State superintendent draws ire over confirmation comments

At least two members of the Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs committee reportedly believe state Education Superintendent John White lied to the committee during his confirmation hearing in May, and they want him to answer for it. Emails recently obtained by The (Monroe) News-Star show, in just over 24 hours, the creation and rollout of a new phase in the Louisiana Scholarship Program, the notification to schools of the new step, and a website adjustment to reflect the change—all at White’s direction, just before and after he told committee members the letter explaining the next phase had been planned for some time. Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, spent much of Friday trying unsuccessfully to reach committee chairman Sen. Jody Amedee, R-Gonzales, to ask that he reconvene the committee or poll its members to see if others would like White to answer questions about the creation of the process that expanded the approval process of the Louisiana Scholarship Program. Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, says he had communicated with Amedee’s staff and asked that he reconvene the committee. In the May 30 hearing where the committee voted to confirm White, he told members that a letter detailing the second phase of the approval process had been “planned for some time and meant to highlight what comes next,” but emails obtained recently by The News-Star show a different story. Read the full story here.