Posted on 04/05/2012 11:58:31 AM PDT by Gopher Broke
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana will be home to one of the nation’s largest school voucher programs once Gov. Bobby Jindal signs legislation that recently passed his state’s legislature. Today, by a vote of 60-42, the Louisiana House of Representatives approved Gov. Jindal’s voucher expansion, which passed the Senate last night 24-15.
“This is a momentous day for the families of Louisiana,” State Superintendent of Education John White said. “All students deserve a fair chance in life, and that begins with the opportunity to attend a high-quality school. These policy changes are aligned with that central belief, and Gov. Jindal and state lawmakers have demonstrated a clear commitment to prioritize the educational rights of Louisiana’s next generation above all else.”
The expansion of the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program will allow low- and middle-income students in Louisiana public schools graded “C,” “D,” or “F” by the state accountability system to receive government-funded vouchers to attend private schools. Currently, that option is available only to children in New Orleans and students with special needs in eligible parishes.
Last month, a poll commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an organization supportive of school vouchers, found that 60 percent of Louisiana voters surveyed were in favor of Gov. Jindal’s plan to provide vouchers to more families statewide.
(Excerpt) Read more at view.exacttarget.com ...
Well put. Sometimes we tend to lose sight of what exactly is local control.
I would think it is hard to defend their position because of the academic ranking of students from Louisiana is near catastrophic.
Someone "failed" and it is not the water.
This is how we roll back liberalism. Great news!
-—I fear that vouchers are the beginning of state-control of private schools. After all, if state money is being used, then they will start deciding what...-—
The worst case scenario is a return to the status quo ante: fully private schools would return, if govt regulations became too restrictive.
The best-case scenario is a system where parents control their children’s education.
The price if doing nothing is a continued educational decline.
-—I fear that vouchers are the beginning of state-control of private schools. After all, if state money is being used, then they will start deciding what...-—
The worst case scenario is a return to the status quo ante: fully private schools would return, if govt regulations became too restrictive.
The best-case scenario is a system where parents control their children’s education.
The price if doing nothing is a continued educational decline.
-—That’s the part that I don’t like; we have a group here in NJ pushing for vouchers, but only in urban districts; in other words, suburban and rural taxpayers (who already pay for the urban public schools) will now be asked to pay for their private schools as well,-—
Money is NOT the problem in urban areas. Typical per-pupil expenditures are $20k/student, comparable to the wealthiest suburbs. The money goes to teacher salaries and a large administration.
Typically, urban govt schools have 100x the number of administrators per pupil as Catholic schools.
“The money goes to teacher salaries and a large administration.”
That’s right, and in the ‘burbs many of those administrators were let go (because they had no union protection); they, like many cops & firemen, were collateral damage of the teachers’ unions.
You will be cheered to know that one other prominant Republican governor has not endorsed Mitt Romney: Mitch Daniels. Daniel’s non-confrontational approach on social issues has allowed him to shepherd through America’s strongest state pro-life law as well as the country’s broadest school voucher program.
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