As Mitt Romney continues his advocacy for vouchers, he should follow developments in Louisiana.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the New Living Word School has offered to nearly quadruple its student enrollment, from 122 to 437, even though it lacks the facilities or teachers for the new students. Millions of public dollars will flow to this small church school, where students spend most of their class time watching DVDs.
A reader alerted me that another little school that will reap the benefits from the voucher program is the Eternity Christian Academy in Calcasieu Parish. It currently enrolls 14 students. It has offered to take in 135 new students. Its small budget will grow by $1 million in taxpayer dollars.
Perhaps Romney and Jindal might hold a joint press conference to explain why they think that putting more students into religious schools will prepare them for the 21st century. I wonder if they will learn about science as it is taught in the public schools. Will they learn about evolution and modern biological concepts? We need to hear more from reformers like Jindal and Romney about their views of what constitutes a good education.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
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You have hundreds of readers, Diane, and I thank you for sharing your insights and information on the craziness of the “Louisiana Believes” ed reform plan of Gov. Jindal and Supt. John White. Your attention to the problems we are facing here in Louisiana, mean a lot to educators and public school supporters across the state.
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But what are the SATs at the end of the day? Do religious schools produce children of lower intelligence? I don’t care if they are religious schools or not, if both are producing quality students, religion has nothing to do with it…trigonometry is the same no matter what god you worship…
As far as the small school’s budget increasing by $1MM of taxpayer dollars, I live in a small school district and their DEFICIT this year was $1MM…so $1MM for a productive school of 400+ is doing better than our other schools are…
I am just afraid that because it is a religious school, people automatically think they are going to be indoctrinated or something…tell you what, I know quite a few religiously-educated students (and homeschoolers) and I will put their intelligence against any of the kids I know coming out of our public school system…but the social graces have been better instilled in those coming from religious institutions (or homeschooling) than what I have encountered from publicly educated kids…
Just my two cents…
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Why should the state hand over $1 million to a school with 14 students?
Why should it turn millions over to a school that has neither facilities nor teachers, one that uses DVDs to do most of the teaching?
Does this produce better educated citizens?
Do you know that voters have never approved a statewide referendum for vouchers because they don’t want tax dollars to support religious schools?
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The battle in Louisiana for many years now has been science educators trying to prevent the state from throwing out the teaching of evolution, introduce creationism and sneak in pseudoscience. To put more students into religious schools is a windfall for the religious extreme here. What better way to get the doctrine of evangelical Christianity to more young impressionable minds then the voucher system? Now the teaching of evolution cannot take place since the religious schools WILL NOT TEACH anything but biblical creation. Read Dr. Barbara Forrest’s ongoing advocacy for real evidence based science in this state! What a perfect situation for those who couldn’t sneak creationism into public schools! You can’t get religion into the public schools but you CAN take the students out! This is not just an elephant in the room no one is discussing but an entire herd. Teachers cannot speak out or advocate because it will mean our jobs. We no longer have due process and many will lose their teaching credentials once the value added mess starts! Many think teachers don’t care because so many stay quiet. Fear of unemployment will do that to people. Fear of being punished for speaking up will keep people quiet.
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Fear has always been a motivator in Louisiana to keep teachers quiet. I think the apathy is what hurts the profession the most.
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