Give Concerned Parents a Voice Bill
The legislation would have designated at least one school board meeting per month to have a general public comment period that is not limited to any items on the agenda. It also provides that if at least fifteen residents of the district request that any item be included on the agenda at a school board meeting, the item must be included on the agenda within 60 days of receipt of the 15th written request. The Bill was necessitated due to the non-responsiveness of many school boards to the concerns of parents, and the lack of opportunity for parents to be heard before these boards. The Bill was further necessitated by the fact that some school boards in the state had begun approving policies banning public comments at their meetings. Republican Representative Buddy Mincey (Livingston Parish) strongly opposed the Bill with the specious excuse that it would make the school board meetings “contentious and long”, as though this Bill would do anything to diminish a school board’s power to enact reasonable regulations. Republican Mincey forgot, as he tends to do, that the School Boards are paid by the taxpayers and are directly answerable to us. It is becoming increasingly known by voters in his district that RINO Mincey is entirely compromised to the teachers’ unions and school boards, whose agenda is vastly different from the concerns and values of parents.
