Bossier school absenteeism tactics not working

The Bossier Parish School District, that powerhouse of public relations, splashes its motto “Win the Day” around, while it really needs to pursue students showing up that day, before being in a position to win it.

The BPSD regularly pumps out whatever good news the district can scrounge during Board meetings and through web videos as part of its “On the Record” series in addition to news releases, such as its deserved seventh best improvement in early grade reading proficiency among the state’s 69 districts. But noticeably absent from any publicity, not even issuing a measly media release for perhaps understandable reasons, were a couple of items celebrated across the rest of the state, if not next door.

One was the annual disappointment in National Merit Scholar semifinalists, announced earlier this month, which at least had the consolation of the district doubling up on the one honoree from last year, which also doubled up on how many that the parish’s only private school produced. That sterling scholar from a student body of about five percent in size of the 1,452 BPSD high school seniors was part of a class that averaged 28 on the ACT standardized exam, compared to the 19 scored by BPSD seniors, below the national average of 19.4 but above the state average of 18.2.

More govt aggravates NO housing shortage

The problem with New Orleans and its affordable housing difficulties Edmund Burke captured some 235 years ago: to make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

And New Orleans isn’t. Certainly, it has its ramshackle charm, but that obviously isn’t enough to prevent its depopulation, which in turn has made it just about the worst housing market in metropolitan America. In the 2022-23 period, it was the third largest loser in percentage terms of residents among core metropolitan cities, and from 2020 it has been the biggest loser of those, in raw numbers nearly 26,000 residents or 7 percent. In the past ten years it has been 3.3 percent, and since 1950 nearly by half.

This has been reflected in a lousy housing market. Of the 100 largest metropolitan areas, it ranks from 2012 96^th in price appreciation, because of soft demand. Meanwhile, at 7.4 months on average on the market it has the 11^th highest housing supply and its mortgage default rate is 30^th highest at 13 percent. If it were just New Orleans and not also including six surrounding parishes the figures likely would be worse.

Graffiti is, brings out overwrought reactions

Let’s shed an ocean of tears for the special snowflakes running the day-to-day affairs of Louisiana Democrats, seemingly sent into paroxysms of terror by a single word appearing on their headquarters’ easement that, in fact in another context, contains commentary rather than threat.

Recently in Baton Rouge on the city easement leading from the street to the back parking lot of the state party headquarters appeared, within 48 hours of the assassination of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk, a spray-painted scrawled “MURDERERS.” Possibly somebody aggrieved with Kirk’s murders may have done this, motivated by connecting the relentless drumbeat for years of Democrats and leftists calling Republicans and conservatives vile names and casting highly negative aspersions about their motives over policy disagreements, or perhaps because tens of thousands of leftists on social and other media had gloated over the event, or both (although one social media commenter raised the possibility that this was a self-inflicted feint, perhaps designed to draw attention away from leftist culpability for Kirk’s killing and to generate sympathy for the left, at least in Louisiana).

Regardless of motivations for the graffiti, the state party administrators decided it only could mean open season on party operatives. It filed a police report and announced staffers would work outside of the headquarters for a while and that they would take measures to see that they were “safe.”

Ellis again wins sparring with Monroe Council

Last week’s meeting of the Monroe City Council provided yet another chance for its majority to butt heads with independent Mayor Friday Ellis, over both old and new issues, with the power of the mayor’s office triumphing again.

Some closure finally came to the city’s disciplining of former interim police chief Reggie Brown. He had been appointed temporary top cop by Democrat former Mayor Jamie Mayo a few months before delayed 2020 elections and immediately courted controversy when he denied to multiple requestors public records requests that in the past had been fulfilled and was backed in this by the Mayo Administration, with Mayo seemingly intent on having Brown take the job permanently.

Then, a few days prior to elections, a police brutality incident that later would send the officer involved to prison Brown initially refused to refer to the Louisiana State Police despite the city attorney recommending that, and did so only the Monday after the election where Ellis defeated Mayo. Ellis and others believed the delay not only was poor administration but also political favoritism for Mayo. After Brown failed a polygraph exam (later disputed by one legal expert) on whether he had allowed politics to interfere with his decision – because revealing a police brutality incident could make negative news for Mayo right before the election – and denied in subsequent official forums he ran any interference, Ellis’ new chief Vic Zordan fired him for that breach.

Policy must discourage leftism assassination chic

Conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated last week, the surface evidence suggesting it was for political reasons linked to leftist ideology that so far other evidence is confirming. Is it now open season on those of us with something of an audience for conservative political commentary, and what can we do about preventing that in Louisiana?

Understand firstly that this event broadens the shooting gallery. Trying to kill politicians is nothing new, or seemingly out of vogue, because they personalize political conflict and are seen in the warped minds of their attempted assassins as dangerous change agents. Stop them, and the threat is reduced, whether it be because Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise is one of the most powerful conservative politicians in the country leading a partisan faction, or because Minnesota Democrat state Rep. Melissa Hortman was viewed as an impediment as part of a scheme to advance a faction of her party to greater heights, as dreamed up in a demented fantasy by an appointee of Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz (and to bring it back to Louisiana, the reason why 90 years ago this past week Democrat Sen. Huey Long was assassinated, shot by a relative of a victim of Long’s intraparty machinations).

