current and the next fiscal years to allow the state to spend more money from giant budget surpluses. Cortez argued the state is in a rare position to spend cash on one-time projects and debt.

The action on Cortez’ bill came after two groups of conservatives in the House voiced strong opposition this week to raising the spending cap, adding to the tensions between Republicans in the two chambers. How the fight plays out—and how much of the $1.8 billion in surplus funds are spent–may be the most important issue to watch in the legislative session, which runs through early June.

Read more at LSU Reveille

Published: April 26, 2023

By: Molly Ryan and Metia Carroll, LSU Manship School News Service

A House committee voted 13-2 Wednesday to advance a bill that would make juvenile criminal information in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport more available to the public.

House Bill 321 would compile the names and other information of juvenile criminals in a
database that the public could access. Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Jefferson, who brought the bill, said
this would increase public safety through accountability.

Even though many juvenile defendants in urban areas are Black, Villio said the bill does not
target race. It doesn’t target district attorneys. It doesn’t target judges.”

“This bill is about public safety,” she added.

Villio said members of the public, especially victims of crimes, have a right to view and analyze
documents and decisions related to juvenile crimes. Items like medical records and pictures
would not be available to the public.

Read more at Bossier Press-Tribune

Published: April 26, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House Education Committee voted 7-4 Tuesday to advance a bill to place state money into accounts that parents could use to send children to private schools.

The committee also moved forward bills to confirm that teaching the Bible is legal and to make data about how public schools are spending their funds more easily available to the public.

The bill to create the education accounts was authored by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria. If it becomes law, the bill, House Bill 98, would enhance a long-time conservative goal of giving parents’ greater options if they want to send children to private school or home-school them.

Critics contend that the bill could take away money that public schools need.

Read more at Biz Magazine

Published: April 25, 2023

By: Piper Naudin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — Increasing violence in schools has prompted lawmakers to propose the “Protect Teachers Act,” a bill that would grant protection from criminal liability to teachers who try to break up student-on-student violence.

“Instead of watching two kids kill each other, this allows teachers to stop that from happening,” the bill’s primary author, Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, told the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure Monday.

The committee voted 11-0 to advance the bill, which would grant criminal immunity to teachers who use justifiable defense to stop battery and assault by one or more students. Teachers already have immunity from civil lawsuits when breaking up fights.

Hodges said she did not intend for the bill to protect teachers who abused students, stating that the immunity from criminal charges would apply only to teachers who did not have malicious intent.

Read more at WWL-TV

Published: April 25, 2023

By: Chloe Gehman, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The House Commerce Committee advanced a bill Monday that would reduce the hours required to obtain a cosmetology license in Louisiana.

The reduction would change the minimum requirement from 1,500 to 1,200 hours but would not take away the requirement that all students must pass a national exam to become licensed in Louisiana.

House Bill 470 would require the Board of Cosmetology to create a website through which students could apply, pay fees and see their progress toward a license.

Schools would be allowed to require more than the proposed 1,200-hour minimum of instruction in hair styling, nail treatments, and other esthetics.

Read more at WWL-TV

Published: April 24, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The state’s near-total abortion ban has reignited efforts by lawmakers to address Louisiana’s low rankings in maternal and infant health.

One bill, authored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, would establish a tax credit equal to half of the donations to pregnancy centers up to a total of $5 million. It would limit donations eligible for the tax credit to $5,000 per person.

The bill advanced through the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs on Monday.

“We have talked for years about how low the rankings were in Louisiana on maternal wellness and health, and it’s not lost on me that I’m speaking to a bunch of men,” Mizell said to the 10 all-male members of the committee.

The pregnancy centers, called maternal wellness centers in the bill, provide services to pregnant women and new mothers including pregnancy confirmations, parenting classes, diapers and maternal and baby clothes. There are 36 of the centers in the state, Mizell said.

Read more at WWL-TV

Published: April 24, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan and Oscar Tickle, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. —Legislative committees advanced bills Monday to eliminate a key corporate tax, reduce sales taxes and extend tax incentives for the movie industry.

If the bills become law, they would cut state revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when many legislators are already worried that the state could be facing another fiscal cliff.

Other bills that moved forward Monday would reinstate an annual three-day sales tax holiday for purchases of guns and ammunition, provide $5 million in tax incentives for crisis pregnancy centers and exempt prescription drugs and insulin from local sales tax.

The committee actions came after the Louisiana House Conservative Caucus, which has 42 members, and the House Freedom Caucus announced they would oppose raising a cap on state spending to pay for recurring items.

Read more at KTBS