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Landry seeks more money for vouchers Legislators express skepticism on expanding private school tuition program BY ALYSE PFEIL and PATRICK WALL Staff writers
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration on Friday said it will ask the Legislature to roughly double Louisiana’s spending on its LA GATOR voucher program, which gives parents taxpayer money to pay private school tuition, poten-
tially repeating one of last year’s biggest political battles. “It’s always been a priority of Gov. Landry to expand our GATOR program,” Landry’s top budget official, Commissioner of Administration Taylor Barras, told state lawmakers Friday during a meeting about the governor’s budget proposal for next fiscal year.
But Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, who last year led the legislative opposition to Landry’s push for more LA GATOR funding, said he continues to have serious doubts about the program. In particular, he said he does not want families to use the public dollars to pay for tuition at low-performing private schools —
an apparent reference to Louisiana’s previous voucher program, where participating students had lower test scores than their peers in public school. “You can’t just give them money to stay in the school they’re in now,” he said. “The goal is for you to get out of the bad school.” The request for GATOR funding
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is perhaps the most controversial piece of Landry’s plan for state spending. For the most part, the administration is asking agencies to hold their spending to roughly the same level as the current fiscal year, though it also highlighted new or increased funding it wants for a handful of areas. The Legislature will use Landry’s plan as the starting point for the
ä See VOUCHERS, page 4A
Governor says he was in on Greenland negotiations Questions surround his appointment as special envoy BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Gabriel Gonzalez, right, and Humberto Espinoza with Paradise Plantscapes cover plants at a home on West Bayou Parkway on Friday ahead of freezing temperatures.
School closures announced
that could cause power outages and road closures, all of Acadiana should prepare for record-breaking, pipebursting cold temperatures Sunday night into Monday morning and BY CLAIRE TAYLOR again Monday night into Tuesday Staff writer morning, said Donald Jones, a meteThere is a small chance that trace orologist with the National Weather amounts of ice could accumulate on Service in Lake Charles. trees, power lines and roadways in Lafayette is expected to avoid the Lafayette and areas along the In- worst of a winter storm forecast to terstate 10 corridor this weekend bring snow and ice to a large swath as a cold front moves through late of the nation this weekend. Chances of snow in Louisiana are Saturday. Even if Lafayette avoids the ice “nonexistent,” Jones said, but north
and central Louisiana face an elevated risk of freezing rain and ice accumulation. In a Facebook update Friday morning, Jones cautioned that small shifts in the storm track could significantly affect conditions. “A couple of dozen miles one way or another is going to make a huge difference to some people,” he said. Areas along and north of the U.S. 190 corridor — which runs east to west through Opelousas, Eunice,
ä See ICE, page 4A
President Donald Trump’s unexpected announcement just before Christmas that Gov. Jeff Landry would be his special envoy to Greenland suddenly thrust Landry into a potentially highprofile international position. It also elevated his visibility within Trump’s MAGA movement. But what is the governor’s role after Trump announced on Wednesday that he had reached the “framework” of a deal with NATO over Greenland? “No one has called and said, ‘You have done a great job. We don’t need you anymore,’” Landry said in an interview Friday. He added that he attended a series of high-level meetings on Thursday and Friday last “No one has week in Washington, D.C., with Secretary of State Marco Rucalled and bio and other senior officials, said, ‘You including the U.S. ambassador have done a to Denmark. great job. We “There were a number of conversations we had sur- don’t need you rounding it,” Landry said. He anymore.’ ” declined to provide details GOV. JEFF but said a stronger relationLANDRy ship between Greenland and the United States could lead to more jobs and investment in both countries. Until now, there’s been little evidence that Landry has played a meaningful role in the Trump administration’s policies toward the giant island nation, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland is bigger than Mexico in size but has a population of 56,000 — giving it only a few thousand more residents than Kenner. Trump announced the framework of a deal on Truth Social on Wednesday after meeting with the
ä See GREENLAND, page 4A
Murrill makes stance on cockfighting clear in social media post BY JOEL THOMPSON
parish council members on Wednesday voted unanimously to draft a request for Murrill’s “Cockfighting remains illegal office to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of the state’s in Louisiana.” Louisiana Attorney General cockfighting ban, Murrill preLiz Murrill didn’t mince words empted any formal request by in a social media post from her issuing the brief statement in official government X account which she made clear her intenon Thursday. After St. Landry tion to deny any formal request
Staff writer
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issued by parish officials. “It’s the long-standing policy of the Louisiana Department of Justice not to issue opinions on the constitutionality of State laws,” Murrill posted on X. Attached to the post was an image of the statute Louisiana legislators passed in 2007 banning cockfighting.
Council members had also discussed petitioning state Rep. Dustin Miller, who represents portions of St. Landry Parish, to introduce legislation to change the statute to which Murrill alluded to in her post. The vote failed, however, with seven members of the 13-member chamber voting against it.
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The council instead elected to send a written request to Murrill’s office to assess the constitutionality of the statute, which was to be written by council member Timmy LeJeune, who first put forward the cockfighting discussion, and the parish’s
ä See MURRILL, page 4A Murrill
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