Hearing delayed in case dealing with voucher law's effect on Tangipahoa '65 ...
NEW ORLEANS — A federal court hearing on the effects the state private school voucher program could have on a decades-old desegregation case has been delayed until November.
The Tangipahoa Parish school system argues that the voucher program, which pays private school tuition for some lower-income students from low-performing schools, diverts state money from the local school district.
And they say that affects the system's ability to comply with orders in the 1965 desegregation case. Those orders include construction of four elementary schools and continuation of magnet school programs.
State education officials had been summoned to a hearing set for Tuesday in federal court in New Orleans. After requests for delays by the state, U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle rescheduled the hearing for Nov. 26 at the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge.
The new statewide voucher program provides state-funded private school tuition for students from low- to moderate-income families who would otherwise attend a public school graded with a C, D or F by the state. More than 4,900 students are taking advantage of it