State Senator JP Morrell is again bringing equal pay legislation before lawmakers for the upcoming session. Jeff Palermo reports..:
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LSU Student Government believes the Board of Regents’ proposed changes to the TOPS program will force students out of the state for college. Emelie Gunn has more…
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The governor has released his plan to close the state’s $304-million deficit for this fiscal year. Halen Doughty has more…
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State Senator JP Morrell is again bringing equal pay legislation before lawmakers for the upcoming session. The Democrat from New Orleans authored a similar bill last year that failed to make it out of a House committee. Morrell says one of the changes to this measure is that employers would be given a chance to correct a pay inequality…:
cut 4 (10) “remediate the pay”
Morrell says business groups asked him to give companies the benefit of the doubt that if they didn’t know about a pay inequality, they should change it themselves before litigation would be on the table. He says this bill also includes language that says equal pay laws should cover both women and men…:
Cut 5 (10) “everyone should be paid equally”
Morrell says groups who support pay secrecy and don’t want transparency will oppose this bill in any posture. But he says Louisiana women make less than 70 cents per dollar that a man does, and this measure is simply about getting people paid what they are owed…:
Cut 6 (10) “those children”
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LSU Student Government believes proposed changes to the TOPS scholarship program made by the Board of Regents will have detrimental effects on students and might force some to attend schools in other states. President Zack Faircloth says one proposed change by the board is to require students to take 30 credit hours a year in order to keep the scholarship.
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Faircloth says they’ve written a two-page letter with their concerns to the board that oversees public colleges. The Board of Regents also proposed that freshman on TOPS should only have 80-percent of their tuition paid for by the state, while sophomores receive 90-percent, and juniors and seniors receive 100-percent. Faircloth says these are regressive ideas.
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The Board of Regents have asked for public input on their plan addressing TOPS spending and they’ll make a final recommendation later this month. Faircloth says Louisiana should be doing all it can to make sure our best students stay in the Bayou State.
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State Superintendent of Education John White travels to Caddo Parish to host a public meeting tonight to discuss recommendations on improving struggling schools in Shreveport. White says 15 out of 66 schools in the parish have “F” letter grades and 22 have “D” letter grades.
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White says there are several schools under the governance of the local school board plus a charter school, Linwood Public Charter that have persistently struggled. He says a plan dealing with the future of these schools will be presented to BESE next month, so White says they want to get the public’s input on how to improve them…
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White says this is a critical issues, because only two percent of students in Caddo Parish’s “D” and “F” rated schools receive an ACT score to be eligible for TOPS. The meeting takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Peaceful Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Shreveport. White encourages the public to attend.
cut 12 (09) “communities first”
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Governor John Bel Edwards has unveiled his plan for resolving a $304-million midyear budget deficit. The governor’s Communications Director Richard Carbo says the proposal calls for using money from the rainy day fund, a large cut to the Department of Health’s budget, and state elected officials would also make cuts to their budgets, but…
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Carbo says the plan would impose the biggest cut on the Louisiana Department of Health at a $128 million budget reduction. But he says vital services for patients and hospitals that provide care for the poor would not be impacted.
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The governor’s deficit elimination plan will be debated in a special session that begins next week. Some Republican lawmakers have expressed opposition to using $119 million from the rainy day fund to minimize the cuts to state services. But Carbo says using the rainy day fund is a wise fiscal decision.
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