Education Across the States — News Update
October 31, 2026 · By Charles Mayfield, Executive Producer
On Tuesday, November 3, Louisiana voters will make three separate education decisions at once, and each works differently. Polls are open from 6 in the morning to 8 in the evening; early voting, October 20 through 27, is closed. Ten constitutional amendments are on the ballot statewide, and each voter’s exact ballot depends on parish, ward, and precinct — the Secretary of State’s sample ballot tool, through GeauxVote, shows precisely what you will be asked.
The first decision is a person. District 1 voters will choose a member of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the eleven-member board that sets state policy and adopts the formula that determines how much state money public schools receive. District 1 covers St. Tammany Parish and parts of Orleans, Jefferson, and Tangipahoa parishes. It is a special election: Paul Hollis won the seat in 2023 and resigned in December 2025 to become Director of the United States Mint, so the winner serves only the rest of the term, ending in 2028. Republican Joseph Cao, a former United States Representative now on the board on an interim basis, faces Democrat Angela Hershey, a retired high school teacher. Campaign reporting describes Cao as a supporter of expanding the LA GATOR scholarship program, and highlights Hershey’s concern for students with disabilities, whose services the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees.
The second decision, Amendment 6, is a property tax question that is also a school funding question, though the word schools never appears in its ballot language. It began as House Bill 514 and reached the ballot as Act 274. The state now leaves the first $75,000 of a qualifying home’s value untaxed; the amendment would let parishes and municipalities add an exemption for homeowners 65 and older who qualify for the special assessment level — income not over $100,000, per the Public Affairs Research Council’s guide — with the total exempt value rising with age, up to $375,000 at 81 and older. A statewide yes changes no tax bill by itself: a parish or municipality must opt in, local voters must approve separately, and the earliest effect anywhere is the 2028 tax year. The Louisiana School Boards Association warns it would shrink the tax base school boards draw on, and boards must absorb the loss. The Legislative Fiscal Office says the statewide cost cannot be determined and notes lower collections could also affect the Minimum Foundation Program, the state funding formula.
The third decision is the most local. In East Baton Rouge Parish, all nine school board districts are on the ballot; in Jefferson Parish, five contested races for the nine-member board. In Calcasieu Parish, voters in School Bonding District 30, the Sulphur area, will decide a $74 million construction proposition covering ten schools, held under an exception granted in August in the long-running Conley desegregation case.
Takeaway: None of these decisions makes the others, and a vote on one says nothing about the others. Before Tuesday, check your sample ballot through GeauxVote, confirm your polling place, and read Amendment 6 as a two-step question: its school funding effect arrives only if your own parish or municipality takes the second step.
Listen: Louisiana Education Daily — October 31, 2026: Three Education Decisions on Tuesday’s Ballot on the show page · State page: Louisiana — Education Across the States
Sources: Louisiana Secretary of State sample ballot information via GeauxVote; Public Affairs Research Council guide to Amendment 6; Legislative Fiscal Office fiscal note (House Bill 514 / Act 274); Louisiana School Boards Association — all as covered in today’s episode, which publishes its sources in its episode description.