2009 Legislative Session Begins

Today is the first day of the 2009 Regular Legislative Session of the Louisiana Legislature. As part of our mission to identify, evaluate, and advance education policy and legislation that addresses the needs of public schools, the Cowen Institute has identified 20 education-related bills to monitor throughout this legislative session. We will continue to provide you with status updates on each of these bills as the session progresses.

The Cowen Institute also published a comprehensive briefing book on K-12 public education in Louisiana for legislators and stakeholders. Click here to download it. Additionally, we developed a more detailed summary of the bills filed by Representative Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge) relative to local school board reform.

Starting this week, the Cowen Institute will begin to provide weekly updates with information on the Senate and House Education Committees, including a recap of the bills that came up during the week and what is scheduled for the following week.

* During the legislative session, the Cowen team provided a summary of the House and Senate resolutions related to education along with an update on “Top 20 Bills to Watch” and a summary of education, school and student related pre-filed bills filed in the legislative session. You can find the final copy of those documents here.

• Top 20 Bills to Watch
• Summary of House and Senate Education bills
• Summary of Resolutions

We look forward to continuing to keep you informed. Contact Nash Molpus at nmolpus@tulane.eduf or additional information or questions.