(The Center Square) − Next month, voters across Louisiana will decide whether St. George, the city carved out of unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish after a 2019 incorporation vote, should be allowed to operate a school system.
This would mark a major turning point in the decade-long fight over St. George by resolving whether the new city can. The May 16 election also includes four other ballot proposals.
The new district would be treated like other public school systems in Louisiana, with authority to receive state funding and raise certain local revenues. It would begin operating in July 2027 and, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office, would cost the state about $2.4 million more each year while redirecting education tax dollars from East Baton Rouge to St. George.
“This is the last step to the piece of the puzzle,” Rep. Paula Davis, R-Baton Rouge, said when the House of Represenatives debate the proposal.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said lawmakers were moving too quickly by advancing the proposal before key details of the St. George school system had been worked out, including its structure and which students would attend it.
“I believe we are putting the cart before the horse with this,” Marcelle said in June of 2025. “If we had the language already in place and knew what the school system would look like and what students would go where, then I think we would be better equipped to vote on this bill.”
In the end, the proposed amendment passed the chambers of the Legislature on party lines, with Democrats overwhelmingly opposed and Republicans overwhelmingly in favor.
On Monday, St. George Mayor Dustin Yates addressed similar concerns raised more recently from opponents. Though he did not name a specific group or cite specific comments, Yates accused the groups of “fearmongering” and refuted the claim that there was “no plan” and the new school district would harm students.
Yates was joined by Baton Rouge state Reps. Dustin McMakin, Barbara Freiburg, Emily Chenevert, Paul Sawyer and state Sen. Rick Edmonds.
Yates said critics were relying on “fearmongering” and “deliberate misinformation” in arguing that St. George lacks a workable plan for its school system. He said the proposal includes a transition framework and rejected claims that the district would be financially unstable or academically harmful.
“We have heard that we have no plan. This is also false,” Yates said, saying the amendment lays out a transition process for the new system once the governor appoints an initial school board and superintendent.
Yates also pushed back on arguments that the proposed district would lack diversity. Citing current enrollment figures, he said St. George would open as a majority-minority system, with students who are 47% Black, 31% white, 18% Hispanic and 4% Asian – “which makes us a 70% minority district on day 1.”
He also said it remains “hard to tell” how many students might leave private schools for the new district, but said he does not expect a “mass exodus” from private campuses.
On concerns that East Baton Rouge Parish schools would lose substantial revenue, Yates said opponents were focusing only on the money that would leave the system without acknowledging the obligations that would leave with it.
“They want to talk about all the money that they’re going to lose, but they don’t talk about the services that they’re no longer going to be required to fund,” Yates said.
