Governor Landry’s K-12 Education Policy has released its recommendations for improving public education. Erin Bendily with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy served on that committee and she says one of their recommendations is to expand school choice…
“Unfortunately the options that we have are very limited so a lot of families can’t access them or the options are only available to families who have the financial resources right now.”
Bendily says there are options to traditional public schools, including home schooling, charter schools and micro schools, which are smaller schools loosely structured with private schools.
Republicans in the Legislature the last couple of years have pushed for education savings accounts. Bendily says they are optimistic it will approved this year and that would allow families to use state dollars to pay for private schools or other learning expenses…
“The can go to a public school. They can go to a private school. They can customize they’re learning plan with a combination of virtual classes or homeschooling options.”
Bendily says K-12 education policy council also recommends bolstering teacher recruitment efforts and provide flexible state funding for teacher compensation to allow school systems to meet their greatest local workforce needs…
“Whether to hire hard to staff areas like math or science or special ed, they may need to offer a little bit more to attract and retain professionals in that area.”
Bendily says the report also recommends that the state revamps its school rating system. She says schools should receive more credit for improving students’ scores on standardized tests, even if the overall score is below average.
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