BATON ROUGE, La (WGNO)– Wednesday morning the Louisiana House Education Committee narrowly approved a piece of legislation, House Bill 863, by a 7-5 vote. The bill would forbid any school accepting public money from being a member of an interscholastic extracurricular athletic association, like the LHSAA, that subdivides its schools into public and private. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Kirk Talbot R- River Ridge
“The last thing we want is for this thing to go down a road that it looks like its going and that’s all I’m trying to do.” says Talbot.
J.T Curtis, Head Coach of John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, was one of three administrators to speak to the committee about trying to eliminate the pubic/private split and to go back to the way it was with Classifications 1A-5A.
“Thank goodness we prevailed and keep this issue alive to try to bring our state back together and to united us” says Curtis. “We want to be fair to the student athletes in our state.” Curtis continues.
The bills moves on to the House floor for a full vote.