Louisiana Voice

Back in the earlier days of my writing career, I had the privilege, while managing editor of the Ruston Daily Leader, of working with some talented journalism interns from Wiley Hilburn’s Louisiana Tech journalism department. Jamie Segura and the late Craig Durrett top the list.

Jamie was the feisty one – meaning she was not afraid to ask the hard questions – and it’s hard to believe that nearly half-a-century later, she’s still an active news hound over in nearby St. Tammany Parish.

I point out her splendid abilities as a way of introducing three documents she just sent me that will likely impact public education throughout Louisiana – and beyond.

LouisianaVoice introduces these documents here as an exclusive news story, thanks to Jamie and her dedication to keeping a sharp eye for important events. I will attempt to describe the contents – and effects – of each document in chronological order and I will attach a link to each document so that readers of LouisianaVoice may peruse the documents for themselves. (To read the attached links, simply click on the underlined, all-caps phrases in green.)

THE FIRST, dated Feb. 14 (happy Valentine’s Day), is a four-page ominous “reminder” from the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Civil Rights and is signed by Craig Trainor, acting assist secretary for Civil Rights for DOE.

Quick to remind the “colleagues” to whom the memo is addressed, it notes that the term “school” refers to “preschool, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education institutions that receive federal financial assistance from the Department.”

It takes a while but Trainor gets to the intent of DOE to bend to the Trump administration by invoking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as the sinister perpetrator of “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline,” whatever that may mean.

Trainor goes on to say, “DEI programs, for example, frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not. Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes. Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school.”

Then comes the crux of the memo: citing the Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Trainer writes, “The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions. The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.”

Then comes the inevitable threat: “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”

Four days later, on Feb. 19, comes DOCUMENT NUMBER TWO from Dr. Cade Brumley, state superintendent of education, to all “system leaders” i.e. all local school superintendents.

Brumley obligingly copies Gov. Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill, House Education Chair Rep. Laurie Schlegel, Senate Education Chair Rick Edmonds and members of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

It’s a one-page memo that reminds all local school superintendents of DOE’s “clarifying guidance” as set out in the Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. He notes that “federal law prevents educational institutions using race in decisions pertaining to:

 “Admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

Brumley then plays the sycophant to Landry by writing, “The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) agrees with ED’s guidance and belief that “[d]iscrimination [under any banner] on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible.” Furthermore, LDOE commends Governor Landry for his proactive Executive Order as well as his unwavering support of LDOE’s work to stop inherently divisive concepts, like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), from infiltrating Louisiana’s K-12 public education system.”

His memorandum concludes with, “There is a compelling national interest to ensure educational institutions are non-discriminatory in nature. Further, in Louisiana, access to educational programming should affirm equal protection under the law and a desire to honor meritocracy of student achievement. Over the coming weeks, I encourage you to review efforts, initiatives, programs, awards, and other matters under your purview to ensure they comply with local, state, and federal law.”

DOCUMENT THREE is the coup de grace.

Dated April 3, it can only be described as a loyalty oath to be signed by each local superintendent of education (and possibly teachers, as well).

Consisting of four pages, there is a line on the first page for superintendents (and teachers?) to affix their signatures committing themselves to the whims and wishes of Trump and Landry under the authority of the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College decision.

The loyalty oath is thorough in including the wording, “The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law. The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences, including:

• The use of the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-1 to seek the “termination of or refusal to grant or to continue assistance under such program,” eliminating federal funding for any SEA, LEA, or educational institution that engages in such conduct.
• For entities and institutions that use DEI practices in violation of federal law, those entities may incur substantial liabilities, including the potential initiation of litigation for breach of contract by the Department of Justice in connection with civil rights guarantees contained in federal contracts and grant awards seeking to recover previously received funds paid to them under these contracts and grants.”

It concludes with the not-so-subtle warning: “The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law. The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences, including: The use of the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-1 to seek the “termination of or refusal to grant or to continue assistance under such program,” eliminating federal funding for any SEA, LEA, or educational institution that engages in such conduct. For entities and institutions that use DEI practices in violation of federal law, those entities may incur substantial liabilities, including the potential initiation of litigation for breach of contract by the Department of Justice in connection with civil rights guarantees contained in federal contracts and grant awards seeking to recover previously received funds paid to them under these contracts and grants. (emphasis mine)

Well, it’s nice to know precisely how loyalty oaths work. They’re a way to dispense of pesky democracy. Moreover, it’s a license to revert back to the days of discrimination based not only on race, but on gender, sexual orientation, religion and creed. And that’s something you can take to the bank.

Mitch Landrieu, former state representative, lt. governor, mayor of New Orleans and advisor to President Biden, addresses one of the “Hands Off” rallies held Saturday throughout the U.S. This particular one was held on the steps of the State Capitol and drew a surprisingly large crowd considering the redness of red-state Louisiana. The rallies were held to protest the policies of IMPOTUS Donald Trump.

