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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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S u n d ay, J u ly 13, 2025
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As new parents, teachers in La. face tough choices
BR homicide rate falls in first half of year Police chief, others say more work needed
BY AIDAN MCCAHILL Staff writer
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 making sure he would be OK,” Musgrove said.
ä See HOMICIDE, page 4A
Erika Musgrove laughs as her son Matthew giggles at his siblings making faces. For many Louisiana teachers, taking extended parental leave without sacrificing pay is difficult if not impossible financially. As of this year, just one public school district out of roughly a dozen whose policies were easily accessible online — Orleans Parish — offered any fully paid time off for new parents. In other districts, only extended sick leave as required by state
law is available, which allows teachers to receive 65% of their pay for 30 days. That can be a major financial burden for Louisiana teachers, who earn average salaries that are about $5,000 below their peers in other Southern states. As a result, teachers who think they might want a child someday spend
ä See TEACHERS, page 8A
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
Louisiana health officials said they will spend the next 18 months preparing for a new federal mandate that requires many adult Medicaid recipients to work, study or volunteer if they want to stay
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 76 PAGE 8B
insured. The new rules, part of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” will require Medicaid recipients ages 19 to 64 to work, study or volunteer at least 80 hours per month. People who are pregnant, disabled or caring for children under age 14 are exempt. The law requires states to check eligibility every six months, though states can perform the checks more fre-
quently. In Louisiana, people depend on Medicaid more than almost anywhere else in the country, with about one-third of the state enrolled. The state Health Department expects “very few current enrollees would lose eligibility,” according to a statement sent by spokesperson Emma Herrock. But outside experts and Democratic lawmakers warn the requirement will cause paper-
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
work errors and administrative delays that could push eligible residents off the rolls. According to an analysis released in April by the Urban Institute, roughly 116,000 to 132,000 could be pushed off Medicaid due to the work requirement. About 7 in 10 adults in Louisiana with Medicaid are working, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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 up more criminals and revamp the state tax system in ways that he says will generate more invest- Landry ment. Landry has had a bumpier ride this year. In March, voters overwhelmingly rejected constitutional amendments whose approval had been the next item on his conservative agenda. Then, during the two-month legislative session
ä See MEDICAID, page 6A
ä See LANDRY, page 16A
La. prepares for new Medicaid work rules Mandates still 18 months away
Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas Morse isn’t a fan of discussing statistics, even somewhat promising ones. Yet, six months into a year marked by a $9 million budget reduction and a shortage of more than 100 officers, he is cautiously optimistic about the city’s crime trends, and quick to praise his department’s resilience. “I will say, the officers are doing a great job,” Morse said. “They are really doing more Morse with less.” He also knows that, for the public, no statistic speaks louder than the city’s homicide count. According to The Advocate’s numbers, which cross-reference data from the Baton Rouge Police Department, District Attorney’s Office and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, the city has seen 43 homicides in the first half of 2025 — a 19% drop compared to the same period last year. The Sheriff’s Office reported an additional eight homicides outside the city, and Baker and Louisiana State Police each added one to the tally, bringing the parishwide total to 53. (The Advocate’s 2025 total excludes deaths that
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Classified ..................... 1F Living............................1D Nation-World ................2A Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 13