Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley is urging Louisiana K-12 schools to comply with guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration as it threatens to revoke federal funding from campuses that use race-conscious practices in admissions, programming, training, hiring, scholarships and other aspects of student life.
The new federal guidelines came in the form of a non-legally binding “dear colleagues” letter Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Craig Trainor sent to schools last week. The letter advised K-12 schools, colleges and universities to comply by Feb. 28 or risk losing federal funding.
It’s the latest example of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures.
Brumley, a conservative Republican, endorsed the administration’s guidance in a letter he sent to Louisiana K-12 system leaders Wednesday. Read the full letter below.
“The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) agrees with [federal] guidance and belief that ‘[d]iscrimination [under any banner] on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible,’” Brumley wrote. “Furthermore, LDOE commends Governor Landry for his proactive Executive Order as well as his unwavering support of LDOE’s work to stop inherently divisive concepts, like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), from infiltrating Louisiana’s K-12 public education system.”
Gov. Jeff Landry, who is ideologically aligned with Brumley and Trump, issued an executive order last year prohibiting the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 schools. Critical race theory (CRT) is an advanced academic concept that holds that race is socially constructed, and it examines how legal structures are used to oppress people of color. Most classes that take the theory into consideration are in graduate programs at the university level. There is no evidence these courses are being taught to children and teenagers in Louisiana.
The Trump administration’s letter is predicated on a very broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard in 2023, which prohibited the use of affirmative action in admissions. While that decision was limited to admissions, conservatives have favored a sweeping interpretation that applies the prohibition to other aspects of student life.
In his letter, Brumley advises schools to review programs, initiatives, awards and other items to ensure compliance with Trainor’s guidance.
Several Louisiana K-12 public schools engage in diversity, inclusion and equity practices, according to a report the Louisiana Department of Education submitted to the Legislature. However, separate reports from Louisiana’s four higher education systems showed minimal spending on DEI.
The resolution requires LSU to conduct a comprehensive review of all of its “programs and bureaucracies” in which classifications are maintained based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, political views or national origin. Any programs found to confer “any preferential treatment in violation of the rule of law outlined by the supreme court in SFA v. Harvard” will be eliminated, according to the resolution.
The board is expected to take action on this review at its meeting Friday, LSU President William Tate told state legislators at a House Education Committee meeting last week.
Janene Tate, spokeswoman for the Southern University System, the nation’s only system of historically Black colleges and universities, said in a statement the system is confident its current practices are “constitutional and legal.”
Other colleges and universities contacted for this report are taking a slower approach.
“I have seen a lot of expressions of angst… regarding the letter, but it really doesn’t apply to any of the efforts we have underway at Louisiana Tech,” university President Jim Henderson said “It does not affect us.”
“That doesn’t mean there won’t be further guidance that won’t be more restrictive, but it’s not in the four corners of that dear colleagues letter,” Henderson said.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette “is analyzing the potential impact” of the federal guidance, spokesman Eric Maron said in a statement, adding it’s premature to comment on any specific required changes.
Southeastern Louisiana University is reviewing the letter and awaiting legal guidance, spokesman Mike Rivault said in a statement.
Rick Gallot, president of the University of Louisiana System, did not respond to multiple calls requesting comment for this report.
Chandler LeBeouf, spokesman for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said its schools “will remain adaptable to the evolving higher education landscape while ensuring that all Louisianans have the opportunity to pursue education and training in a learning environment that leads to meaningful careers.”
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
One of LSU’s top leaders resigned from the university Wednesday, according to a letter of resignation that suggests she was instructed to step down.
“I hereby tender my resignation as Executive Vice President for Finance and Chief Administrative Officer for Louisiana State University in accordance with our discussion,” Kim Lewis wrote in her letter to President William Tate. The Illuminator obtained the letter through a public records request.
Read the letter below.
Kimberly Lewis (LSU photo)
Lewis is the second top-ranking LSU administrator to resign in recent weeks. Last month, the university’s top attorney, Winston DeCuir, resigned, though he will take a visiting professorship at the LSU Law Center.
DeCuir and Lewis, both Black attorneys, leave their jobs amid increasing politicization of the university.
Lewis previously served as revenue secretary under Gov. John Bel Edwards, a moderate Democrat, and worked for previous Democratic governors.
At times, she has butted heads with LSU Board of Supervisors members aligned with Gov. Jeff Landry. At an October board executive committee meeting, Lewis exchanged terse words with Lee Mallett, a political donor who gave tens of thousands of dollars to Landry’s election efforts.
DeCuir did not respond to a request for comment asking if politics played a part in his resignation. Lewis likewise has not responded to a call requesting comment.
Landry, thanks to a new law he pushed, has more power over higher education than previous governors and has taken a greater interest in LSU.
In recent weeks, he has publicly called on LSU to take action against a law professor who profanely criticized him in the classroom. LSU removed Ken Levy from the classroom pending an investigation, though Levy is fighting his suspension in court.
Landry also called for LSU to punish another law professor who criticized President Donald Trump in the days after the presidential election. In 2021, he called on LSU to punish Bob Mann, a political communications professor, who criticized one of Landry’s deputies in the attorney general’s office who shared vaccine misinformation at an LSU Faculty Senate meeting.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-02-20 15:01:00
(The Center Square) − The State Bond Commission approved a series of tax measures and bond sales across Louisiana, greenlighting over $300 million in funding for schools, infrastructure and public services.
