School funding formula clears Legislature in late, controversial vote
Published: Monday, June 04, 2012, 6:56 PM Updated: Monday, June 04, 2012, 6:57 PM
BATON ROUGE -- Lawmakers waited until the final hours of the legislative session Monday to adopt the resolution that allows $3.4 billion in spending for basic public education needs, in addition to the financing for Gov. Bobby Jindal's high-profile proposal to spend taxpayer money on private school tuition aid for certain low-income students.
The state House of Representatives approved the public school funding formula with just 51 votes, two fewer than the majority normally required to pass legislation in the chamber.Disputes over those grants, along with additional outlays for high school students to pay for college course work, created a rocky path for the Minimum Foundation Program resolution whose passage, in most years, is routine. Some lawmakers also raised concerns, which had surfaced in a more muted way earlier in the session, that the vouchers will result in giving taxpayer money to religious schools, including the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans.
The controversy intensified as House Speaker Charles Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, declared the resolution approved on a 51-49 tally, two votes shy of a majority in the 105-member chamber and well short of the majorities that Jindal's voucher proposals garnered in April. Kleckley ruled that because the school-funding formula is a resolution, as opposed to a bill, it requires only a majority of those voting rather than an absolute majority of membership. Defending his ruling to the House, the speaker dismissed any constitutional concer