Mike Hoss / Eyewitness News
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana Senate Finance Committee will take up a couple of amendments to the state's school voucher program Friday. At the vote will be a new group of public educators who have formed a coalition to keep public education at the top of the discussion.
With days remaining in this year’s legislative session, some educators feel Louisiana public education will be on the outside looking in.
“Too many things are happening that we would say is destroying public education rather than helping,” said Joyce Haynes of the Louisiana Association of Educators.
But for the first time public education appears to have one voice, as at least a dozen leading groups around the state, including those that represent school boards, superintendents and teachers, have united to form a coalition.
“We just want to make sure public education is on equal footing with the other programs that the state is pushing through,” said Jack Loup, president of the St. Tammany Parish School Board.
The coalition is pushing the legislature and Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration in three areas: local governance of school systems, accountability and equitable funding.
“We all want to level the playing field so that we can show it wasn't because somebody was getting more money,” said Brett Bonin of the Orleans Parish School Board.
The coalition feels less money, $10 million this year, should go to the voucher program that benefits a select few and more money put into the state's preschool program, designed to prepare kids for kindergarten.
“Why is it there seems to be favored pet projects and the public school systems are going to be looking at furloughs?” said Steve Monaghan of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. “They're going to be looking at higher class size. We're going to see diminished returns.”
The coalition says the state-run Recovery School District system gets a huge break, as the state pays for its building insurance -- $11 million this year – while districts elsewhere must pay for insurance themselves.
“And when we raise the alarm system and say this is broken, it’s not working, you're cutting the funding passing down the mandates. This is a recipe for disaster for education in Louisiana,” Bonin said.
The Department of Education says the state is obligated to pay the insurance because the RSD is under state jurisdiction, and that it also has no taxing authority or cash reserves. The Department of Education says it hopes to work with the coalition on key issues. The coalition represents the largest group of elected officials in the state in the school board association and more than 40,000 teachers.
