Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr. addresses the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) on Monday, August 3, 2026 regarding an NPR feature entailing, “close to a half a million (student) borrowers claiming they were ‘ripped off’;” and further admonishing the LSBC Members that, if he is treated differently than Caucasian audience members, and particularly referencing Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns, that the newly-hired EBRP Sheriff Deputy, whom Phillips strongly believes was hired specifically because of his recent attendance at meetings, will, “have to escort me out of here!”
On Monday, August 3, 2026, Rev. Freddie Phillips addressed the LSBC regarding this NPR article published on July 31, 2026 entitled, “450K borrowers say they were ripped off. Their student loans are being erased.”
The article, written by education reporter Cory Turner, details the near-resolution of a years-long class-action lawsuit that will erase federal student loan debt for roughly 450,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded. Phillips asserts such fraud is rampant regarding for profit cosmetology schools across the U. S. and, as we have previously published here as well as this article we published prior to that one, President Trump and his U. S. Department of Education are in strong agreement with Phillips. We’ll be publishing a feature on the final outcome of the “gainful employment” initiative by the Trump Administration in a later feature.
For today, however, the case Rev. Phillips spoke with the LSBC about was originally filed in 2019 as Sweet v. DeVos against the first Trump administration’s Education Department (under Secretary Betsy DeVos), challenging the government’s handling of “borrower defense” claims.
This federal provision allows students to seek cancellation of loans if schools misled them about matters such as job placement rates, earnings potential, credit transferability, or program value. Advocates alleged that under DeVos the department systematically stalled processing of claims and denied many without proper review. The suit continued across administrations, becoming Sweet v. Cardona under Biden and Sweet v. McMahon under the second Trump administration’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
In 2022, the Biden administration settled the case. The agreement provided automatic full relief for borrowers who attended a predetermined list of more than 150 mostly for-profit colleges and opened a limited post-settlement window for more than 250,000 additional borrowers to apply. The Department was required to review those new claims by set deadlines or discharge the loans automatically. By the time of related court filings, the Department had already provided about $12 billion in discharges and/or refunds to nearly 300,000 borrowers.
The second Trump administration later sought an additional 18 months to review remaining applications, arguing the need to ensure only meritorious claims received taxpayer-funded relief and that the settlement deadline was unrealistic. On July 17, 2026, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the request. The court noted that the settlement’s obligations had been clear from the outset and that the Department had waited three years to raise its objections. This ruling effectively ends the legal fight and triggers completion of the remaining discharges.
Once fully implemented, the settlement is expected to affect more than 450,000 people and improve their personal finances by more than $23 billion—making it the largest class-action settlement ever against the U.S.
With that objective explanation of the linked article above, let’s now watch Phillips address the LSBC about not only the content of students being “ripped off,” but also of what Phillips claims is disparate treatment afforded to him by the LSBC vs. other audience members (specifically referencing Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns), and informing them in no uncertain terms that he has no intention of tolerating that treatment going forward:
8/3/26: Phillips provides a synopsis of the article referenced above and states unequivocally that he’s not going to tolerate what he assesses as disparate treatment which he receives vis-a-vis other members of the public.
We’re going to draw everyone’s attention to the far right of the video of Rev. Phillips’ presentation. What is present on that right-hand side of the screen is an EBRP Sheriff Deputy, for which the LSBC, beginning with the May 2026 meeting, decided to begin paying $180 per meeting to “monitor the meetings.” We made public records requests for any email correspondence pertaining to the employment of a Sheriff Deputy for meetings, and the only documents deemed responsive to our request is correspondence entailing the contract between the Board and the EBRP Sheriff’s Department. Accordingly, we can only assume that any discussion(s) about hiring the Sheriff Deputy transpired via voice over telephone calls and/or text messages.
