BATON ROUGE, La. — Coming off a crime special session less than two weeks ago, Gov. Jeff Landry is now challenging lawmakers to tackle education reform, the insurance crisis, and the economy.
Monday, he opened the regular session by telling House and Senate members, “You won’t fix crime if we don’t fix our schools.”
“Louisiana is failing our students, and the statistics could not be more alarming," Landry said. "Seventy percent of our 4th graders can’t read and 80 percent of eighth graders can’t do basic math."
The governor said he wants all education to lead to a vocation.
He also asked lawmakers to put parents back in control and let the money follow the child.
The governor is pushing for Education Savings Accounts.
ESAs would give parents the tax dollars allocated to their children’s schooling to cover private school tuition and other education expenses for eligible students.
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Mertairie says lawmakers will give that idea serious consideration.
“The most important thing at the end of the day is the customer which is the student, not the system,” Henry said. “We all appreciate public education but if it's not working for a child, we shouldn’t keep him there to struggle and give them some different options.”
Among the education bills, there are measures forbidding lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation; prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates; and banning educators from teaching students that are either oppressed or oppressors based on race or national origin.
“I will be cautious in trying to derail any efforts to take more dollars out of the classroom as well as any legislation that will make it harder for teachers to do their jobs in Louisiana,” Rep. Matt Willard, D-New Orleans said.
Insurance reform will also be a major topic of discussion at the state capitol as lawmakers try to bring down the cost of both automobile and property policies.
“We’ve worked with the commissioner and worked with the speaker and the president on a package of bills that hopefully will alleviate that and put us in line with what other states do and bring some relief to the citizens of Louisiana on that issue,” Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge said.
The New Orleans delegation has filed bills this session carving out a large swath of the city to be gun-free in response to the new permitless carry law.
There are other measures to address possible changes to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and the management of the utility.
“I think it’s going to be a sprint,” Rep. Mandy Landry, D-New Orleans said. “There are so many important issues that we have to face. I hope we’re not distracted by “culture war” issues like we usually are.”
“The governor has given us some broad ideas of what he would like to accomplish and a lot less specific on how to do it. That’s the best way to govern from his perspective,” Sen. Henry said.
Gov. Landry also talked about his first budget proposal which reduces spending by about $3 billion compared to the current year’s budget.
“We believe the proposed budget is a blueprint for you to use, restoring common sense and necessary conservative money management.”
The governor is also pushing lawmakers to approve a special convention this summer to rewrite the state constitution for the first time in 50 years.
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