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2026 LEGISLATURE
LANDRY SIGNS NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP
Tuesday hearing weighs school’s future Comeaux High’s closure again up for discussion
BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gov. Jeff Landry speaks Tuesday during a news conference at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Landry signed into law Louisiana’s new congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black voting districts on Friday.
After a month of fierce debates, it eliminates one majority-Black district BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law Louisiana’s new congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black voting districts, hours after the Louisiana Legislature passed it Friday and following a month of passionate debate and marathon public hearings. But before the map can be used in November’s midterm elections, it must survive court challenges, potentially from groups at both ends of the political spectrum. The sprint to draw a new map effectively began one month ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court released a watershed decision weakening a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act, which for de-
cades had driven states with a history of racial discrimination to draw majority-Black voting districts. The justices invalidated Louisiana’s previous map with two majority-Black districts. And they all but banned map-drawers from using race as a factor to draw the lines of voting districts, saying that doing so is typically unconstitutional. That decision sparked redistricting in Louisiana and a number of other Southern states that are now allowed to dismantle African American congressional districts. The unusual cascade of mid-decade redistricting was also prompted in significant part by President Donald Trump’s calls to Republicanled states to draw new voting maps
Legislature passes budget bills package
Pay raises not included for teachers; reserve fund tapped BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
The Louisiana Legislature passed a package of budget bills Friday that will give pay raises to firefighters, judges and corrections officers, and draw over $800 million from a reserve fund to pay for infrastructure improvements, economic development initiatives, local projects and other programs.
ä See MAP, page 3A
ä See BUDGET, page 3A
There will be a public hearing Tuesday regarding the closure of Comeaux High School, according to an agenda published Friday by the Lafayette Parish School Board. The hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at the school district office, 202 Rue Iberville. The Lafayette Parish School Board almost closed the school in 2024. Then, on March 12, the board brought the closure up again, with only a few days’ warning, and voted to close it at the end of the current school year. Students would be sent to either Acadiana High, Lafayette High or Southside High and the campus would be repurposed for a career center. The board rescinded the vote in April during a lawsuit filed by parents of Comeaux High students alleging the board violated its own rules for shuttering schools. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled May 5 that the School Board gave the plaintiffs in a lawsuit most of what they sought when the board rescinded the vote. By voting to undo its March 12 vote to close the school, the appeals court wrote, “the School Board acknowledged its error and gave the plaintiffs most of the very things sought in this suit.” The school system’s communications director, Tracy Wirtz, in response to a request for comment after the appeals court ruling, wrote, “The School Board will advise the superintendent on the appropriate next steps regarding Comeaux High School. Any future actions, including potential hearings or agenda items, will be determined through that process and communicated publicly once finalized.”
ä See SCHOOL, page 3A
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