BATON ROUGE, La. (KALB) – A bill signed into law on Friday, May 28, amends a current law to regulate cell phone usage in public schools by Louisiana students.

Act No. 313 applies additional restrictions on students and retains the current law prohibiting students from using cell phones while in a public school building, on public school grounds and on school buses.

Act 313, formerly known as Senate Bill 207, requires students to turn off their cellular devices and stow them away from sight until the end of official school hours. Language in the law expands what is considered as a “prohibited device”, to include other telecommunication devices such as pagers, intercoms and any “radio paging service.”

Punishments for ignoring the restrictions in place by the law can be any form of student-based disciplinary action allowed by the school system, including suspension of the student from the school.

State Senator Beth Mizell, the author of the law, claims the law is nothing but beneficial to both students and teachers in the classroom, citing that she has received several supporting testimonies from teachers during committee hearings on the law.

This is one of those rare situations where it’s good for the students and it’s good for the teachers. The ‘Teacher of the Year’ testified in committee, teachers in workforce groups have said this is the biggest distraction that they are fighting against in the classroom. So far this has been done nationally by Utah, Florida, it’s pending in Oklahoma, Vermont, Kansas because it’s an unheard-of situation to control that in the classroom

While the law was under consideration on the Senate floor, Mizell claimed that against all of her expectations, no one during any of the law’s committee hearings expressed concerns about student and general classroom safety.

The safety experts say the worst thing that can happen would be thirty kids all trying to get on their phones in the event that something happens. They’d much rather have the kids listen to the teacher and all follow one set of directions

Act No. 313 was signed into law by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry on May 28. It went into effect immediately following its signing. More information on the law can be found here.

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Louisiana lawmakers are moving forward with a plan to divert state savings to a new fund to fix a lengthy list of crumbling infrastructure on state college and university campuses. 

The Legislature approved House Bill 940 by Rep. Chris Turner, R-Ruston, which would provide money for maintenance work without going through the annual state construction budget. The bill cleared both chambers Friday unanimously. 

Presently, each university system gets a few million dollars each year to address these deferred maintenance projects, far from enough to keep up with new projects added to the list each year. In total, there are approximately $2 billion worth of repairs needed at public colleges and universities in the state. 

Turner said higher education leaders have asked instead for a set amount of money annually, which they could then decide how to spend themselves. This would prevent long-needed maintenance projects from filling up House Bill 2, the state construction budget, he said.

Lawmakers are considering using some money that would typically go into a state savings account to set up the College and University Deferred Maintenance and Capital Improvement Fund. About $70 million destined for the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund will be diverted to the new fund, Senate President Cameron Henry said. The Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund currently has about $2.3 billion in it. 

The nearly $2 billion deferred maintenance backlog presents a considerable problem on university campuses. Poor infrastructure manifests in Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues, leaky libraries, disruptions in laboratories and myriad problems that impact student life, working conditions and faculty research.

Turner’s bill sets up a 10-year program through which the Legislature could appropriate up to $2 billion dollars, approximately equal to deferred maintenance costs for all four state higher education systems, excluding those at university hospitals that could be paid for with federal dollars. 

Of that amount, the Southern University System would be allocated $153 million, the Louisiana Community and Technical College System would get $253 million, the University of Louisiana System would receive $523 million, and $1.07 billion would be set aside for the LSU System. 

Turner also wants to use funds from the state’s 1998 settlement with tobacco companies, though it would take a constitutional change to do so because the money is currently set aside for other purposes. If a constitutional convention or a special session on constitutional amendments isn’t convened this year, Turner said he would consider filing a constitutional amendment next year to access the tobacco funds, which could yield up to $98 million annually, a spokesperson for the state Treasury said. Further funds could also be borrowed. 

Turner said he hoped the fund could clear deferred maintenance backlogs within seven to 10 years.

Addressing the deferred maintenance backlog is an important tool for recruiting and retaining students, he said.