As clearly stated on the contract, the alleged purpose of hiring the Sheriff Deputy is to “monitor the meetings;” however, Phillips, who didn’t mince his words on the above video, is of the firm opinion that a Sheriff Deputy was retained in order to demonstrate the Board’s resolve that he, unlike other public members (to include Burns), will not be permitted to make any statement or pose any question after public comment period has expired. Phillips’ words speak for themselves, so we won’t add to them or subtract from them in this feature.
What we will do, however, is present strong evidence via video as to why Phillips would be so sensitive to the hiring of a Sheriff Deputy for the meetings. To do that, we are going to state upfront that the following videos are a personal embarrassment to Burns! Not because of anything Burns ever did or said while serving as a Member of former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board (LALB), but rather the conduct of his colleagues on the Board.
First a quick background. Phillips was the first (and for a very long time, only) African American auctioneer in the history of Louisiana. He obtained his auction license almost 20 years ago, and newly-elected Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal immediately pounced on the fact that he would be able to “provide diversity” on the LALB, and so he immediately named Phillips to the LALB (fresh off obtaining his auction license).
The reaction among the auctioneer community, particularly the white auctioneers in North Louisiana, was, we’ll be polite, not good!
One of the first actions of the LALB upon Phillips’ arrival was to do just as the LSBC has done and retain an EBRP Sheriff Deputy for the meetings. Furthermore, the LALB did precious little to even attempt to hide the fact that they had retained the Sheriff Deputy as a direct result of Phillips’ presence. Here’s a video where Board Attorney Anna Dow, repeatedly asked Phillips if he was “carrying a weapon,” and upon Phillips refusing to answer because he indicated he was being “singled out” for the question, stated he was “not going to answer that question!” That caused then-LALB Chairman Tessa Steinkamp and Board Attorney Anna Dow to look toward EBRP Sheriff Deputy Ronald Landry as if to make an unspoken request that he remove Phillips from the meeting in light of his response. Here’s the video:
After first hiring a Sheriff Deputy, which Phillips claims was a result of his LALB Membership, the LALB sought to enact a rule whereby anyone attending meetings would be “subject to search,” to which Phillips objected, especially on the basis of him being repeatedly singled out and asked, “Are you carrying a weapon?” by the attorney for the Board, Anna Dow. The still photo on the video above reflects then-LALB Chairman Tessa Steinkamp seeking to have EBRP Deputy Ronald Landry remove Phillips from the meeting for declining to answer the question.
Now, as disgusting as the preceding video is, it gets even worse, folks! Phillips sought to attend the annual National Auctioneer’s Association Convention and represent auctioneers from Louisiana. Historically, attendance at the Convention has never been an issue for a sitting LALB Member. If he or she sought to attend, the Board approved such attendance, and the expenses the Member incurred in terms of travel and lodging were always covered by the Board. Of course, that was in the pre-Phillips days. When Phillips sought to attend the Convention, former LALB Chairman Delmar “Buster” Gay flat out told him he adamantly opposed such attendance by Phillips, citing the fact that, “you may be an embarrassment to the State.” Here’s an audio file (Burns was on the LALB at the time, so there’s no video file; furthermore, it is Burns’ voice heard questioning Gay as to him believing Phillips may be an “embarrassment,” but the audio file says it all):
Former LALB Chairman Delmar “Buster” Gay states his adamant opposition to having Phillips attend the NAA Convention because he may be an, “embarassment to the State.”
Just for the record, the “derogatory remark” which Gay references was made at a prior convention was actually made by his neighbor and friend, Ray Camp, who served as a “Consumer Member” on the Board. Gay indicated he would, “not to into detail,” but we will. A brief lecture was provided to attendees on the perils of sexual harassment in the workplace. When the female concluded her presentation and asked if there were any questions, Camp raised his hand and asked, “Harass, is that one word or two?” The female presenter failed to see the “humor” of the question, and that is why Camp was “censured.”
We’ll also point out that Gov. Jindal removed Camp from the LALB once the former Executive Director, Sherrie Wilks, reported him for double-dipping on his travel voucher. Wilks also provided highly credible evidence that Gay had done the same identical thing as Camp; however, Gov. Jindal opted to merely strip Gay of his Chairmanship but let him continue as a regular auctioneer Member of the LALB.
