Bill Smith / CC
The Louisiana Federation of Children is calling on the legislature to reject any attempts to de-fund the state’s school voucher system that subsidized private school tuition for 7,000 kids last year.
President Ann Duplessis says an internal poll of program participants indicates nearly all parents involved would like the voucher to stay in place.
“92 percent of the families were extremely satisfied with the program and 96 percent of families were very happy with their child’s academic progress.”
The program had 10,000 applicants last year, meaning 3,000 applicants were unable to receive the voucher.
Critics have pointed out that it diverts millions of dollars that could be used to bolster low performing public schools. Duplessis says even their school district is high performance, parents deserve choices.
“Let’s say all schools are great schools, but all schools perhaps may not be the right school for that particular child. This program allows for choice.”
The program is only available to households earning less than $62,750 a year.
Governor Edwards is seeking 39 million dollars in new funding to modernize public schools, and some have pointed out that the voucher program costs roughly 40 million a year. Duplessis says if the goal is improving education, pumping more money into public schools won’t work.
“Why aren’t we OK with doing something different with education? Our kids are growing up differently.”
According to the Advocate the program, created in 2012, paid full or partial tuition for nearly nine percent of the state’s private school population in 2017-2018.
