Daily Report

The bill to authorize $250 million in borrowing for 28 community college projects around the state won approval from the House Appropriations Committee today, with a planned automotive training center in Baton Rouge presented as a prime example of what it could help realize. Senate Bill 204 now heads to the House floor, the last stop before the governor's desk. Gov. Bobby Jindal supports the legislation. Walter Monsour, president of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, testified that passage of the bill would enable the RDA to transfer the Smiley Heights site north of Florida Boulevard and west of Lobdell Avenue to Baton Rouge Community College for construction of an automotive training center. He says 10 car manufacturers have agreed to supply $10 million worth of equipment to the facility. As in previous committee hearings, Higher Education Commissioner Jim Purcell and members of the Board of Regents testified against the bill, saying it goes outside of the capital outlay process for higher education and would take away resources from four-year schools. Treasurer John Kennedy warned that the borrowing would exceed the state debt limit. Committee Chairman Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, spoke for the bill by Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, saying it was time to address the workforce training needs of high school graduates who are not bound for college.

—The bill forming a breakaway school district in southeast Baton Rouge took another step in its long, tortuous path through the Legislature today when the House Appropriations Committee reviewed its financial effects and passed it, 14-7. Committee Chairman Fannin urged members and witnesses to stick to financial questions and not get into the merits of the controversial bill. Still, Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, had to defend his bill against stern questioning from Baton Rouge Democrats on how it would affect the remaining East Baton Rouge Parish school district and the potential need for tax increases in the area to build new facilities. The next stop for the bill is a House Civil Law Committee hearing Thursday to approve constitutional ballot language. Assuming passage there, the last step could be the hardest, winning two-thirds approval in the House, after the same bill fell four votes short in the lower chamber last year.

(John Maginnis will publish a daily update throughout the legislative session on Daily Report PM. The report is also available to LaPolitics Weekly subscribers on the Subscribers Only page at LaPolitics.com. Registration is available on the homepage.)

Louisiana Public Broadcasting is providing a daily video update featuring highlights of the session, which you can see beginning at 6 p.m. here.

John White, Louisiana's education superintendent, says he supports giving the public the ability to vote on creating a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish. But he says he's not taking a position on whether creating the district is a good idea or not. "It's not going to create new schools or new teachers," he says. "It's essentially creating a different governance structure. I can't say whether I know at this point whether that governance structure will be better or not." White made the comments during a conference call today with reporters to discuss the results of LEAP and iLEAP testing. He says seven private schools that have accepted voucher students have been kicked out of the program because the schools weren't performing well enough. Those schools, according to White, are Faith Christian Academy in Jefferson Parish and six Orleans Parish schools: Life of Christ Christian Academy, Upperroom Bible Church, Bishop McManus Academy, Holy Rosary Academy, Conquering Word Christian Academy, and Conquering Word Christian Academy Eastbank. "These are schools that had multiple years of participation in the program, and have performance at a failing level overall," White says. Voucher students who selected those schools for next year will be able to enroll in other schools in the program, he says. —David Jacobs

About 69% of Louisiana students in grades 3-8 this year tested at the "basic" level or above in four core subjects, the Louisiana Department of Education says. That's one point better than last year and nine points better than in 2008, the department says. State Superintendent John White says students seemed to struggle with a new, more challenging writing portion of the English Language Arts test, but he cast the overall results as evidence of progress. White mentioned Central (which went from 83% to 86% scoring basic or above) and Zachary (87% to 89%) as historically high-performing districts that continue to improve their scores. The East Baton Rouge district went from 60% to 62%. Among urban parishes, East Baton Rouge, counting the Recovery School District schools, showed improvement but was outpaced by progress in Orleans. The department says charter schools on average outpaced traditional schools, improving by 2 percentage points. Districts that have unified Head Start and district pre-kindergarten programs averaged greater growth than districts that don't, which White says is "compelling information" about "the impact of pre-Kindergarten." Districts that have Head Start have more than doubled the growth of other districts since 2010, he says. Students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 take the iLEAP; students in grades 4 and 8 take the LEAP to progress to the next grade. Statewide, 79% of students met promotion criteria from fourth to the fifth grade, while 74% met the standard to move from eighth to ninth grade. The education department has more information related to the scores as well as links to more data for each district here. —David Jacobs

