Breakaway district supporters ‘very confident’ of legislative success

Local Schools for Local Children, a group pushing for a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish, is “very confident” it will be successful at the Legislature this year, after falling just short last year, says spokesman Lionel Rainey III. “We were able to identify who voted yes, who voted no, who wasn’t there,” he says. “We were also able to hear exactly what our opposition was saying.” Rainey didn’t say how many lawmakers who weren’t supportive last time might help the group prevail this year, but says Local Schools has been able to address some of their concerns. He says the new district would still be majority-minority, even if every Catholic school student in the area attends the new district’s schools, and says BESE would ensure the new district reimburses 100% of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System’s legacy costs for retiree health benefits and for unpaid principal and interest on school construction bonds. Rainey and Local Schools President Norman Browning say the new district will learn from high-scoring districts in Central and Zachary. Browning says he couldn’t speak to the role of demographics in those districts’ high performance. Browning says bureaucracy in EBR limits innovation. EBR school board member Barbara Freiberg says Browning’s group doesn’t give the EBR school system credit for improvements being made by the latter’s students, particularly low-income students, who make up the vast majority of the system’s enrolled population. “Race is not the issue,” she says. “The issue is socioeconomics.” —David Jacobs