Among Governor Landry’s first actions in office was overturning the appeals process for high school seniors who fail the LEAP exam. Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin said Landry mentioned early on that he was against this particular proposal for waving those graduation requirements.
“The fact that he issued the executive order is not a big surprise, maybe it makes a statement to some degree that he did it basically on his second day in office,” said Erwin.
Erwin said if the governor hadn’t issued the executive order, he believes incoming BESE members would have overturned the appeal process that was at the center of controversy…
“This is definitely something that became part of some of the BESE campaigns. We saw from the people that were running, certainly the new folks that got elected that they had some concerns about these particular waivers to the requirements,” said Erwin.
Erwin also points out that the governor makes three appointments to BESE.
Louisiana is the only state in the country that does not have an appeals process. Erwin said the debate highlighted two issues… one that the process was for students who were not fluent in English, and two that this particular process was implemented at the end of Edward’s term.
“I think people may want to revisit this in a more narrow fashion. What we had before was broad, it affected a lot of kids, was very subjective, and I think this BESE probably will take a closer look in the future,” said Erwin.
The first BESE Board meeting for 2024 is scheduled for January 17th.
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