Louisiana voters head to the polls on May 2 for early voting. They’ll face five constitutional amendments that could reshape everything from civil service jobs to school districts. In his latest column, Rolfe McCollister Jr., contributing columnist for Business Report, is urging a split ticket on the amendments: no on two, yes on three. His most passionate call? A resounding yes on Amendment 2, which would grant the St. George community its own school district in East Baton Rouge Parish. “This is about children and education and giving parents choice,” McCollister writes, taking direct aim at school board members he says are opposing the measure to “protect money, turf and union jobs.” On Amendment 1, which would give the Legislature power to remove or add officers, positions and employees from civil service, McCollister is equally direct—and skeptical: NO. He sees it as less about reform and more about control, warning it would effectively hand Gov. Jeff Landry unchecked authority over state jobs and salaries. “This amendment seems to be designed as just another power grab for Landry,” he writes. The columnist also muses that it could be retaliation for the commission rejecting his request last year to change 900 positions to “unclassified.”  Amendment 5, which would raise the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75, also gets a thumbs down. McCollister is a supporter of term limits, which don’t currently exist for judges. He poses an eyebrow-raising scenario: Under the proposed change, a judge elected to a 10-year term at age 74 could remain on the bench until 84. The amendment, he notes, has already failed twice before. His yes votes go to Amendments 3 and 4—one making teacher pay raises permanent through smarter debt management, the other giving individual parishes the option to eliminate the inventory tax on businesses. Beyond the ballot, McCollister also sounds the alarm on Louisiana’s deepening higher education crisis. With the state’s population shrinking—Louisiana was the only Southern state to lose residents between 2020 and 2025—60,000 fewer high school graduates means emptier college classrooms, strained university budgets and a Legislature facing a request from higher education for an additional $850 million with no clear answer on where it will come from. Fewer grads means a shrinking workforce and he asks, “What’s the plan?”—noting it’s a question Louisiana can’t afford to leave unanswered. Read Rolfe McCollister’s full column here. ...read more read less