Plans to change a two-block stretch of America Street could hit a speed bump at today's Metro Council meeting. Councilwoman Tara Wicker is asking the council to approve a resolution that would change America Street to Charles T. Smith Drive from Eddie Robinson Sr. Drive to North 10th Street. That's the area just in front of Shiloh Baptist Missionary Church, where Smith spent 50 years as a pastor. Wicker says Smith, who died last year, was an icon of the community and that the name change is an apt way to honor his service. As pastor at the church, Smith started a credit union and helped to provide community housing, Wicker says. "Whenever anyone had a need, he was there to lend a helping hand," she says. "The example he left for us is one we all need to model our lives after." But Councilman Ryan Heck says he has a hard time supporting a name change for America Street. "I'm sure he's a wonderful guy who did a lot of wonderful things, but it's America Street," Heck says. "I'd be for changing Florida Boulevard to this guy's name, but America Street?" Vowing to vote against it, Heck suggested moving Charles T. Smith Street a block over or using the cross street. "It's good intentioned, but I think we can find another street," Heck says. The Metro Council meeting begins at 4 p.m. today on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. You can find the full agenda here. —April Castro

At 1,913, the number of building permits issued in East Baton Rouge Parish in April was up 13% over the 1,686 issued during the same month last year, according to a new report from the city-parish Department of Public Works. Perhaps even more important, the valuation of projects permitted was up 65% on the month—approximately $69.9 million, up from $42.4 million. A total of 65 permits for commercial projects, including five stores and six apartment projects, were issued during April. That's up from 46 commercial permits in April last year. Residential permitting, however, was down slightly in April. Of the 137 permits issued, 60 were for single-family residences and 77 were for additions. There were 142 residential permits issued last April. Four months into 2013, total permitting is down from last year, as is the valuation of projects permitted. The 7,083 permits issued this year are 2% fewer than the 7,227 issued through April last year. Valuation is off 5.6%: $199.7 million this year, compared to $211.6 million in 2012.

The three runs scored by LSU in the first inning of its opening SEC Baseball Tournament game against Alabama were all the Tigers needed to win. The Tigers' 3-0 win over Alabama today means LSU will next take on Arkansas at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Cody Glenn threw seven shutout innings this afternoon, giving up just five hits and striking out two. Nick Rumbelow tossed an inning of shutout ball, giving up just one hit, and Chris Cotton pitched a perfect ninth inning to secure the shutout win. Shortstop Alex Bregman led LSU at the plate, with three hits on four at bats, including a double. The SEC has the full stats from today's game available here.

Pig skin and turkey leftovers: LSU and Arkansas will once again square off for another Friday afternoon football game this year on the day after Thanksgiving, the SEC and CBS announced today. Kickoff for the Tigers and the Razorbacks is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium, and the game will be televised nationally on CBS. Since Arkansas joined the SEC in 1992, the Tigers and Razorbacks have played 21 times, with 16 of those games coming on a Friday. The teams played the Friday after Thanksgiving for 13 straight years from 1996 to 2008 before moving to Saturday in 2009 and 2010.

On a screen near you: Four Baton Rouge television stations are included in a $270 million sale of 19 TV stations and seven associated digital sub-channels in 10 markets that's expected to close later this summer or fall. Mission Broadcasting and Nexstar Broadcasting are buying the stations from Communications Corporation of America and White Knight Broadcasting. The Baton Rouge stations include Fox-affiliate WGMB, CW-affiliate WBRL-CD, NBC-affiliate WVLA, and Retro TV-affiliate KZUP. Two Lafayette stations, two Shreveport stations and one station in Alexandria are also included in the deal. More details can be found here.

From a foreign window: The main English-language daily newspaper in Vietnam, Viet Nam News, has a front-page story today featuring Louisiana officials and others who are participating in the Deltas 2013 Vietnam conference this week in Ho Chi Minh City. As The Times-Picayune reports, the article discusses how Vietnam is working with other countries "to develop its river basins and deltas in a sustainable way." It describes the Mississippi River and the Mekong Delta as "two of the earth's great river systems," and says 40% of the Mekong Delta could be lost by 2100. Read the full story here.