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As Louisiana’s legislative session began yesterday, several education bills are already in play, addressing issues from school funding to testing requirements and college scholarships. Leaders for a Better Louisiana Chief Police Officer Barry Erwin says a major focus is teacher pay, and after the failure of Amendment 2, there is a question mark surrounding teacher pay.
“With the failure of that amendment, there’s really no dollar amount that is easily available to the legislature to either do the stipends and continue them for another year, or to make it more permanent, which is what most people wanted.”
Key legislation includes HB 614, which would make an ACT score mandatory for graduation and eliminate end-of-course exams. HB 243 proposes accountability measures for the LA GATOR voucher program, while SB 105 would replace the LEAP test with a nationally recognized assessment. Erwin says it’s going to be tough getting HB 243 passed.
“The legislature does not like a lot of the testing that we do. This would eliminate some of that testing, but then it would move it back to reliance on the ACT, which their not wild about either.”
Changes to the TOPS college scholarship program include HB 70, which revises eligibility criteria; HB 77, which adjusts award amounts and adds a new category for high ACT scorers; HB 275, which allows unused awards to fund graduate study in Louisiana. Erwin says the challenge will come down to funding.
“It comes probably with a big price tag. We haven’t seen the total fiscal note yet, but one of the issues surrounding this bill is not just the substantive changes that it makes but also the fact that it will cost 40 or 50-million-dollars to enact.”
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