Bill to protect campus free speech advances

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A House Education Committee recommended to the full House on Tuesday a bill that would protect free expression on college campuses by requiring the establishment of an official university policy affirming free expression and quashing barriers to free speech.
House Bill 269 by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, is modeled after policies at Yale and University of Chicago and legislation recently enacted in Arizona.
The bill would also implement a system of disciplinary sanctions for those who interfere with others’ right to free speech and require the official school policy be disseminated to students during freshman orientation.
Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, expressed concerns the bill does not do much to address free speech that might cause chaos and disruption, noting previous instances of white supremacists giving speeches on college campuses, particularly David Duke’s past LSU appearances.
However, Harris said he believes courts already have addressed many of those issues and the bill allows universities to set individual parameters for what is disruptive.
“If there’s a speech on campus, and it’s a sanctioned speech … and its ideas that may offend me as an individual, or may concern me as an individual, I have the choice as an individual not to go and listen.”
Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, said that while he appreciates what Harris intends to accomplish, he wants to work closely with Harris, as well as representatives from the state’s various universities and the Board of Regents, to ensure that all of the proposals details and moving parts are helpful to institutions.
During its meeting, the committee also passed bills intended to incentivize high school students to graduate in three years and authorize the Department of Education to use alternative data sources to identify economically disadvantaged and at-risk students.
House Bill 541 by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, would require Louisiana students’ Individual Graduation Plans, which are supposed to be developed in the 8th grade, include a proposal for how students can graduate high school by the end of 11th grade.
Students who are able to graduate in three years and enroll in a Louisiana higher education institution would qualify for the “Early College Scholarship” program, which Carter’s bill also seeks to create as an incentive for students.
Under the proposed law, 49 percent of the state’s general dollars that would have been calculated into the Minimum Foundation Program formula (MFP) for students who graduate early would be used to fund the scholarships, while another 49 percent would go toward the Department of Education’s Child Care Assistance Program. The remaining two percent would be earmarked for the scholarship program’s administration.
Current state law states that students considered at-risk should be identified based on eligibility for the federal free and reduced lunch program.
However, the federal government no longer requires parents to fill out applications for students to qualify for free and reduced lunch. Instead, school districts are allowed to use other data, such as from Medicaid or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP, to prove a high number of students living in poverty. At a certain threshold, schools in the district are permitted to offer free breakfast and lunch.
Because that data is no longer available for certain schools or districts in Louisiana, House Bill 130 by Rep. Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, would allow the Louisiana Department of Education to use those other data, such as from SNAP, in identifying at-risk students.