La. lawmakers near end of annual regular session

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana lawmakers worked Sunday through a pile of bills awaiting final compromises before their annual session wraps up, agreeing to delay the effects of the shift to Common Core education standards and to add new privacy protections for public school student data.

As the three-month session heads into its final day, the state’s multibillion-dollar construction budget needs to be finished, and this year’s budget needs to be rebalanced to fill holes in education and prison funding.

The Legislature must end its work Monday by 6 p.m.

Among measures winning final passage Sunday were bills to shield the Louisiana Capitol complex security surveillance video from the public, to require the fire marshal to study creating a statewide elevator inspection system and to toughen laws against human trafficking.

House members voted 70-17 to send Gov. Bobby Jindal a bill by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, delaying the consequences of using the Common Core education standards until the 2016-17 school year. That’s one year longer than the policy adopted by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Supporters say the state should provide another year to make sure teachers and students adjust to the tougher standards before their achievement is graded and used to affect teacher evaluations and school takeovers.

Jindal, a one-time supporter of the standards now turned critic, hasn’t said what he’ll do with the bill. While opponents of Common Core like the idea of delay, they criticized Leger’s proposal as tying Louisiana long-term to Common Core and its associated testing.

“We have concerns with the bill. We will review it when it gets to our desk,” Jindal said in a statement Sunday.

With a 98-0 vote, the House also gave final passage to a bill Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, that will put new limits on how Louisiana handles public school student data, how student information can be shared and who can access it.

Jindal supports the measure.

The issue of student privacy is a flashpoint in the larger dispute over Louisiana’s participation in the Common Core, particularly how online testing data will be used and shared with outside parties.

Also on education, lawmakers gave final passage to a bill that will require public schools to provide students with instruction on child assault awareness and prevention, to include information on how students can confidentially report an abuse or an assault.

The House gave final passage to a bill by Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Bossier City, tweaking Jindal’s 2012 law that made it tougher for teachers to reach the job protection status of tenure. The Jindal administration worked with teacher unions on changes to address criticism that the process for appealing firing decisions violated teachers’ rights to due process.

Lawmakers in the House, however, balked on a financial proposal submitted by the Senate that would rework the state’s “rainy day” fund and lower its cap by more than $200 million. The provision was tucked into a bill seeking to steer more dollars into road work.

The House voted 64-33 to send that measure to a six-member legislative committee to try to reach a compromise before the clock runs out on the legislative session.

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Online:

Louisiana Legislature: www.legis.la.gov