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Bill allowing St. George to create school system worries EBR school representative
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BATON ROUGE — House members are poised to take up a bill that would let the new city of St. George create a new school district.
East Baton Rouge School Board member Dadrius Lanus said he worries about how the split could impact the future of East Baton Rouge schools.
“If you look at education and policy inside the state of Louisiana, this single piece of legislation can quite frankly be one of the most impactful that we’ll see hit education in our state in a very long time," Lanus said.
The bill is penned by Sen. Rick Edmonds. It passed the Senate last month 26-5. If the House of Representatives approves the bill, and the Senate concurs in House changes, the matter would go before voters in a statewide election in April 2026.
Lanus said if voters pass this legislation, it could be detrimental to Baton Rouge schools.
“You think about the busing we have to lose, you think about the teachers we’re going to lose, you think about the students we’re going to lose,” he said.
The bill also allows the city to access state education dollars. Lanus said not only resources will be impacted, but millions of dollars that go toward parish schools will be affected.
“The legacy cost alone is $60 million. When you think about the buildings that we have, those buildings alone are over $100 million," Lanus said. "This thing goes deeper than what people see above the surface."
Lanus, who is Black, said the schools within St. George's boundaries are high-performing, so there’s no need to break away. He believes this goes beyond education.
“This is a personal gain. They don’t want certain students that look like myself, and students that make up our entire district going to their schools,” Lanus said.
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