Louisiana’s top education official wants schools to crack down on misbehavior when students return, arguing that stricter discipline will restore order and promote learning.
In a memo Monday, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley urged school district leaders to “recommit to assertive discipline” when the new school year begins next month. He also highlighted two new state laws: one that makes it easier for teachers to remove disruptive students; and another that requires schools to expel students for certain offenses.
The push for stricter school discipline mirrors efforts in other Republican-led states to target student misbehavior, which spiked during the pandemic. It marks a sharp turn away from past attempts to reduce suspensions and expulsions by adopting less-punitive discipline practices, which critics say tied educators’ hands and created unruly classrooms.
“The passive, softer approach is not working,” Brumley said in an interview. “My commitment is to restore law and order to the classroom.”
The discipline shift parallels changes to the criminal justice system championed by Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican who pushed a slew of tough-on-crime bills through the Legislature this year in the name of public safety. Landry said earlier this year that schools also should crack down on rule breakers.
“A disruptive class is not a productive class,” he said at an event in May marking the release of teacher-proposed policy recommendations, including ones to make it easier to push out misbehaving students. “We want to bring some discipline back into those classrooms.”