Louisiana is expanding the number of students attending voucher schools to 8,000, despite a court ruling that it is unconstitutional to take money from the dedicated public school fund for non-public schools.
Bobby Jindal thinks either that the law doesn’t mean him or that he knows more than the courts and can ignore their rulings. (L ‘etat c’est moi.)
Which schools get vouchers?
New Living Word got the most. It won an additional 117 vouchers, bringing its total to 214.
A Reuters article described the top voucher school as follows:
“The school willing to accept the most voucher students — 314 — is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.” It did not receive 314 vouchers last year.
Plus:
“Family Christian Academy will increase from 43 to 104 while Claiborne Christian Academy will increase from 23 to 32. Northeast Louisiana Baptist School will increase from 19 to 20, Old Bethel Christian Academy from 20 to 25, Our Lady of Fatima from 40 to 59, Prevailing Faith Christian Academy from fewer than 10 to 17, Quest School from fewer than 10 to 12 and St. Frederick High School from 11 to 14.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Bobby Jindal thinks either that the law doesn’t mean him or that he knows more than the courts and can ignore their rulings.”
More likely that he thinks that the state will either win its appeal or come up with a new funding formula.
Of course it doesn’t mean him. He got a “sunshine law” passed for other state agencies to follow but says his own offices are exempt every time the media wants information such as when he was working on privatization and the school bills. The draconian school bills last year were presented to the Education Committee with only a week to digest 1000 pages! Then it was brought up as the FIRST bill and rammed through in late night sessions by his double-paid staff.
But, Louisiana is a school reform success story!
This is the state Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein said was the best in the country. It’s the reform industry model.
Are these folks ever, ever held accountable for results?
I especially love the vouchers to buy online for-profit courses. $$$$$$!
Fragmentation! It’s a proven money maker. The objective is to insert a thick layer of creamy profit on top of each transaction.
School reformers call it “unbundling” but that’s just a renaming of “fragmentation.” If they can get taxpayers to buy each component of “education” separately, they clear a profit on each purchase. It’s wildly inefficient and it will lead to poor outcomes, as it has in health care, but it IS extremely profitable.
Jindal is in an enviable position: If he wins, he gets to funnel money to friends and religious extremists. If he loses, he becomes a martyr and solidifies his political position with his base.
Now if he were facing jail time for contempt of a court order, his calculus might be a little different…
Federal control via vouchers. Bible verses will not be permitted in the near future. That has always been the problem .
Louisiana has an extremely strong governor’s office. The legislature is Republican dominated, both houses. The Louisiana Family Forum (affiliated with hate group Focus on the Family) is one of his consultants. They also control local elected boards. Anything inclusive of gay people, even the anti-bullying bill gets knock down by AFA which is also affiliated with the Family Research Council as their founder is a former state legislator.
He tends to control the jindalclones in the legislature with promises for their districts, and committee chairs. He handpicked BESE (the state regulating board) and financed the campaign of Chas Roemer (the president) over Donald Songy (the highly respected former superintendent of one of the highest functioning school systems in the state). Roemer is a lawyer. His kids are in parochial schools and his daddy is former governor Buddy Roemer. Then he appointed two members and also funded the campaign of Holly Boffy, an actual teacher who is a conservative. Well she calls herself a “former teacher” so you know she was just in a teaching position, not a teacher, but she won Teacher of the Year. Those 4 gave Jindal the majority on BESE.
Jindal stated shortly after he came into office that he wanted 50% of the schools in Louisiana to become charters before he left office. The school in Rushton, way up in North Louisiana, reportedly did not even have a building when they applied for vouchers, just Sunday School rooms and no teachers. The media in north Louisiana outed them last year. Chuck Kleckley, Jindal’s Speaker of the House (hand picked of course) was supposed to get funds for astroturf for the stadium of his high school (but only his favorite one) in return for his work in the legislature. The media outed him on that one too. His district is in Lake Charles, right near the Texas border close to Houston.
Louisiana politics is all about who you know. However, Jindal has only a 39% approval rate in the polls right now due to his privatization of state agencies, destruction of the health care system, and destruction of the public schools. Even Teach for Americas are shying away from teaching in Louisiana, those eligible have retired in droves including 12 teachers at one elementary school in Pointe Coupee parish, and new Education graduates are looking at other states to work in. He is in a little trouble at the moment, but not nearly enough. Legislature is halfway through the session today.
Nothing wrong with using the Bible as a text in the right context. Chemistry class is not it.
twinkie, he and reformers are digging their own graves. When you go so far to the extremes you alienate people in your own party. These people went berserk and are now paying the price.
Religious schools often scoff about “big government” handouts, then have no problem taking the money themselves. The rules change when it benefits them, just like corporate handouts and tax breaks.