As the legislature attempts to override the governor’s vetoes on various bills, one bill that we have paid close attention to is House Bill 38, the school district fiscal transparency bill. The bill would require enhanced fiscal transparency for all school districts in Louisiana and would require most districts to publish their expenses on the Louisiana Checkbook.

While it is unclear whether the legislature will override the veto, a majority of the members of the Jefferson Parish School Board made it known last night that they are supportive of the attempt to increase transparency for local school boards. While the group called on members of the Jefferson Parish delegation to override the veto, they went a step further, promising to implement checkbook-level transparency in Jefferson Parish regardless of the outcome of the vote.

We applaud the members of the Jefferson Parish School Board who stepped out on their own, following the lead of the Lafayette Parish School Board to become among the most transparent public bodies in the state of Louisiana.

Each year school districts across Louisiana receive billions of taxpayer dollars and because of the American Rescue Plan, they will receive billions more. With so many of our tax dollars going into our education system, transparency of taxpayer money is the least the government can do. We look forward to Jefferson parish becoming a leader when it comes to transparency.

You can read the full press release below:

Good Afternoon, a majority of the Jefferson Parish School Board Members agree with Louisiana Checkbook and were disappointed that the Governor vetoed HB 38. Please See below:

Jefferson Parish School Board members Tiffany Higgins-Kuhn, Sandy Denapolis-Bosarge, Clay Moise, Gerard LeBlanc, Billy North, Larry Dale and Chad Nugent support a possible attempt to override the governor’s veto of the school district transparency bill, HB 38. This bill would require boards like ours to fully comply with the requirement to report our district’s expenses to the Louisiana Checkbook.

As school board members entrusted by voters and taxpayers with the responsibility to deliver a quality education to Jefferson Parish children, we urge the legislature to override the governor’s veto of the school district fiscal transparency bill.  School boards across the state are entrusted with billions of dollars each year intended to prepare our children to enter college or the workforce and eventually lead our communities.

Technology makes good-government ideas like this one possible. We believe that we owe this level of accountability to our citizens with a belief that transparency encourages responsible decisions.

We hope to see members of the Jefferson Parish legislative delegation vote unanimously in support of overriding the veto of school district-level transparency and stand ready to implement checkbook-level transparency in Jefferson Parish.

 

Sincerely,
Chad Nugent, Jefferson Parish School Board President