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SAINTS CAMP Rookie LB Stutsman making strong impression 1C
N O L A.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, au g u s t 6, 2025
Few kindergartners in school voucher program
$2.00X
GOP praises Planned Parenthood closings Landry hails ‘major win’ as clinics shutter in state
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry and other state officials praised the upcoming closure of the state’s two Planned Parenthood clinics Tuesday, while health providers and advocates said the loss of the clinics will limit access to reproductive and sexual health services for thousands of patients who relied on them. Planned Parenthood will close its New Orleans and Baton Rouge locations by the end of September, leaving more than 10,000 patients, many of them uninsured or on Medicaid, in need of new providers. The nonprofit has long offered services such as STI testing, birth control, cancer screenings and gender-affirming care.
ä See CLOSINGS, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Russell Marino, executive director of Hosanna Christian Academy in Baton Rouge, said that none of the nearly 60 incoming kindergarten students at his school who applied for a new LA GATOR tuition grant received one.
help families pay for private as students return from summer Only 80 in state toschool or home schooling expenses, break. While many private school according to data shared by the state families can afford tuition, some receive LA GATOR Education Department. Overall, rely on scholarships and subsidies — less than 2% of the more than 5,800 including about 1,400 children from awarded for the upcoming low-income families who attended tuition grants grants school year went to rising kinder- state-funded private preschool last
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
Incoming kindergarten students were largely shut out of Louisiana’s new private education program, according to state data, leaving thousands of families scrambling and many private schools with unfilled seats just as the new school year begins. Only about 80 of the 4,500 eligible incoming kindergartners who applied received grants through LA GATOR, a new state program meant
gartners. The situation stems from limited state funding and program rules that prioritized giving grants to students who previously received school vouchers — a group that did not include this year’s new kindergartners. Now private school leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm, saying that families who had counted on receiving state aid must either come up with tuition money or enroll their children in public schools that still have open kindergarten seats
year. At Hosanna Christian Academy in Baton Rouge, most of the school’s 60 prekindergarten students last year were funded through that state program. Nearly all of their families applied for LA GATOR money this year — but none received any, said Russell Marino, the school’s executive director. “It really is devastating to these families,” he said. Private schools across the state are
ä See PROGRAM, page 4A
La. considering immigration jail inside Angola, sources say BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
Louisiana officials are in talks with the Trump administration about housing immigrant detainees at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, part of a push to meet the demands of the president’s widening immigration crackdown by outsourcing operations to conservative states. An unused wing at the maximum security prison, the nation’s largest state-run penitentiary, has
Second-line parades face challenges NOPD announces stricter enforcement of regulations
BY DOUG MacCASH
Staff writer
With the New Orleans secondline season just weeks away, an announcement by the city Police Department that insurance requirements and other rules will be more strictly enforced has alarmed members of the tradi-
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tional parading organizations. Some members of the secondline community see the rules as a confusing and costly addition to the responsibilities of the producers of the parades, which are a touchstone of Crescent City culture. They also say the change was announced at the last minute with no input from the community. The NOPD contends that the regulations are already on the books, and all that’s changed is that enforcement will be stiffened this year. The NOPD says requirements
must be met before the processions are allowed to hit the street in the upcoming season, which begins Aug. 24 with the Valley of Silent Men parade. On Tuesday afternoon, a miniature second-line parade rambled along the brick sidewalk around Gallier Hall, intended to call attention to what some members of the second-line community consider a crisis. Tamara Jackson, who founded the VIP Ladies and Kids parade
ä See ANGOLA, page 6A
Gavin Kennison, of the Original Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club, dances during a protest by secondline leaders against the New Orleans Police Department’s plans on Tuesday. STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
ä See PARADES, page 7A
Business ...................10A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................9D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....5D-8D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 359