Yesterday, Citizens For A New Louisiana had a post, which was cross-posted here at The Hayride – we do that very often, because the folks at CNL do very good work – which talked about the upcoming constitutional amendments what will be voted on next month along with the party primaries for Congress.

One of the amendments, Amendment 2, has to do with officially founding an independent school district for the city of St. George. Currently there is no such district; St. George’s public school students go to schools run by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. But other incorporated cities, most notably in Central and in Zachary, have their own school districts which  are among the best in the state.

St. George’s schools are very likely to get really good really fast when the city is able to run its own school district.

But here’s what CNL said in its writeup of Amendment 2, which it turns out has irritated a bunch of people who are working to pass it…

Proposed Amendment No. 2:  St. George Schools — Local Control or Constitutional Clutter?

Origin. Senate Bill 25 from the 2025 Regular Session by Senator Rick Edmonds (R 8/10) and Representative Emily Chenevert (R 8/10).

Ballot Language. Do you support an amendment to grant the St. George community school system in East Baton Rouge Parish the same authority granted parishes for purposes of Article VIII, Section 13 of the Constitution of Louisiana, including purposes related to the minimum foundation program, funding for certain school books and instructional materials, and the raising of certain local revenues for the support of elementary and secondary schools? (Amends Article VIII, Section 13(D)(1))

What it means. St. George would be treated like Central or Zachary — able to receive funding and raise local revenue.

The issue beneath the issue. This is likely good policy for St. George. But it raises a bigger question: Why does every new school system require a constitutional amendment? Louisiana continues to use its Constitution as a policy manual rather than a governing framework.

The real question. Should local school system decisions be made:

• by statute (flexible), or
• by constitutional amendment (permanent and rigid)?

Bottom line.

• ✔ Expands local control

• ❌ Adds another carve-out to an already bloated Constitution

Here’s the thing – they’re absolutely right that this isn’t an issue which ought to be decided as a state constitutional matter. It ought to be a simple bill at the legislature.

But that isn’t the world we live in. In the world we live in, you’ve got to have a constitutional amendment to create a school district, and it has to pass muster with the voters. This is one more example of why we need a new state constitution, but proper public policy is still going to need to be made until that happens.

There really ought not to be much of a controversy about this amendment. It clearly should pass.

We’re old enough to remember that the entire point of St. George to begin with was an effort to create an independent school district because the unincorporated southern part of the parish was so poorly served by the parish school system in East Baton Rouge. That was literally all the organizers wanted when they first got the effort going.

And  then-state senator Sharon Weston Broome told them they couldn’t have a school district unless they had a city. That’s when they started trying to incorporate St. George. Then she fought them on that – dirty, we might add, from start to finish – for the full eight years she was mayor-president of East Baton Rouge, doing her damnedest to protect EBR’s atrocious public schools from competition inside the parish.

Why? Because Zachary and Central have exposed just how terribly run the East Baton Rouge system is by building two of the best school districts in the state on less money per pupil than EBR spends, and if St. George, with its just under 100,000 mostly well-off citizen taxpayers, were to create its own public schools they’d almost certainly put the whole state to shame.

Everybody knows this. And yet there is big opposition to the St. George ISD. From a piece the public radio stations around the state ran last week…

East Baton Rouge Parish public schools could lose more than 5,500 students and $100 million in state and local funding if the City of St. George forms its own school district, according to EBR Schools.

The district published an FAQ page on its website last month detailing the projected impact to schools if voters approve the split in a statewide vote on May 16. A majority of voters in Louisiana and the parish are needed to approve the constitutional amendment.

EBR school board member Carla Powell-Lewis said she’s worried a funding drop could impact the district’s ongoing initiatives, like salary increases for teachers or improving test scores.

“ This could cause quite a bit of a halt in the work,” Powell-Lewis said.

Oh, no! Sounds terrible! Except that $100 million is an entire bogus number…

Schools remaining in the parish’s school district will lose roughly $90 million in local revenue if St. George forms its own, according to EBR Schools. Of the local taxes, property taxes make up the lion’s share of St. George’s potential funding.

That loss actually means the state will send EBR schools more money, since Louisiana’s school funding formula accounts for a district’s ability to raise revenue, but not enough to make up the gap.

Ultimately, EBR schools could lose roughly 5,800 students and receive about $17.6 million less from the state, according to the district.

EBR Schools would save money, about $40 million in operating costs, since the district would transfer several facilities to St. George and no longer have the expense of educating the thousands of students zoned for the new district.

We had Grok pull the numbers, and here’s what the EBR schools are spending…