Good bill advances DEI shuttering in education

The substitute bill for Republican state Rep. Emily Chenevert’s HB 421 finishes an incomplete job in a way that promotes unbiased learning and respectful treatment of individuals.

The bill, which advanced, on a party-line vote in the House and Governmental Affairs Committee with all from the GOP in favor, in the form of substitute as it met with substantial change, prohibits public colleges’ instructional content that relates to concepts of critical race theory, white fragility, white guilt, systemic racism, institutional racism, anti-racism, systemic bias, implicit bias, unconscious bias, intersectionality, gender identity, allyship, race-based reparations, race-based privilege, or the use of pronouns; and in promoting the differential treatment of any individual or group of individuals based on race or ethnicity, imputed bias, or other ideology related to diversity, equity, or inclusion; or any course with a course description, course overview, course  objectives, proposed student learning outcomes, written examinations, or written or oral assignments that include this content  The original form of the bill included only a prohibition against preferential treatment by suspect categories by state government agencies, but added to that dismantling parts of any state government agency involved in these activities and oversight of this by the Legislative Auditor with possible corrective actions by the majoritarian branches.

On the latter score, it significantly improves upon actions – in the case of the Louisiana State University System, but inaction by the other three higher education management boards – to eliminate in name these concepts and applications of these that collectively are known as diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. DEI assumes that non-minority race or sex individuals by nature unreasonably discriminate against others and therefore government must bestow privileges on the other individuals to account for the difference.

Vanity only reason for Edwards Senate run

This might be fun, to see perhaps the most arrogant, partisan, and fraudulent governor in Louisiana history getting his ego busted.

It appears that Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards has held multiple conversations with Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about running for GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat in 2026. It’s not clear who is courting whom, but the electoral map is such that for Democrats to take control of the chamber they would have to have an extremely good election night, which means recruiting candidates that stand at least a ghost of a chance of winning. Seemingly, Edwards said to check back with him later this summer.

Edwards doesn’t fall into that category. He rode into office presenting himself as a generic blank slate but in a manner to make voters think he was conservative by emphasizing alleged traditional social values. He became the only governor ever to win reelection with fewer votes than he did upon initial consecutive election (although that’s a small sample size given that was not possible constitutionally until 1975), barely skating back in by riding the Trump 45 economic recovery wave (even as within the state he pursued an agenda at odds with the ideas that triggered it).

LPSC must prompt pivot away from renewable energy

While both American Electric Power and the Southwest Power Pool made mistakes that led to a blackout under good weather conditions in northwest Louisiana, the most prominent reason should serve as a warning going forward to state policy-makers.

AEP’s subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power last month had to cut power to around 30,000 people, most in Bossier Parish, for a few hours despite no damage from weather or other sources. It had to at the behest of SPP, because there wasn’t enough power available in SWEPCO’s service area. Trying to draw too much from outside wouldn’t have helped, and more from within would have been as likely to cause cascading failures within the service area.

SWEPCO came up short because it had taken offline temporarily some generation locations for maintenance. This act had been planned months in advance with the expectation that mild spring weather would place low demand on electricity, thus the reduced capacity still could serve all demand. However, unexpectedly high temperatures in the SWEPCO service abrogated that plan and forced the blackout.

LA welfare policy must promote, not pander

So, let’s get this straight: not only must Louisiana taxpayers continue to bestow gifts, but that the receivers get to tell what gifts and in a manner that costs taxpayers even more?

More evidence about just how far off the rails the political left has gone in Louisiana, and America, came at a Louisiana Senate committee hearing last week where it claimed taxpayers should continue to facilitate poorer health outcomes. This came over debate about SB 14 by Republican state Sen. Patrick McMath, a bill that would disallow public schools from serving meals that contain ingredients nutrition experts have identified as encouraging chronically bad health conditions and to start a process to remove soft drinks from eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program purchases, which also contain some of the cited ingredients.

According to extremely old data, about half of all Louisiana students attend schools qualifying for Title I assistance, meaning eligibility for provision of breakfast and/or lunch for free. About a fifth of Louisianans participate in SNAP, which nationally costs almost $113 billion in 2023.