WILL KADE ANDERSON GET DRAFTED NO. 1? MLB SCOUTS WEIGH IN. 1C THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
S u n d ay, J u ly 13, 2025
$2.50X
As new parents, Louisiana teachers face tough choices
Lafayette school’s LEAP scores plummet Paul Breaux Middle stakeholders decry loss of programs BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer
Removing the gifted and Spanish and French immersion programs from Paul Breaux Middle School felt to community members who opposed the proposal like a blatant sign of disinvestment in the school by the Lafayette Parish school system. At the March 2023 Lafayette Parish School Board meeting, concerned stakeholders lined up and waited hours to voice their worries.
ä See SCORES, page 3A
STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Erika Musgrove, a special-education teacher for East Baton Rouge Parish schools, sits down to play the card game Rainbow Pirates with her daughter Olivia and son Theodore as her husband, Tyler, holds their son Matthew recently in Baton Rouge.
Educators save, scrimp and even borrow sick days to afford family leave BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer
Erika Musgrove held her youngest son Matthew for only the briefest of moments last August before nurses at Baton Rouge General whisked him to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. It was a bittersweet moment for Musgrove, a special-education teacher for East Baton Rouge Parish schools. The joy of seeing her newborn, who arrived four weeks early, came with worry over his care and the choice she’d soon need to make: earning a paycheck or spending enough time with her baby in those first crucial months of life. East Baton Rouge Parish, like many Louisiana school districts, doesn’t offer paid parental leave. That meant Musgrove’s two months at home with Matthew, even under a state law that allows teachers to take extended sick leave for a portion of their pay, would end up costing her more than $4,000 in lost wages. Musgrove needed to get back to work, but she and her husband struggled to find day care. Her little boy was still so tiny two months after his birth that workers initially assumed he was too young to be left in their care. “There was so much stress just mak-
Landry’s second year stirs more conflict, even within GOP Governor says passing serious reforms requires ruffling ‘a lot of feathers’
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Staff writer
Erika Musgrove laughs as her son Matthew giggles at his siblings making faces. ing sure he would be OK,” Musgrove financially. As of this year, just one pubsaid. lic school district out of roughly a dozen For many Louisiana teachers, taking whose policies were easily accessible extended parental leave without sacriä See TEACHERS, page 8A ficing pay is difficult if not impossible
Gov. Jeff Landry got most of what he wanted in Baton Rouge in 2024, his first year in office. He took advantage of the Republican supermajority in the Legislature to draw Louisiana’s congressional boundaries, lock Landry up more criminals and revamp the state tax system in ways that he says will generate
ä See LANDRY, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 90 LOW 75 PAGE 6B
Business ......................1E Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Classified .....................2B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A
101ST yEAR, NO. 13