BREAKOUT: SAINTS PUSH DE YOUNG AFTER NEW CONTRACT 1C
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S at u r d ay, au g u S t 9, 2025
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Landry orders probe of records at landfill N.O. official says city welcomes investigation
BY JONI HESS Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Sixth grade students participate in activities in groups Wednesday during the first day of school at Gayle Sloan Middle School in Mandeville. Last year, the state’s students led the country in post-pandemic reading recovery and made big gains on a national fourth grade reading test.
EYE ON EDUCATION From math reforms to Trump changes and school closures, four K-12 issues to watch this year
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
the state’s reading-reform strategies to math. He’s also hoping that a revamped school-rating system will spur campuses to up their game — though many educators see the new system as more hindrance than help. At the same time, Louisiana schools could face headwinds this year, including reduced federal funding and oversight as President Trump dismantles the U.S. Education Department and Brumley declining enrollment means more potential school closures. As the new school year kicks off, here are four big education issues to watch in Louisiana.
Last school year was a turning point for K-12 education in Louisiana. The state’s students led the country in post-pandemic reading recovery and made big gains on a national fourth-grade reading test, surging to 16th place nationally from 42nd place just two years earlier. On Monday, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is scheduled to visit a Baton Rouge school to celebrate that academic progress. Suddenly, Louisiana is being cited as an education leader, not a laggard. The question this school year: Will it last? “We’re coming off a historic year for education in Louisiana,” said state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley. “We just need to continue with that A push to multiply math scores momentum.” After Louisiana’s recent literacy To do that, Brumley wants to apply gains, state officials want to make math
the new reading. Students have further to climb in math, with Louisiana’s fourth graders ranked 38th on a national math test. But officials insist that the policies they say boosted students’ reading skills — teacher training and coaching, frequent student assessments and intensive tutoring — can achieve similar results in math. A 2023 law required numeracy training for teachers in grades 4-8, since math scores decline in the upper grades, and a law passed this year looped in teachers in grades K-3. It also requires math coaches for teachers. This year, schools also will pilot a new numeracy screener for grades K-3 to measure students’ math progress during the year.
Days after New Orleans court records were found scattered in a landfill, triggering stinging criticism of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration, Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday called for a criminal investigation into the matter and Cantrell’s office offered the most detail yet about how the records were moved. In a Thursday letter to State Police Col. Robert Hodges that Landry publicized Friday, Landry directed State Police to conduct an investigation “to identify those responsible” so they “can be prosecuted and held accountable.” “This is a disgusting abuse of power and a slap in the face to crime victims. Those who participated in this deliberate crime must be held accountable,” Landry said on the social media platform X. After the governor’s Landry statement, newly appointed city Chief Administrative Officer Joe Threat said the city welcomes the state’s investigation. He said the city has held the files, which hail from Criminal District Court, in storage containers inside Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers at a Department of
ä See EDUCATION, page 4A
Trump says he will meet Putin in Alaska — Trump refused to Leaders to discuss Azerbaijan say exactly when or where he meet with Putin, but that ending war in Ukraine would he planned to announce a location
BY WILL WEISSERT and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential major milestone after expressing weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting. Speaking to reporters at the ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVGENIy MALOLETKA White House after announcing a Ukrainian servicemen of the 148th artillery brigade load framework aimed at ending deammunition into a M777 howitzer Thursday before firing toward cades of conflict elsewhere in the Russian positions at the frontline in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. world — between Armenia and
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 78 PAGE 8A
ä See LANDFILL, page 5A
La. losing $156M for solar energy
Trump administration cuts program that would lower utility rates BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
soon. Later on social media, he announced what he called “the highly anticipated meeting” would happen Aug. 15 in Alaska. He said more details would follow. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details. He suggested earlier Friday that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one,” Trump said.
Louisiana is set to lose $156 million in funding for solar energy after the Trump administration’s move to eliminate the program, a blow to efforts to improve electricity reliability and affordability in a state with some of the nation’s most outages, local officials say. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency canceled the $7 billion program on Thursday that aimed to lower utility costs for nearly a million people across the country. Louisiana’s $156 million grant had already been awarded to the state, which planned to use it to expand access to renewable energy for low-income and disadvantaged families as well as help safeguard residents when storms knock out power.
ä See TRUMP, page 4A
ä See SOLAR, page 5A
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12TH yEAR, NO. 362