BATON ROUGE – A House resolution directing auditors to determine how much state and federal money has been spent on programs requiring Louisiana universities to increase the number of minority students survived after a tense debate in the House Appropriations Committee Monday.
Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman and Rep. Alonzo Knox, two New Orleans Democrats, moved to involuntarily defer, or effectively kill, the resolution. But the committee voted 11-7 Monday to send the measure to the House Committee on Education for further discussion.
The resolution defines “underrepresented minorities” as all races other than white or Asian and includes students who are non-residents or whose race is either unknown or not reported.
If the full House were to pass the resolution, it would direct auditors at the Louisiana Board of Regents, which oversees higher education, and university systems to tally funds expended by from 2021 to 2026 for staffing, programming, technology and grants aimed at increasing minority enrollment.
Rep. Jack “Jay” William Gallé, Jr., R-Mandeville, on behalf of Rep. Josh Carlson, a Republican from Lafayette, who authored the bill, said the resolution was good practice.
“The resolution is simply taking that information which presumably has been done already and turn it over to the legislative auditor, and they would then, in turn, put it into one comprehensive report,” Gallé said.
The resolution is aligned with the push by President Donald Trump and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In February, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights initiated an investigation of the Louisiana Board of Regents to determine if it had put into place racially exclusionary practices in higher education.
The civil rights office said it was examining the board’s performance objectives designed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities earning degrees and credentials. In 2025, President Donald Trump also signed an executive order “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
The order required the termination of any federal policies or practices instituted under the umbrella of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
“Why would you let the federal government come in here when we can come in here and do it on our own?” Gallé said in reference to the resolution.
Some representatives argued that Carlson’s resolution would interfere with investigations already in place and would go beyond what is required.
“It seems to me that this is all about DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion),” said Rep. Barbara Reich Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge. “There may not be a fiscal note of money, but it is time and effort that the university personnel would have to put into something that I’m not sure what the purpose would be to begin with.”
Freeman attempted early in the discussion to stop the resolution “in its tracks,” and Rep. Knox did the same shortly after.
“I would imagine that these young (Black) people sitting in the audience are tired of this state doing the type of things that we are doing in this committee today based on race when they are trying to get a future in this state and have some respect and dignity,” Knox said. “I think we are at a point where we need to stop this kind of policy.”