But Kirk was killed, it is becoming increasingly obvious, simply because he was successfully disseminating conservatism to the masses, particularly on college campuses. It drives home two particularly and complementary ugly points.

Progressivism pushing Shreveport crime higher

Maybe Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is on to something when he muses about Shreveport’s high crime rate.

Last week, GOP Pres. Donald Trump broached the idea of sending the National Guard into high-crime cities. It’s more complex than it sounds to pull that off, principally in that Democrat-run big cities with crime problems often are in Democrat-monopoly states, whose governors can mostly neuter the attempt, but it aggravated them to no end to hear that option, especially on the heels of Trump doing this with Washington, DC which immediately saw a significant reduction in violent crime.

Now, Trump and Johnson are floating the idea of a national crime bill, and one critique Democrats had was Johnson didn’t have credibility on the issue because of Shreveport’s crime numbers in his district. Johnson replied this was because a “progressive prosecutor” – namely Democrat District Attorney James Stewart – was gumming up the works. This kind of district attorney charges fewer and downgrades more cases, on the assumption that the criminal justice system is too punitive in a manner that discriminates against lower-income individuals, often non-whites – a recipe for higher crime, opponents of the idea say, with weakened deterrence, while advocates claim it’s a better use of resources.

LA moves to increase confidence in elections

Thanks to the Republican Pres. Doanld Trump Administration, Louisiana can have elections that inspire a little more confidence that the fundamental condition of representative democracy, fair elections, can be achieved.

Recently, the state gained access to the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, kept by the federal government to vet applicants for eligibility (citizenship or permanent residence) for transfer payments. Taking that data and cross-matching it with voter registration rolls for the past few years, GOP Sec. of State Nancy Landry’s office determined that 390 noncitizens (permanent residents are ineligible) illegally appeared on voter rolls, of which 79 actually had voted in at least one election.

The state hadn’t pursued this layup to improve election integrity because until Trump’s reelection strangely the federal government charged $1.75 a name – meaning to plug in each registered name would have cost the state around $3.5 million a shot – for information federal agencies had to collect by law anyway and which would cost nothing to search. The outcome is disturbing, because (except for the provisional ballot process) Louisiana has pretty airtight procedures for registration and vote casting, so likely illegal documentation (or sloppiness at a registrar’s office) caused this problem.

Simple story of new LA GOP senator most credible

It doesn’t work well to hyperventilate about the intriguing 2026 Louisiana Senate race when Occam’s Razor will do.

Concerning the upcoming contest, a piece at Townhall.com by a Paul Hidalgo, whose brief biographical line lists as his only source of expertise on the subject matter is he’s a resident of Marrero. Twists itself into knots. Townhall as an open-door policy to contributors, and while some are good (Louisianan Jeff Crouere, longtime conservative activist and radio show host whose day job flummoxed the state’s largest newspaper the Baton Rouge Advocate, reprints his weekly column there), this one leaves the reader more confused than prior to laying eyes on it.

At its core, Hidalgo seems to think there’s a realistic chance that Louisiana could give away a GOP seat in the Senate. This is because, he writes, incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is polling so miserably for an incumbent he would end up losing against a Democrat, with Hidalgo specifically mentioning Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards as the foil.

Some LA cities could use Nat'l Guard deployment

Deploying the National Guard to perform law enforcement functions in Louisiana is easier than you think. It’s just whether the benefits gained aren’t derailed by the politics and policy involved.

Republican Pres. Donald Trump ordered Guard deployment in Washington, DC to enforce the law. It has been an unqualified success, with significant drops in crime commission basically across the board. As a result, Trump has talked of deployment elsewhere, including Louisiana.

However, that’s a different situation. DC has a special constitutional status, run by the federal government, while states have limited sovereignty including in the area of law enforcement. Essentially, a state has to invite the Guard to mobilize or else it can do little in the way of law enforcement, essentially left with protecting federal property.

Caddo School Democrats flex muscles with rerun

Haven’t we seen this game of Caddo Parish School Board Clue before: the Democrats did it in District 8 with Jeri Bowen?

Recently, this space mused whether the Board’s six Democrats would duplicate what they did in 2020 when a Republican member of the Board resigned to give Democrats a temporary one vote majority, which was then used to appoint a Democrat in the solidly Republican District 8 – 49 percent GOP registration then, 57 percent now – which hadn’t elected a Democrat (who later would switch to the GOP) in 30 years. The situation replicated when Republican Christine Tharpe resigned her seat as she moved out of the district.

At the special meeting this week, the Board considered three volunteers to serve until an election next spring. The only Republican was Cheyenna Newman, who hadn’t lived in the district long and hadn’t involved herself much in local education but who said her background in legal issues would commend her service to the Board. But, she mentioned an interest in promoting social emotional learning – a thinly-evidenced, faddish approach to learning reeking of wokeness expressly repudiated by the state’s board of education the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that would make any conservative Republican blanche at supporting her. As it turned out, none did, although being in the minority it wouldn’t have made any difference.