Edwards Veto Education Transparency Bill Amid Criticism | Local / state titles

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Last week, Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed an education transparency bill that critics said exposed billions of dollars flooding Louisiana schools.

House Bill 38 reportedly required large local school systems to participate in the Louisiana Checkbook, a searchable website that allows users to track government spending, sources of funding, supplier contracts, and economic incentives.

Here, citizens will see more details on how and where taxpayer money is spent down to the check level, the website says.

Louisiana school districts will receive $ 3.9 billion in minimum core program funds this fiscal year, along with hundreds of millions of dollars from federal taxpayers.

MFP is a Louisiana Department of Education program that uses an annual formula to allocate state funding. The money is provided to districts in the form of block grants, allowing flexibility in spending.

A record $ 6.5 billion in spending is slated for the next school year, in part thanks to federal COVID-19 relief funding.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, did not include charter schools or public school governing bodies overseeing 2,500 or fewer students in the measure of transparency, which Edwards said. questioned in his veto declaration.

It’s unclear why small systems would be exempt from the tax transparency this bill seeks to ensure, Edwards said, adding that bringing education spending online would cost millions.

Our local school systems simply don’t have the resources or the technology to comply with this unfunded mandate, he said.

The Louisiana School Board Association was one of the main opponents of the bill during the legislative process.

Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, said he was disappointed that good government legislation was rejected.

Louisiana spends most of our neighbors per student while achieving the lowest academic achievement in the country, Erspamer said.

The first step in reversing the results is to show how school districts are spending taxpayer money.

Louisiana spends $ 13,171 per student, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, while US News and World Report ranked Louisiana’s public education system K-12 46th out of 50 states.

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