Emails reveal voucher scheme | The News Star | thenewsstar.com

Emails reveal voucher scheme | The News Star | thenewsstar.com:

Emails reveal voucher scheme

Emails between Louisiana Education Superintendent John White, Gov. Bobby Jindal's spokesman Kyle Plotkin and Jindal's policy adviser Stafford Palmieri show White devising a scheme to "muddy up a narrative" and to "take some air out of the room" after a news report about the new voucher program that was published before his Senate confirmation hearing in May.

In the email exchange, White proposes creating a news story about the "due diligence" process for school voucher approvals to counter the impact of a News-Star article that revealed the state Department of Education had not performed site visits or extensive review of voucher applications.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee was to consider recommending White's position be made permanent, but according to the emails, White appeared more concerned about damage control from the article about New Living Word School's voucher award that had appeared five days before and the passage of the Minimum Foundation Program, which appeared tenuous at the