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M o n d ay, M ay 12, 2025
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Rural La. families have few options for school grants More than a third of parishes have no local providers BY PATRICK WALL and JEFF ADELSON STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Visitors learn about the enslaved people who were brought to the Whitney Plantation in Wallace on April 30.
Despite cuts, Whitney Plantation sticks to mission Fundraising continues to tell story of Black history
BY JENNA ROSS | Staff writer WALLACE — The Whitney Plantation tells the story of slavery, one building at a time. A church, a cabin, a jail. Soon, if executive director Ashley Rogers has her way, through the plantation store. On a muggy afternoon, she and John Blokker, director of historic preservation and facilities at the 250-acre plantation, stepped inside the store, which operated until 1975. They moved left to right, front and back, discussing the repairs in progress and the work left to be done. The floors had been sanded, the holes patched. But the shelves were still empty. “Are these active outlets?” Rogers asked Blokker, leaning behind what was once the counter. “Because I was thinking that one of the things I’d like to do here is have a way for people to listen to the oral histories, like on a kiosk or something.” Rogers, who has led Whitney since 2014, had planned to open this store to the public this year. She spearheaded its restoration, collected oral histories about it and focused her doctoral dissertation on it. But other buildings beckon, too. The vast tract has hundreds of acres that need mowing and 20 buildings “in various stages of repair and disrepair.” It employs 28 staff members, most of them focused on visitors. “I’m running a $5 million organization on $3 million,” Rogers said last week.
ä See PLANTATION, page 4A
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said at least some of the pro-industry car insurance bills will likely survive a committee hearing and advance to the Senate floor. He said, however, he couldn’t predict what would happen next. STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
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Staff writers
Jacqueline McCardie wants badly to put her grandson in a new school. The public elementary that 11-year-old Jah’Derrick attends is crowded and outdated, and the baby-faced fourth grader says he gets bullied. But McCardie, 62, is a single guardian on a fixed income, so her only real option is the local public school in Winnfield, the small town in north-central Louisiana where they live. A new state program called LA GATOR was designed to give families more choices by providing grants to pay for private education. But even if McCardie received a grant, she isn’t sure where she’d spend it: There are no private schools in Winn Parish — or in four of the six surrounding parishes — that are participating in LA GATOR. “There’s no opportunities here,” she said. The state Legislature established the tax-funded grant program last year, adding Louisiana to a growing roster of Republican-led states that use public money to subsidize private schooling. Proponents, including Gov. Jeff Landry and President Donald Trump, call it “education freedom.” But in many rural parts of Louisiana, few private options exist. Sixteen of Louisiana’s 64 parishes do not have a single private school that signed up to enroll students full-time through LA GATOR, and another 18 parishes have just one, according to an analysis by The Times-Picayune and The Advocate. About 20% of rural residents live in one of the parishes without participating schools.
ä See FAMILIES, page 5A
STAFF PHOTO By By JENNA ROSS
Whitney Plantation executive director Ashley Rogers, left, discusses work in and around the historic plantation store with John Blokker, director of historic preservation and facilities.
Metal figures by artist Woodrow Nash sit on the structure that enslaved people lived in at the Whitney Plantation in Wallace on April 30. STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Jacqueline McCardie wants to put her grandson, Jah’Derrick, in a private school. But Louisiana’s new LA GATOR grant program won’t help because there are no private schools in the rural parish where she lives.
Car insurance bills set for Senate hearing Contentious measures may face tough path
predict what would happen next. Meanwhile, a high-profile House bill strongly backed by Gov. Jeff Landry faces significant opposition from numerous Republican senators. They agree with Insurance Commissioner Tim BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer Temple — and nearly a majority of House RepubCar insurance bills favored by business in- licans — that the measure would allow him and his terests that blew through the state House will successors to reject any rate increases arbitrarily, likely face a tougher path when they get their which they add would discourage companies from operating in Louisiana. first hearing in the Senate this week. Landry has told senators in recent days priThe Senate has typically been more aligned with trial lawyers, who pin the blame for Louisi- vately that he wants them to pass House Bill 148 unchanged when it is heard in the Senate Insurana’s high rates on insurance companies. In something of a surprise, Senate President ance Committee on Wednesday. Showing the poCameron Henry, R-Metairie, said in an interview litical stakes, he has said publicly that he will call that at least some of the pro-industry bills will the Legislature into a special session to reconsider likely survive a committee hearing and advance ä See INSURANCE, page 3A to the Senate floor. He said, however, he couldn’t
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