This board is open. We especially want to hear from EBR parents, teachers, and students — and we welcome St. George residents who disagree with us. Civic arguments work best in the sunlight, not in the echo chamber.
Amendment 2 breaks East Baton Rouge into separate and unequal. It drains $94 million from the schools that educate the most children. It leaves a district that is 12% white — sitting next to a district that is 12% Black. Louisiana has seen this show before. The last reel didn't go well. We are better than this.
In 2019, wealthier, whiter precincts in southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish voted to incorporate as the City of St. George — breaking off from a majority-Black parish after a decade of failed attempts to create their own school district. The Louisiana Supreme Court blessed it in 2024, 4–3. Now Amendment 2 finishes the job: it grants St. George its own school system, pulling kids, property taxes, and sales taxes with it.
Here is what the East Baton Rouge Parish school system itself estimates it will lose: $94 million in local sales and property taxes, plus up to $20 million in state funding. Here is what the last judge to rule against incorporation said it would cost Baton Rouge's general fund: $48 million a year. Here is what the remaining East Baton Rouge school district will look like if Amendment 2 passes: approximately 12% white students, serving the most children, with the least money. Zachary, which broke off in 2003, is 42% white. Central, which broke off in 2006, is 73% white. St. George will be the whitest, wealthiest piece yet.
Call it what it is. Amendment 2 is separate and unequal, written by a legislature that knew exactly what it was doing. Vote NO.
That $94 million does not come from the kids in St. George. It comes from the schools those kids' neighbors attend — the schools serving the 80%+ of EBR students who will remain after the split. Every textbook cut, every paraprofessional laid off, every counselor not hired, every music program shuttered — that is where this amendment lands.
Two districts sharing a parish line. One leaves with the property wealth. The other keeps most of the children.
For reference: Zachary Community Schools, which broke off in 2003, is 42% white. Central Community Schools, which broke off in 2006, is 73% white. East Baton Rouge Parish as a whole is 47% Black. Louisiana's federal desegregation order was lifted in 2003 — the same year Zachary's district began operation. The pattern is not a coincidence.
East Baton Rouge's own school system estimates losses of $94M in local taxes plus $20M in state funding. That is not theoretical. That is textbooks, counselors, and teachers.
A 70%-white district with more money per pupil, next to a 12%-white district with less. Louisiana tried this in the 1950s. The Constitution does not permit it — and the Constitution should not be amended to allow it again.
St. George the city has been incorporated since 2019. The unforeseen expenses — mayor's salary, administration, legal defense — are already racking up, on taxpayers who were told it would "cost nothing." This is the same promise, told a second time.
The students who stay in EBR did nothing wrong. They have the same constitutional right to an adequate, equitable education. Amendment 2 takes resources from them to build a nicer system for someone else's children.
If St. George wants a better school experience, there are ten ways to get there that don't involve amending the Louisiana Constitution. Carving new lines into the highest law of the state for one parish's grievance is not one of them.
Louisiana doesn't need more lines. Louisiana needs one school system that works for every child in the parish. Vote NO on Amendment 2.
Screenshot. Post. Tag us #OneEBRorNone and #VoteNoOn2.
This is the exact language published by the Louisiana Secretary of State. No paraphrase.
"Grant St. George school system the same authority as a parish." Sounds administrative. Sounds like paperwork.
Creates a fifth, independent school district inside EBR Parish. Transfers local property and sales taxes from that geography to the new district. Adds a second line of demographic separation — on top of the one created when St. George became a city.
Amendment 2 requires a dual majority: it must pass statewide AND in East Baton Rouge Parish. That means East Baton Rouge voters have a veto. If EBR votes NO, Amendment 2 fails — even if the rest of the state says yes. Every single NO vote inside EBR is worth its weight in gold.
Read the full Act: Secretary of State official ballot guide (PDF) · Act 218 / SB 25 on the Legislature's site
Amendment 2's proponents say it costs nothing. That is what they said about incorporating the City of St. George in 2019. That is what they said about Zachary in 2003. That is what they said about Central in 2006. Here is what actually happened, and here is what will happen again.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System published its own estimate in March 2026: if St. George becomes its own school district, EBR loses at least $94 million in local sales and property taxes, plus as much as $20 million in state education funding it currently qualifies for based on total enrollment. That is $114 million — and that is before any transition costs, legal fees, or administrative duplication is counted.
The City of St. George has been incorporated since the Supreme Court ruling in 2024. Governor Landry appointed its interim mayor, Dustin Yates, and interim police chief. Since then:
None of these line items appeared in the 2019 "it will cost you nothing" pitch. All of them are now real, ongoing expenses. A new school district adds: a superintendent's salary, a school board, legal counsel, HR, payroll, benefits administration, a transportation system, a food-services operation, and a lobbying footprint in Baton Rouge. Every one of those functions already exists in EBR. Every one of them will now be duplicated.
On April 20, 2026, St. George Mayor Dustin Yates told reporters the new district would be so financially solid it could deliver an immediate tax cut. He did not specify how. He promised to release financial estimates before the election. As of publication, those estimates had not been released.
Compare that promise to what the trial court found before the Supreme Court reversed it: St. George, based on its own operating-cost estimates, would run a $3 million deficit on day one, before accounting for law enforcement. That was the finding before a new school district was added to the ledger.
Every dollar of "savings" promised to St. George residents comes from somewhere. It comes from EBR schoolchildren. It comes from Baton Rouge's general fund — which pays for roads, parks, libraries, the riverfront, and the municipal functions that serve every parish resident, including the residents of St. George. Amendment 2 does not create wealth. It redistributes wealth — away from majority-Black neighborhoods and schools, toward majority-white neighborhoods and schools.