The total sale amount okayed by the commission on Thursday includes significant allocations for education and community improvements.
One of the largest approvals was for the St. Tammany Parish School Board, which secured up to $325 million in general obligation bonds for school construction and improvements. This will fund new school projects and upgrades to existing facilities as outlined in the district’s Capital Improvement Plan.
Another major education-related approval went to the East Baton Rouge Parish Central Community School Board, which received authorization for up to $35 million in bonds for similar school-related expenditures.
The Beauregard Parish School Board was granted $30 million in general obligation bonds to improve schools and other education-related facilities. Additionally, the St. Martin Parish School Board and the Rapides Parish School Board secured $30 million and $27 million, respectively, for school infrastructure and equipment.
Infrastructure projects also received significant funding. The City of Westlake in Calcasieu Parish secured a 1% sales tax for 10 years to finance fire department stations, sewerage facilities, and public parks, among other projects. In Ascension Parish, multiple infrastructure districts, including the Belle Maison Subdivision and Pelican Point Golf Community, were approved for 15-mill taxes levied in perpetuity to maintain roads, drainage, and bridges.
The Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority was approved for up to $4.5 million in taxable revenue bonds for capital projects, including improvements to the Sans Souci Building, La Place Neighborhood Park, and the Buchanan Warehouse, which is set to become a cultural arts facility.
Public safety funding also saw significant approvals, including a half-percent sales tax in Calcasieu Parish to maintain law enforcement salary schedules and provide for future cost-of-living adjustments.
The Orleans Parish Law Enforcement District will also receive funding from a 2.46-mill tax for the next decade to support jail operations and the sheriff’s office.
Additionally, several hospitals and public health facilities secured long-term funding. The St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 2 will receive up to $51.5 million in bonds for projects focused on cancer care, emergency care, and women’s and infant health services.
Ware Youth Center in Red River Parish was the focus of a New York Times investigative report in 2022 that alleged widespread abuse of girls held at the facility.
At a legislative hearing Tuesday, Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, told state juvenile justice officials to report back to her about who sits on the Ware Youth Center Authority, the state-created entity that is supposed to oversee the youth prison.
Jackson said she wants to make sure the people supervising Ware when the alleged abuse occurred are not still in charge.
“Are we paying the same people who mistreated children?” Jackson-Andrews asked at a Senate Select Committee on Women and Children hearing. “Are the same people – the same entity – who mistreated children still making a profit from our state?” she asked.
Jason Starnes, undersecretary of the state Office of Juvenile Justice, told the committee he has no reservations about the safety of Ware.
“I can assure you we would not have entered into a contract” if there were worries about abuse at the facility, he said.
The Office of Juvenile Justice put eight of the 21 incarcerated girls in its custody at Ware in December after canceling the facility’s contract to hold minors two years ago. At the time, juvenile justice leaders said they couldn’t afford to pay Ware the money it demanded.
The state’s financial arrangement with Ware has been resurrected by Kenny Loftin, Gov. Jeff Landry’s new head of Office of Juvenile Justice and Ware’s former longtime director.
Loftin was not accused of any wrongdoing at Ware in The New York Times article, but some of the alleged abuse detailed in the story overlapped with the time he was in charge of the facility.
He has previously said the investigative report was full of lies and false statements.
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Yet public details of the Ware Youth Center Authority are scarce. The facility doesn’t mention it at all on its website or list the members who sit on the board. No one at the facility could be reached Wednesday to answer questions about the authority.
The Office of Juvenile Justice did not respond to requests Wednesday for more details about the Ware contract or information about its appointees to the Ware authority.
Set up through state law in 1986, the Ware Youth Center Authority is supposed to include state appointees and representatives from Claiborne, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine and Webster parishes.
Judges overseeing juvenile cases from those parishes appoint three members; sheriffs and police chiefs from the parishes name four members; the six parish governments involved receive one seat each; and the local district attorneys receive one seat each.
The remaining three seats are supposed to be filled by the assistant secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice, a job in the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections that doesn’t technically exist any more. Over a decade ago, it was replaced with the deputy secretary position Loftin now holds.
Ware received a state contract in December to provide 24 beds for incarcerated girls, paying the facility more than $500 per day per bed for the next three years, Starnes told the Senate committee Wednesday. That would be over $182,500 per bed per year.
Ware will be paid for all 24 beds whether they are occupied or not. It is currently receiving full payment even though 13 of the state’s 21 imprisoned girls are still being housed at a St. Martinville jail, Starnes said.
The girls are currently held at St. Martinville because Ware doesn’t have enough staff on site to fully run its program. Starnes said he hopes to move all the girls to Ware in the next few weeks.
Though Ware has received negative media attention, a few legislators were anxious to see the transfer from the St. Martinville jail to Ware occur as soon as possible.
“St. Martin[ville] bothers me. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, and it looks like a prison,” said Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge.
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Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, said she had reservations about Ware after reading The New York Times story, but a visit to see its incarcerated girls program proved to be “uplifting.”
Mizell said she believes the facility has turned a corner since the alleged abuse would have occurred years ago, and she had major concerns about the St. Martinville jail when she toured it.
“That was like a Dickens novel. It was bad,” Mizell said of St. Martinville.
Starnes said the plan is to eventually close the St. Martinville jail after the girls are all transferred to Ware.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
