BATON ROUGE (AP) — U.S. Sen. David Vitter urged Republican lawmakers on Monday to work to keep the majority in Louisiana’s Legislature that they won over the past year, saying they are positioned to make sweeping changes to education and financial policy.

Vitter spearheaded efforts in the last two election cycles to get more GOP lawmakers elected, and he told legislators attending a conservative policy organization’s seminar that the shift in power was a “special moment” and an opportunity for change in Louisiana.

“It’s not guaranteed to last forever in any way, shape or form. We need to earn that leadership,” the Republican senator told attendees of an all-day seminar by the right-leaning

Pelican Institute for Public Policy.

When Vitter was a state lawmaker nearly 20 years ago, Republicans were a small minority in the Legislature. But through term limits, party switches and elections, the GOP has taken the majority in both the House and Senate in the last year and will retain it when the new term begins in January. Republicans also hold all seven statewide elected jobs.

Vitter pitched several ideas to the group, urging lawmakers to revamp teacher tenure laws, expand student voucher programs, prohibit the use of one-time money for ongoing expenses and move away from judicial elections to gubernatorial appointments. He also supported abolition of the state income tax, beginning with removal of the tax for retirees to attract them to Louisiana.

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has said he will make education policy a priority in the 2012 session, but won’t unveil his proposals until next month. Vitter suggested more than Jindal’s leadership would be needed to make changes to elementary and secondary education.

“We can’t depend on anybody to lead the charge. We need to make sure bold reform happens,” Vitter said.

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy held what it billed as an orientation session for lawmakers, with panel discussions on such topics as education, energy, health care, criminal justice, social media use for communication. Grover Norquist, the well-known anti-tax-increase activist of Americans for Tax Reform, spoke at lunch.

The official orientation for lawmakers by staff of the House and Senate will be held Tuesday through Friday at the state Capitol. Lawmakers will be sworn in for the next term Jan. 9.

The Senate will have 24 Republicans and 15 Democrats for the new term, while the House will have 58 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents.

The Vitter-backed Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority has raised and spent millions over election cycles in 2007 and this fall on legislative races, to boost GOP numbers in the state House and Senate. Jindal and the state Republican Party launched a similar initiative for the just-ended legislative races.