Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WRKF/WWNO Newsroom.

Governor Still Campaigning for Votes

Sue Lincoln

He may have been sworn in three weeks ago, but Governor John Bel Edwards remains on the campaign trail.

“Despite everything that we’ve heard from the ‘education reform governor’, he left office and our educational achievement levels were 49th,” Edwards said Tuesday evening.

Thus far this week, he has spoken to the Republican Legislative Caucus, Board of Regents stakeholders, and the American Sugar Cane League. Today he’s set to address the Louisiana Hospital Association and the construction trades convention. Edwards is pushing his plan for solving the state budget crisis, now seeking votes from lawmakers.

“The budget problems are very real. They’re very deep. If we don’t come together and work together to do the sorts of things that I have outlined, we are going to have a very difficult time increasing our investment in critical priorities,” the Governor says

Last night, he had a sympathetic audience – teachers.

“We should never lose sight of the fact that the most precious natural resource that God has entrusted to our care is our children. You know that, and that’s why you’re in the classrooms,” Edwards told an assembly from the Louisiana Association of Educators.

While he admitted he couldn’t promise them pay raises, Edwards said he plans to improve classroom conditions for them and for their students.

“One of the things that I’m going to insist on is that we move away from the ridiculous amount of standardized testing that we’re administering to our kids, that are spending too much of our money, and robbing them of the joy of learning,” he said, generating applause from the gathering of teachers.

Edwards fielded a few questions from the audience, regarding teacher evaluations, improving health insurance, and returning to inclusion of the arts in the state curriculum. 

In the end, though, he returned to the theme of this current campaign.

“If legislators out there aren’t hearing from you, pushing them to accept the reality of the situation, then we don’t know how bad this ultimately will be.”