State education superintendent Cade Brumley chosen to lead UL System

The University of Louisiana System Board of Sipervisors said Friday it will replace President Rick Gallot with state education Superintendent Cade Brumley, an ally of Gov. Jeff Landry.

Gallot’s resignation will take effect Dec. 1. The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will have to hire someone to take Brumley’s position, but the timeline for doing so hasn’t been announced. 

Gallot’s ousting came the day after The Times-Picayune reported he owes $350,000 in back taxes and has a federal tax lien filed against him in East Baton Rouge Parish. Gallot did not return a call or text message Friday afternoon. The report indicates he blames a former accountant for failing to file his tax return. 

Brumley’s selection for the UL System job took K-12 school advocates by surprise, even though rumors have circulated for over a year that he was looking to leave his current position. His name had been floated as a possibility for jobs in the Trump administration, Florida state government and, more recently, as Louisiana Tech’s new president.

The UL System is the largest four-year school system in Louisiana, with eight universities. Brumley is likely to make far more money in the new job than he did as state superintendent.

As UL System president, Gallot had an annual salary of $522,000 for the current academic year on top of a $54,000 housing allowance and $24,000 car allowance. Brumley was being paid $323,939 as superintendent for the current fiscal year. He has a $24,000 car allowance but no housing benefits, according to state budget documents. 

Brumley could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Gallot leaves the UL System position about six weeks after former Louisiana Tech president Jim Henderson stepped down. The UL Board of Supervisors offered the two men their jobs on the same day in October 2023, shortly after Landry was elected governor. 

At the time of the Gallot and Henderson hires, UL board members were all appointees of then Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.

In an unusual move, Gallot, who was Grambling State University president at the time, and Henderson, who was serving as the UL System president, were the only people considered for those respective jobs, and its board did not interview any other candidates.

Landry also held up the hiring of Gallot for weeks while he was governor-elect. He wanted to meet with Gallot, a Democrat who served in the Louisiana Legislature for several years, before agreeing to Gallot’s contract, Landry said at the time. 

Gallot’s position was eventually finalized in the last week of 2023, less than two weeks before Landry’s inauguration.

Since he came into office in 2024, Landry has made several changes to higher education leadership. His preferred candidates have been hired at LSU, McNeese State, Northwestern State, University of Louisiana-Lafayette and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.  

Brumley was hired to oversee the state education department in 2020 when Edwards was still governor. Under his leadership, Louisiana has greatly improved its test scores and education ranking among states. 

Prior to his role in state government, Brumley ran the public school systems in DeSoto and Jefferson parishes. 

Over the past two years, Brumley has been an advocate for many of Landry’s education policy initiatives, including a statewide voucher program called LA GATOR that would direct tens of millions of public dollars to private education.

So far, legislators haven’t been willing to expand the voucher program like Landry and Brumley have requested.