by Elizabeth K. Jeffers
Lane Grigsby, a Republican and Bobby Jindal supporter from Baton Rouge, is the founder of the multi-million dollar construction company, Cajun Industries, Inc. Grigsby is chairperson of Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s (LABI) Education and Workforce Council, and he sits on the New Schools for Baton Rouge board. Grigsby and family members make up the Merice “Boo” Johnston Grigsby Foundation, which widely supports corporate school reform.
Cajun Industries helped the Walton family to fund the Louisiana Federation for Children, “a project of the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice, dedicated to promoting, protecting, and expanding school voucher(s).” The president of Louisiana Federation of Children is former state senator, Ann Duplessis, one of the writers of Act 35, the legislation that authorized the takeover of 102 New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana Federation of Children collaborates with Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Louisiana Association of Charter Schools, the Black Alliance for Educational Options and Stand for Children.
