During a tense meeting with a state board of education member, New Orleans-area education leaders expressed frustration and worry over recent state funding cuts.
Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Joseph Cao, whose district includes the Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parish school systems, got an earful while speaking with more than a dozen representatives from those districts last week. School board members and district officials said Gov. Jeff Landry’s order to cut $168 million from school district budgets to pay for teacher stipends has forced them to revise their budgets and dip into rainy day accounts to make up for the lost money.
“We’re sounding the alarm that this is not sustainable,” Jefferson Parish School Board member Kriss Fortunato told Cao during the meeting at Discovery High School in Kenner. “It’s leading up to potentially catastrophic situations.”…