A statewide tour began for La. Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday.

It's part of Jindal's efforts to travel to all 64 parishes. His first stop was in Alexandria Monday morning at Central Louisiana Technical Community College, where he signed legislation to provide funding for projects at community and technical colleges across the Bayou State.

"One of my first acts as Governor was to help commit $225 million to our community and technical colleges," says Gov. Jindal. "Through this investment, we’ve improved campuses and learning environments for students across the state because we know the community and technical college system is a critical pipeline for ensuring that we have highly skilled workers in Louisiana. That investment was part of more than $700 million in critical higher education infrastructure investments across Louisiana that we’ve made.

“But we knew we couldn’t stop there. We wanted to provide more support to ensure our students are learning in the best possible environments so they get the skills they need to succeed in great jobs. That’s why I’m proud today to sign a new bill that will help commit more than $251 million for 29 new projects at community and technical colleges around the state.”

Twelve percent of the $251.6 million ($34.3 million) will come from local, private matching funds. Included in the 29 projects are: 25 workforce projects; three student testing, career and service centers and one safety related project.

Many of the projects will build new workshops and training areas for students in key industries like nursing, welding, aviation, construction and information technology.

The Governor's tour will include a variety of stops including events to highlight new economic development announcements, education achievements, transportation projects, coastal restoration projects, and legislation passed in the recent session.

“We’ve made incredible progress over the last five and a half years by making Louisiana a better place to do business, improving our education system, overhauling our ethics code, revamping the workforce development, and cutting taxes, but we’ve got more work to do and I want to hear from Louisianians firsthand about issues that matter most to them," says Gov. Jindal. "The people of Louisiana shouldn’t have to come to Baton Rouge to see their Governor. Since I entered office, I’ve been fortunate to visit every parish multiple times and I look forward once again to visiting communities across the state to hear from Louisianians firsthand.”

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