BATON ROUGE (LSU Manship News Service) — A bill to expand Louisiana’s high-dosage tutoring program advanced in a Senate committee Wednesday even as a broader debate is shaping up over state funding for K-12 education.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Mandeville, proposed spending an additional $15 million a year to provide intensive tutoring to a larger group of students. The program has been focused on K-5 students who had failed assessments in reading, and McMath’s bill would also provide the tutoring to K-8 students who fail assessments in reading, English, numeracy or math.

“We are simply expanding upon and improving a program that is leading the nation,” McMath said.

Louisiana led the nation in learning loss recovery in reading after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Harvard and Stanford universities’ Education Recovery Scorecard. McMath said that high-dosage tutoring, which takes place at least three times a week, was responsible for the improvement. 

“It’s pretty inspirational that Louisiana is a leader in a field and not at the bottom of the list, but at the top,” McMath said.

This expansion would cost the state $15 million a year on top of the $30 million already allocated.

The Legislature started to cover the cost of the tutoring from the state general fund in 2024 after the program lost federal funding.

McMath said Senate and House leaders and Gov. Jeff Landry support the tutoring expansion.

Meanwhile, some legislators have expressed concern about the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s request for an additional $30 million in school funding based on the growing cost of school operating expenses. The board is asking the state to provide schools with more dollars for each student. But board members said the higher spending in that area would be offset by declining student enrollments.

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, has said legislators want to better understand how the $4.3 billion in K-12 education is spent before making any changes.

The board’s suggestion changes the Minimum Foundation Program formula to increase the amount schools receive for operating expenses from $100 to $147 per student, or 47%. That is meant to cover the spending power lost to inflation since the per-student amount was last increased in 2008.

The spending discussions come as the Legislature is preparing for shortfalls in the overall state budget starting next year. The projected shortfalls stem in part from a reduction in income tax rates and federal budget cuts that will require the state to cover larger shares of the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid in upcoming years. The state sales tax rate will also decline by 0.25% in 2030.

The House Ways and Means Committee expects a $329 million deficit in the 2027-2028 fiscal year and a $900 million deficit by 2030.

Despite this potential financial strain, McMath and the other committee members supported the high-dosage tutoring expansion. “It’s money very well spent,” McMath said.

Although the bill, Senate Bill 27, unanimously advanced through the committee, Duane LeBlanc, the advocacy chair of the Louisiana Music Educators Association and a music educator in Baton Rouge, expressed concern over the program impacting students involved in the arts.

“I want to be clear that we strongly support the goals of SB 27,” LeBlanc said. The law states that tutoring occurs during the school day. LeBlanc said the sessions could pull students from courses like art, band or choir, which are linked to increased attendance rates.

One obstacle to the tutoring program’s success is student attendance. By scheduling sessions during elective classes, LeBlanc said, “we risk unintentionally reducing attention and engagement, ultimately undermining effectiveness of said tutoring.”

LeBlanc suggested the bill should ensure that high-dosage tutoring does not restrict student access to “courses that are part of a well-rounded education.”

Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, mentioned that Louisiana’s high-dosage tutoring program has already received recognition outside the U.S.

“I got a call this week that the Minister of Education from Northern Ireland is coming to
Louisiana to see how we’ve been able to move our rankings up,” she said.