In 1968, Lafayette native James Domengeaux, a former US Representative, created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), whose mission was to oversee the promotion, visibility, and expansion of French language usage in Louisiana. His mission was clear: (re)create a European French bastion in Louisiana by making all Louisianans bilingual in International French and English. To accomplish his goals, he teamed up with political leaders in Canada and France, including former French President Georges Pompidou. He found Louisiana French too limiting, so he imported francophone teachers from Europe, Canada and the Caribbean to teach normative French in Louisiana schools. His penchant for International French caused him to lose support in Louisiana: most Louisianans, if they were going to have French in Louisiana schools, wanted Louisiana French, not "Parisian French."Marie-Ginette Baillargeon. "A marriage of convenience: Quebec's influence on the rise of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. Diss. University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2008.Becky Brown. "The Development of a Louisiana French Norm." French and Creole in Louisiana. Ed. Albert Valdman. Springer, 1997: 215-220.James Harvey Domengeaux. "Native-Born Acadians and the Equal Ideal."Louisiana Law Review 46(151), 1985-1986.Constantino Ghini et al. Statewide CODOFIL Program of French Instruction in the Elementary Grades, 1974-75, Evaluation Report. Baton Rouge and New Orleans: Ghini & Associates and Louisiana State Department of Education, 1975.Joe L. Green. "The Louisiana Cajuns: the Quest for Identity through Education." Theory Into Practice 20(1), Winter 1981: 63-69.Michael Hebert. "CODOFIL et l'enseignement du français en Louisiane (CODOFIL and the teaching of French in Louisiana)." Louisiana Review 3(1), 1974: 93-95.Jacques Henry. "Le CODOFIL dans le mouvement francophone en Louisiane." Présence francophone 43, 1993: 25-46.Anne L. Simon. "CODOFIL: A case study of an ethnic interest group." MA Thesis, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1977.Cécyle Trépanier and Dean Louder. "Fieldwork in French Louisiana. A Quebec perspective." Field Accounts from French Louisiana. Ed. Jacques Henry and Sara Le Ménéstrel. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009: 141-168.
