Onward: Disagreements over spending on Louisiana’s public schools are shifting to the Senate, after the House on Thursday backed a $30 billion state operating budget. Under the House’s 2019-20 spending plan, public elementary and secondary school teachers would get a $1,200 raise and support workers $600, rather than the $1,000 and $500 levels backed by the governor. But the budget proposal crafted by House Republican leaders doesn’t contain the $39 million in flexible block grant funding for districts. Read the full story.
Reading programs: The Dollar General Literacy Foundation announced the award of $150,000 in literacy grants to Louisiana nonprofit organizations, libraries and schools to support adult, family and summer literacy programs within a 20-mile radius of a Dollar General store or distribution center. The grants awarded to Louisiana organizations are expected to impact more than 8,000 people
Rx: The volume of opioids prescribed in the U.S. fell 17% last year, Bloomberg reports, the most in more than a quarter-century, as doctors have become increasingly cautious about giving out the drugs amid an epidemic of abuse. Opioid prescriptions are down 43% overall since their 2011 peak, according to a broad report published today by IQVIA Holdings Inc., a health research firm that sells its services to drug companies. Read the full story. Â Â
