Baton Rouge Sen. Rick Edmonds announced Thursday that he plans to introduce legislation to create a new school district in the City of St. George. The creation of that district has been a longtime goal of many who were involved in the effort to get St. George to break away from Baton Rouge.
Edmonds’ plan includes multiple bills: one to create the district and another to propose the constitutional amendment that would be necessary to secure state funding for it.
“ I am glad to tell you we already have in unison a core of people that are willing to help us do the hard work to get these bills passed,” said Edmonds.
Edmonds is hopeful the constitutional amendment to secure funding for the new school system will be on the November 2025 ballot. For a constitutional amendment to go before voters, it must receive a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Legislature, along with the governor’s signature.
Edmonds also addressed concerns from parents about maintaining access to charter and magnet schools outside the new city’s limits. Edmonds said his legislation will contain language to address that issue, though it will require buy-in from East Baton Rouge Parish schools.
“I believe this bill contains the greatest opportunity for a non-adversary relationship. I think we're going to have a great relationship with East Baton Rouge Parish,” the senator said.
Edmonds was flanked at the press conference by St. George Interim Mayor Dustin Yates, who is running to be the city’s first elected mayor, and Patty Cook, who’s running for a city council seat. Both spoke in support of the plan.
But not everyone in the parish and St. George supports the move. M.E. Cormier, who led a campaign in opposition to St. George breaking away from Baton Rouge, said St. George leaders have not secured a cooperative endeavor with the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System.
“St. George leaders just made big promises with no way to keep them or pay for them,” said Cormier.
For the proposed school district to be funded as Edmonds intends, a majority of voters in both the state and parish would need to approve the plan.
The new school district that Edmonds hopes to create would significantly shrink Baton Rouge’s existing school district, removing thousands of students from Baton Rouge schools. Depriving the district of those students would result in the schools losing a significant amount of state funding, which is allocated on a per-student basis. Creating the proposed district would also increase racial and class segregation of the area’s schools.
“Yesterday’s press conference was more of a publicity stunt for Yates and Patty Cook, who are running in tight races, than an actual well-thought-out education plan that would serve their citizens,” Cormier said, referring to the Thursday announcement.
Edmonds’ announcement came as St. George residents had already begun early voting in the City of St. George's first election, to be held on March 29.
