A Big Win For Public Education!
Distric Judge Tim Kelly ruled Friday that it is a violation of the Louisiana Constitution for MFP funds to pay students to attend private schools. The ruling was handed down as a result of lawsuits by the LAE, LFT and the Louisiana School Boards Association. The ruling prohibits the funding of public to private school vouchers now in operation and the course choice program scheduled to start next school year. See the Baton Rouge Advocate story.
This ruling will be appealed to the Louisiana Supreme court by the Jindal administration and BESE. But for now it is a great win for public education, for taxpayers and for children. The voucher program was sure to grow over the years because of heavy advertising and student recruitment by small and very large private schools. Under the voucher system millions of our tax dollars would have been diverted from the classroom to these advertising campaigns. In some states almost half of captured education funds by virtual school giant K12 were used for advertising. They can do this because of pupil teacher ratios of as much as 250 to one. Also virtual schools have no buildings to maintain and no buses to run. They provide such a poor education that they have to constantly recruit new students to replace their massive dropouts!
Educators and school board members must prepare for a continued fight with the Jindal administration. Even if
This ruling will be appealed to the Louisiana Supreme court by the Jindal administration and BESE. But for now it is a great win for public education, for taxpayers and for children. The voucher program was sure to grow over the years because of heavy advertising and student recruitment by small and very large private schools. Under the voucher system millions of our tax dollars would have been diverted from the classroom to these advertising campaigns. In some states almost half of captured education funds by virtual school giant K12 were used for advertising. They can do this because of pupil teacher ratios of as much as 250 to one. Also virtual schools have no buildings to maintain and no buses to run. They provide such a poor education that they have to constantly recruit new students to replace their massive dropouts!
Educators and school board members must prepare for a continued fight with the Jindal administration. Even if