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F r i d ay, M a r c h 21, 2025
Trump orders closure of Education Dept.
$2.00X
Landry pushing tax overhaul amendment Measure is one of four on the March 29 ballot
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Staff writer
Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its “core necessities,” preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for low-income schools, Pell Grants and money for children with disabilities. The White House said earlier Thursday that the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite. It states the Education Department doesn’t have the staff to oversee its $1.6 trillion loan portfolio and “must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve
Gov. Jeff Landry is crisscrossing Louisiana, running an advertising campaign and appearing on talk radio shows to get voters to approve the next big item on his agenda: a tax overhaul on the March 29 statewide ballot known as Amendment 2. At the governor’s behest during a special session in November, the Legislature reduced income taxes, raised the sales tax, abolished a tax on big businesses known as the corporate franchise tax, imposed a tax on digital goods and lowered taxpayer subsidies for film producers and developers of historic “Amendment buildings. 2 will set Those changes are now Louisiana on state law. a course to But Landry and lawmakers want to make a host of other create more changes to the tax section of jobs, grow the the state constitution that reeconomy and quires a vote of the people. “Amendment 2 will set put more money Louisiana on a course to cre- in the pockets ate more jobs, grow the econ- of hardworking omy and put more money in Louisianans, the pockets of hardworking teachers and Louisianans, teachers and our senior our senior citizens,” Landry citizens.” wrote in a column published in the Ouachita Citizen on GOV. JEFF LANDRy Wednesday. Amendment 2 has the support of several prominent advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Americans for Prosperity and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, among other groups. Groups on both the left and the right are mounting a grassroots campaign against Amendment 2 for divergent reasons. Those on the left say it would lead to spending
ä See TRUMP, page 6A
ä See LANDRY, page 4A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By BEN CURTIS
President Donald Trump is joined by students as he signs an executive order in the White House on Thursday.
Shutdown likely impossible without act of Congress
BY COLLIN BINKLEY and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the depart-
ment in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce legislation to achieve that, while Democrats have quickly lined up to oppose the idea. The order states the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.” It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it will be targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain certain critical functions.
Fourth board member quits N.O.-area levee authority BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
A fourth board member at the New Orleans-area levee authority resigned on Thursday, escalating the fallout over controversial changes to the agency being sought by Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration. Derek Rabb’s resignation was announced at a meeting that included pushback from board members against some of the actions being spearheaded by Landry’s close adviser, Shane Guidry. Be-
WEATHER HIGH 70 LOW 46 PAGE 6C
sides the upheaval being triggered by the resignations, they also leave the flood control agency at risk of being paralyzed and unable to act with the start of hurricane season just weeks away. There are only five members remaining on the nine-member board. In order to take any action, the board must have a fivemember quorum, without which it cannot legally meet. The departures may also allow Landry’s administration to fill the board with members willing to support the governor’s proposed changes to
the state’s levee authorities, which include giving him more power over board appointments. The agency, officially known as the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, oversees the complex system of levees and pumps that were rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes. Critics of Landry’s approach argue he risks weakening reforms put in place following the catastrophic levee failures during the 2005 storm.
Guidry has argued he is seeking to streamline the agency’s operations, save taxpayer money and make better use of its police force while maintaining its vital flood protection responsibilities. Changes he has sought include scrapping the nominating committee for the board, which is intended to be nonpartisan, and the possibility of transferring the responsibilities of the agency’s regional director to its police chief. In his letter of resignation, Rabb urged the remaining board members to “continue to focus on the
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mission of flood protection and readiness.” Earlier this week, three members resigned in a jointly signed letter addressed to Guidry, who is neither on the board nor employed by the flood protection authority but has been overseeing changes there. Those board members — William Settoon, Roy Arrigo and Thomas Fierke — alleged that the agency’s focus on flood protection had “diminished” since Landry appointed Roy Carubba to
ä See LEVEE, page 6A
12TH yEAR, NO. 221