When they tell you it won't cost anything, ask: who signed the last check?
The United States Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Louisiana was sued over its segregated schools that same year. East Baton Rouge Parish did not fully desegregate its schools until 2003 — forty-nine years after Brown — when a federal court lifted a desegregation order that had been in place since 1956. The current wave of school district breakaways in Louisiana began in 2003, the same year the order was lifted. That is not a coincidence. That is cause and effect.
| District | Broke away | % White (approx.) | Federal desegregation order at the time? |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Baton Rouge Parish (original) | — | ~12% white (remaining, post-breakaways) | In place 1956–2003 |
| Baker City Schools | 2001 (ballot) | Varies | Still in place |
| Zachary Community Schools | 2003 (ballot) | ~42% white | Lifted the same year |
| Central Community Schools | 2006 (ballot) | ~73% white | Lifted |
| St. George Community Schools (proposed) | Amendment 2 — May 16, 2026 | ~70% white projected | Desegregation order lifted |
Each successive breakaway leaves the original East Baton Rouge Parish school system smaller, poorer, and more disproportionately Black. That is the measurable, documented effect. It is not a projection. It is history.
In the 1970s and 1980s, wealthier — largely white — residents of Jackson, Mississippi fled that city and its school system after integration was ordered. They took the tax base with them. Forty years later, Jackson's water system collapsed. Majority-Black neighborhoods lost drinkable water for months at a time. The same families that paid for functioning infrastructure moved to suburbs that paid only for themselves. What Jackson is living through now is not bad luck. It is the arithmetic of what happens when a tax base walks away from the people who need it most.
Baton Rouge is on that road. Amendment 2 is a new mile marker. East Baton Rouge voters have the power to stop it — by voting NO on May 16.
It would be a mistake to treat Amendment 2 as a purely educational question. Every federal court that has examined a school district split since Brown v. Board has looked at racial composition, tax-base effects, and intent. The lifting of the EBR desegregation order in 2003 did not repeal Brown. It simply released the federal court's active supervision. The underlying constitutional principle — that government action cannot create or entrench racial segregation in public schools — remains in force. Amendment 2 is designed to survive that analysis. The federal courts will decide whether it does. But Louisiana voters do not need to wait for a federal court. They can decide on May 16 whether they want the state constitution to be the instrument of this separation.
Louisiana's pulpits have stood on both sides of this question in the last century. It is worth saying plainly: the scriptures stand on one side. Amendment 2 asks us to draw a line between our children. The Bible is remarkably consistent on what it thinks of that.
Paul is writing specifically about the wall between Jew and Gentile — a barrier that defined the entire ancient world. The text tells us the business of the gospel is the dismantling of dividing walls. Amendment 2 rebuilds one.
The students who remain in EBR after Amendment 2 passes are the "least of these" in the most literal sense — materially under-resourced, institutionally neglected, statistically more at risk. What we do for them, we do for Christ. What we take from them, we take from Christ.
The biblical test of a community is how it treats the people at its margins, not how well it insulates those at its center.
You are not being asked to make a partisan endorsement. You are being asked to take the Bible at its word on what it means to live as neighbors. Amendment 2 would redraw the line between our children by constitutional text. Scripture's position on the drawing of that line is not ambiguous. The question is whether Louisiana's churches will be silent about it — again.
A short, non-partisan pulpit insert with these verses, designed for Sunday bulletin use. Feel free to print, distribute, or adapt to your denominational voice.
Written to be quoted, footnoted, and forwarded. Each stands alone. CC BY-NC 4.0 — reprint with attribution.
The history of school desegregation in East Baton Rouge Parish, 1954–2003, and what happened the moment the federal court let go.
A line-by-line analysis of what EBR loses under Amendment 2, using EBR's own figures, the 2022 district court record, and comparable breakaway data.
Quantitative comparison of Baker, Zachary, and Central school district creations — demographics, per-pupil spending, state testing, and what each did to the remaining EBR system.
What happened to Jackson, Mississippi after the tax base walked away — water, schools, public works — and why Baton Rouge should read the warning carefully.
Legal analysis of Article VIII, Section 13, the 1974 Constitution's framework for parish school systems, and why amending it for a single community sets a dangerous precedent for future breakaways.
Press contacts, quotable grafs, primary sources. For reporters on deadline.
The May 16, 2026 election is already here. These are the dates published by the Louisiana Secretary of State. Do not miss them.
60 seconds at voterportal.sos.la.gov. If you've been moved to "inactive," fix it now.
Not post — text. If you live in East Baton Rouge Parish, your neighbors' votes carry double weight. Send them this site.
Early voting is the single most reliable way to make sure your vote is counted — and frees you up on May 16 to drive others.
Every amendment on the May 16 ballot was placed there by the Legislature — not by the people. Louisiana is one of only a handful of states in the union without a citizen initiative process. The Legislature gets to decide which constitutional questions reach the ballot. The people get to vote yes or no on what they are handed.
That is why we are asking you to do two things on May 16. Vote NO on Amendment 2. And then stay with us, because the larger project — the project that outlives any single amendment — is winning Louisiana the right to place proposals on our own ballot, the way voters in 26 other states already can.
Your signature is public advocacy. It will be part of a citizens' petition we intend to present to legislators during the next Louisiana legislative session calling for a constitutional amendment establishing citizen initiative. We do not sell, rent, or share this data. We do use it to show the Legislature the real, named weight of demand for a people's right to petition.
Questions, arguments, stories from EBR parents, teachers, and alumni, or a place to coordinate. Keep it civil. Keep it truthful.