Now, in Phillips’ video above addressing the LSBC, he indicates that he’ll have the (mainstream) media at a Cosmetology Board Meeting if the disparate treatment he alleges is transpiring continues. That’s precisely what he did with the LALB based on videos he provided to the late-Paul Gates, a long-time investigative reporter for WAFB. Gates showed up unannounced and had his cameraman film a segment of the LALB meeting, after which he interviewed the Chairman and Attorney about Phillips’ treatment. Here’s that video:
WAFB (Channel 9 in Baton Rouge) shows up to interview LALB Members and its attorney about treatment which has been afforded to Phillips as videotaped by Burns, provided to Phillips who, in turn, supplied the videos to then-WAFB investigative reporter, Paul Gates.
Unfortunately, days after appearing with his cameraman at the LALB meeting, Gates informed Phillips that he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and was therefore retiring, and the WAFB feature never actually aired, but we believe folk across the WAFB viewing area would have been stunned at the antics of the LALB.
Now, Phillips was formally voted down by the LALB for attending the NAA Convention, with only Phillips himself and Burns voting in favor of sending him. Thereafter, in a routine public records request made for invoices of LALB attorney Anna Dow, Phillips uncovered that she had attended the same meeting he wished to attend, that she’d gotten no Board approval for doing so, and that then-Chairman Ken Comer (Gay had opted to “retire” from the LALB soon after the travel voucher incident) wrote on her invoice “approved” and signed the invoice wherein she billed the Board for attending at the conference (a multi-day affair). He openly confronted both Dow and Comer about that matter, and let’s just say it was not pretty. Here’s that video:
Phillips confronts then-LALB Chairman Ken Comer and Board Attorney Anna Dow about Dow’s billing for attending the NAA Convention without any Board approval after his efforts to attend the same Convention were defeated by a vote of 5-2.
Now, as is apparent from the above video, both Dow and Comer repeatedly threaten to sue Phillips! In one of the most asinine actions Burns has ever seen in his life, Board Attorney Anna Dow actually followed up her groundless foundation for any such lawsuit by mailing Phillips this letter for “slander and invasion of privacy demand.” In the letter, she demands a retraction by Phillips, to which Phillips responded that he, “was not about to retract anything,” and he further stood by his contentions that he stated on the above video. Furthermore, Phillips reached out to the Office of Risk Management and sought to alert that Office as well as the Attorney General’s Office of his need for defense counsel in the event of an actual Dow and/or Comer lawsuit.
Gov. Jindal’s Office was not pleased with the above video to say the least! Accordingly, that was then-Chairman Comer’s final LALB meeting. He went quietly in the night, and no explanation was ever given for his abrupt departure; however, a source in which Burns has the utmost of confidence told Burns, “Gov. Jindal’s Office stated that they would not be tolerant of any Member of any Board or Commission openly threatening to sue another Member during a meeting.”
At the end of Jindal’s first term, Phillips informed Gov. Jindal that there was “no way” he would serve a second term on the LALB, so Phillips simply resigned as Jindal’s first term neared an end. That did not mean, however, that Phillips was done dealing with the LALB (just as we can assure Cosmetology Board Members, he’s not even close to being done “dealing” with them). He continued to attend meetings, make public comments, and be filmed making those comments.
At one point, the LALB had a massive amount of money on its hands (about four years’ worth of licensing fees), so Phillips proposed a “$5 renewal fee for in-state, resident auctioneers” for the next several years to reduce the large fund balance. The normal renewal fee for Louisiana auctioneers is $150, and it is $300 for out-of-state auctioneer businesses. Louisiana had back then a significant number of out-of-state auctioneers registered at the LALB, and Burns requested an Attorney General opinion on which fees could be reduced. The opinion came back stating that in-state fees could be reduced because of the use of the word “may;” however, out-of-state fees could not be reduced because of the word “shall.”
