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Sen. Jonathan Perry
The phone calls are mainly coming from those who work in the education field and they are urging Sen. Perry to vote against House Bill 974 and House Bill 976.
Bill 974 would make it harder for public school teachers to earn and retain job protection known as “tenure.”House Bill 976” would allow low-income students in “C,” “D” and “F” schools, as graded by the state, to qualify for state aid aid to attend a private school or another public school with a “B” or “A” grade.
The two bills passed the House of Representative late Thursday night and now they move to the Senate.
Vermilion Parish’s state representatives Simone Champagne, Bob Hensgens and Nancy Landry all voted in favor of the two bills and said they would before the session began.
On the other hand, Sen. Perry, who is a Republican, has not committed on how he will vote.
A handful of phone calls Frith has taken are asking her “How will Sen. Perry vote on the bills?”
Friday morning, Sen. Perry was in the Vermilion Parish courthouse for a trial. When asked if he has decided on which way he will vote, his answer was simple.
“I have not committed,” said Perry. “When the bills do come for a vote on the senate-side, I want to look at the entire package. The bills will be amended on both sides.”
The two bills now head to the Senate Education Committee and from there they go to the Senate floor where the debate begins all over again. Whatever changes are made on the Senate floor and approved will then be sent back to the House for a new vote if the Senate changed wording or added amendments to the education bills.
Perry predicts the bills will be in the hands of the Senate Education Committee in the next week or two.
The senator said he is getting pressure from his home town voters to go against the two education bills, while the Gov. Bobby Jindal’s supporters are pulling his arms to vote for the bills. He is telling both sides he is not ready to say how he is voting until he is able to read over the completed bills to see what is in them.
“I do not feel comfortable committing to the entire package because I wanted to take it bill by bill and amendment by amendment.”
Hey Kelley I know you are a Jindal plant because if you were from Vermilion you would know there are close to 600 teachers and 200 other school employees which brings us to a grand total of 800. Each of these employees have spouses and/or family members so that would total up to about 2000. I am sure JP is aware that these school employees supported him by a large majority last time when he only narrowly defeated the other candidate. I give Senator Perry credit because I know him from a long way back. The people elected him and he needs to remember that Booby Jindal did not elect him. So many reps and senators have seemed to have forgotten that. Most people learn in a basic Civics class that one is elected to serve the people and not to serve the wannabee dictator governor. The majority of the public support the teachers since they know the value of a good public education. Unfortunately Booby Jindal does not. One wonders why does Booby Jindal have to rush this legislation through so fast without much discussion or much public input. Sounds like Barrack Obummer pushing through health care. What we have here is another version of Barrack Obummer. Booby and Barrack are actually very similar. Very skinny people who never had a real job in the real world but want to change the world but never have lived and sweated and worked in the real world. But they both know everything.