BATON ROUGE - After an Ascension Parish high school was barred from opening a credit union on its campus in 2025, State Rep. Tony Bacala is authoring legislation that would possibly change that outcome. 

The prefiled bill, HB 285, proposes that a local school board could enter into a cooperative endeavor with a credit union to operate a branch at a high school. 

Bacala says the credit union would help teach financial literacy, a necessary course all high school students need before graduation. 

East Ascension High School asked to open a credit union at its high school for the course, but the effort was shot down by Attorney General Liz Murrill in September. She said the school's plan was purely for financial gain and not educational.

The prefiled bill was referred to the Committee on Education. The legislative session begins on March 9.