We can assure anyone that, had that idea for a $5 in-state renewal fee originated by a “prominent” auctioneer like the late-Marvin Henderson (NAA Hall of Fame Member notwithstanding felony conviction entailing mail fraud entailing an Alabama auction), auctioneers would have cheered it on so loudly that the cheers would have burst eardrums. Since the idea came from Phillips, however, here are the sentiments of both the LALB and, more importantly, audience members who showed up to speak against Phillips’ proposal (and, as the video shows, it got u-g-l-y):
Audience Members express their disapproval of Phillips’ proposed “$5 auction license renewal fee,” with one such audience member, Chris Lemoine, placing a sheet of paper between Phillips’ camera and auctioneer Barbara Bonnette as she sought to express her disapproval of Phillips’ proposal.
At the first meeting that Phillips failed to attend after departing the LALB (they moved the meeting up, not back, without notifying anyone, so Burns too missed the meeting), two LALB Members decided to get “cute” and respond to the roll call, with Phillips absent for that first time with, “I’s here.” Here’s that audio (no video since neither Burns nor Phillips had any clue the meeting even transpired):
LALB Members James Sims and Greg Bordelon respond to the LALB roll call with “I’s here” causing chuckling after the roll call ended.
By now, virtually anyone can probably surmise that Phillips was not pleased at all when he got the recording of the meeting which, for the record, despite being a piece of cake to supply, required nearly 30 days to obtain via a public records request. So, what did he do? He contacted The Advocate reporter Ted Griggs, who investigated the matter, after which he published this article for which Gov. Jindal promised an Inspector General investigation into the incident. The Inspector General did conduct an investigation, and a subsequent article by Griggs entailing the Inspector General’s investigation. As is apparent from the article, the best “explanations” Sims and Bordelon could come up with was Sims saying that, “my diabetes and dentures sometimes cause things to come out wrong,” and Bordelon, who initially emphatically denied saying, “I’s here too,” adding (upon Griggs providing the irrefutable proof above that he certainly did make the utterance), “it was a friendly mocking of Sims,” and buttressing his claim in characterizing Sims as, “a North Louisiana redneck.”
When former Gov. John Bel Edwards defeated then-U. S. Senator David Vitter in the 2015 Gubernatorial race, Phillips felt things would be different, so he opted to apply once again to be on the LALB. Edwards wasted no time naming Phillips to the Board. The result was an avalanche (and we do mean avalanche) of emails to State Senators from Louisiana licensed auctioneers urging the Senators not to confirm Phillips’ appointment. Edwards just made their job easier by rescinding Phillips’ appointment 20 days after he publicly announced Phillips’ appointment. Phillps told Burns to meet him at the Baton Roug Press Club because he (Phillips) intended to directly confront Edwards about his action. Here’s video of Phillips doing so:
Phillips confronts Gov. Edwards about Edwards’ abrupt removal of Phillips from the LALB only 20 days after issuing a press release touting Phillips’ appointment.
Now, we are under no illusions that the LSBC would ever stoop as low as the LALB (and auctioneers throughout Louisiana) did on the videos above; however, we can empathize with Phillips’ belief that the EBRP Sheriff Deputy was hired as a result of his recent practice of attending every meeting. If, by any chance whatsoever, the LSBC Members even remotely begin to conduct themselves in a manner similar to the LALB (and Phillips submits they already have started down that road), our only advice is: “Stop!” Phillips can and will attract attention to the Board that they will wish they never had!
Finally, at the beginning of the Landry administration, a prominent member of Landry’s staff (we aren’t going to name him), reached out to Burns and encouraged him to submit an application to fill a vacancy on the LALB for a “consumer” position. Burns mustered as much professionalism and courtesy as he possibly could in communicating his appreciation for the offer but that Burns was going to “respectfully decline.” We’ll close by pointing out that, 2-1/2 years later, the position remains vacant. Anybody interested in stepping right up to the plate and applying?