10,000 Women Louisiana co-founder Melissa Flournoy poses with fellow former State Representative Mitch Landrieu during Baton Rouge’s “Hands-Off” rally, one of hundreds held throughout the U.S. on Saturday to protest the policies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

At least the tariffs imposed by IMPOTUS will have no adverse effects on the continued work of LouisianaVoice.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it takes a finite amount of money to do what we do. While some of our stories do come to us unsolicited, most do not. They require a little digging on our part to ferret out news that affects you in your daily life

That’s the only reason I come to you, hat in hand, twice a year – in April and October. Our April fund drive will continue through the end of the month and I humbly ask for your support. Your dollars will go to keeping politicians honest – even if it’s only by revealing their dishonesty.

You may contribute via credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post or by mailing a check to Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726.

The person making the largest single contribution will be awarded a first-edition copy of Huey Long’s autobiography, Every Man a King and everyone contributing $50 or more will get a signed copy of my latest book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana.

As always, I appreciate your help and your loyalty to this blog for more than 13 years.

Who made our libraries the scapegoats? And why?

In multiple parishes throughout the state, some would have you believe there’s a sudden plague of pornography and child molesters laying waste to the minds and safe being of young people.

Those same crusading zealots would do better to examine the innerworkings of some of our churches than to invoke their Westboro Baptist Church-like self-righteousness onto vulnerable libraries. Let’s be honest, there are plenty of child predator stories in the CATHOLIC, BAPTIST and MORMON  churches, not to mention the SCOUTS. (Sorry if I stepped on some toes, but does anyone actually know of a child being molested in a library? I thought not.)

There’s Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards. The ink wasn’t even dry on his oath of office before he was attempting to claim dedicated library funds to underwrite raises for police and firemen.

Police and firemen need raises, no question about it. But so do teachers. So do bus drivers, road repair crewmen and social security recipients who are subsisting on a fixed income. So do a lot of other people. Runaway inflation has made that abundantly clear and it’s likely to get worse. That doesn’t change the word “dedicated,” nor does it justify going after those dedicated funds.

When voters pass a tax “dedicated” to any specific proposition, be it mosquito abatement, street repair, water and sewer line construction or ball parks for kids, that’s what they want to see the money go for. Same with library taxes.

Now the Baton Rouge scenario is being repeated in Grant Parish, only this time the local police jury, in its eagerness to skirt the law has in fact used the law to have the parish library director arrested.

Funny thing is, she’s arrested but no charges have been announced. That’s correct. We don’t know why Deidra Fuqua, who holds a master’s degree in library science and who has been on the job about a decade, has been arrested but the fact is, she has. Did I mention that she’s the second-lowest paid library director in the state? She’s a member of the Grant Parish community, yet the local police jury, in its greed and haste, turned on her as if she were a pariah.

“The arrest of the director of the library in Grant Parish is the third step in the pattern of the Grant Parish Police Jury to steal the dedicated funds of the Grant Parish Library System to which the citizens of Grant Parish voted and dedicated the funding,” said her attorney, Eugene P. Cicardo, Jr., of Alexandria.

What part of the word “dedicated” don’t these people understand?

“They are trying to take away the free delivery and reading of the senior citizens of Grant Parish; to do away with the internet and access to free books and reading for the rural citizens of Grant Parish; and to further, decimate the entire library system in Grant Parish,” which Cicardo said is a “self-funded system which provides summer reading and other programs for the youth of Grant Parish.”

What’s more, the police jury recently went into executive session and emerged to say the entire library board was fired and the police jury members will sit as library board members.

The hitch there is the library budget of something a little north of $850,000 is administered by…wait for it…the library board – and the police jury just happens to be  ..uh, broke. Sound familiar?

So, the police jury fired the board, named itself the board (kinda like Donald Trump firing the board of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and naming himself chairman, except on a somewhat smaller scale) and seized the financial records.

Then, on Monday, a search warrant was executed on Fuqua and the library. Among the records sought were the financial records – except they were unavailable because they are now with the police jury, but somebody should’ve known that.

No matter. It seems a 2023 audit of the library was, shall we say, “botched” and it no longer exists, or so we’re told. But wait. Lo and behold, the audit for the year ended Dec. 31, 2023 (which would be the 2023 audit, unless someone knows something I don’t), is available after all (see the full audit HERE) and on page 23, it says quite clearly that there were no findings to be reported on internal control and compliance material to the financial statements nor to the internal control and compliance material to federal awards. Moreover, it says, “No management letter was issued with [the] report.” Management letters are traditionally issued when there is any non-compliance.

In short, the audit was squeaky clean but apparently the police jury wants a mulligan.

So, the police jury was told there is a new audit that reflects poorly on the library. Thus, the library director was arrested and bond set at $7500. Only, the 2024 audit is not available either, because it’s in draft form.

In short, the audit was squeaky clean but apparently the police jury wants a mulligan.

So, bottom line: clean audit, but she’s arrested nonetheless. But there are no charges filed with the arrest.

Sounds like one helluva lawsuit to me.