Louisiana’s 2025 legislative session was dominated by debates over insurance, taxes, ethics, and a final-hours donnybrook over regulation of prescription drugs. When lawmakers adjourned Thursday, Senate President Cameron Henry ended up with the final word on the state budget and major tax changes, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and other potentially divisive issues. The staff of the Louisiana Illuminator tallied up the winners and losers, and notes that government transparency took a major setback:
House Bill 681 by Rep. Marcus Bryant, D-New Iberia, could subject people to jail time and fines if they post personal information about state lawmakers, statewide elected officials and Public Service Commissioners on the internet. It prevents the elected officials’ home addresses, phone numbers, personal email addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, federal tax identification numbers, bank account numbers, credit and debit card numbers, license plate numbers from being published in government records or on a public website. Also protected under the law are marital records and birthdates.
The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Julia Guilbeau reviewed some of the biggest bills of the session, including education measures that create a more generous TOPS award for high-achieving students and give teachers a (very) modest raise:
House Bill 466 requires school systems to provide a $2,250 salary increase for teachers and a $1,125 increase for school support staff. The state will pay for the raises by using education trust funds to pay down debt related to the teacher retirement system, saving school systems an estimated $2 billion in interest payments. Voters will have to approve eliminating the trust funds in a constitutional amendment.
Invest in Louisiana’s roundup of session highlights is available here.
ICE comes for the Clouatre family
Paula Clouatre was only 14 when she crossed the Mexico-U.S. border with her mother in search of a better life. Now 25, married to an ex-Marine and the mother of two young children, Clouatre had no clue she was facing a deportation order when she showed up for a scheduled appointment last month in hopes of obtaining a green card. As The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s James Finn reports, she instead was arrested and shipped off to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in north Louisiana.
The case highlights how the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is increasingly being driven by arrests at a citizenship appointments and court hearings — tactics officials historically shied away from over concerns they could deter migrants from participating in the court process.
While such arrests are becoming more common, it has forced Adrian Clouatre to make a four-hour drive to north Louisiana twice a week:
The family is now awaiting a judge’s ruling on a request to halt Paola Clouatre’s deportation, as well as a parole request submitted on her behalf by a supervisor at Richwood Correctional, where she is still being held, her husband said. Adrian Clouatre has been making the four-hour drive twice each week so Paola can nurse the couple’s nine-week-old daughter and visit with their one-year-old son.
The case for “redshirting” boys
American boys have fallen behind girls in school, and that has sparked a debate over the merits of “redshirting” – having boys start kindergarten a year later than girls so they have a better chance of catching up. Some parents have been doing this for years, often for athletic rather than academic reasons, but advocates for boys are now suggesting it should be a national policy. As The New York Times’ Clair Cain Miller reports, that comes with pros and cons.
That would make it accessible to more Black and Hispanic boys and those from low-income families — the children least likely to be redshirted now but most likely to benefit, says Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. … Crucially, kindergarten is usually the first year that parents have free child care, and without universal pre-K, this would force many parents of boys to pay for another year of private care. But research shows that being a year older benefits children, especially boys, in one critical way involving self-control — and helps illuminate why many young children are struggling in the American school system.
Student debt could harm the economy
The federal government last month began collecting on defaulted student loans for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The change affects more than 5 million Americans whose loans are delinquent, while nearly 10 million loans are at risk of default within the next few months. States Newsroom’s Robbie Sequeira reports that it could have damaging ripple effects on state economies.
When borrowers default, states will likely feel the economic impact. They might lose tax revenue as homebuying stalls. They could end up paying more for Medicaid and social services if borrowers need to rely on them. And students with loan debt may be reluctant to go into lower-paying public-sector work, leading to staffing shortages at state agencies.
Number of the Day
31.8% – Percentage of Louisiana student loan borrowers who were behind on their payment in the first quarter – the seventh-highest delinquency rate in the nation (Source: New York Federal Reserve)