BATON ROUGE — Rep. Cleo Fields visited three East Baton Rouge Parish School District campuses on Friday to kick off his Congress to the Classroom initiative. 

The initiative, seeing Fields visit 52 schools ranging from kindergarten to college across Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District over the course of the year, aims to strengthen students' understanding of government, highlight the importance of education and encourage civic engagement by directly connecting the youth with their elected representative.

Fields, who introduced bills like the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Enhancement Act and the Supporting Teachers Through Tax Fairness Act, visited Claiborne Elementary School, Istrouma High School and the Community School for Apprenticeship Learning. 

"Education has always been and will always be the cornerstone of our society,” Fields said. "When students are exposed early to how government works and understand the role they play in shaping communities, they are empowered to become
informed, engaged citizens."

Fields previously chaired the Louisiana Senate Education Committee, helping to advance education reforms like making kindergarten mandatory.