BATON ROUGE, La. — Education reform is a major priority for Governor Jeff Landry who opened the state legislative session on Monday, telling lawmakers “We won’t fix crime if you don’t fix our schools.”
“Louisiana is failing our students, and the statistics could not be more alarming. Seventy percent of our fourth graders can read, and eighty percent of eighth graders can’t do basic math,” Landry said.
Landry has said parents should have more flexibility to choose the school or program that best meets their children’s needs.
One proposal would set up Education Savings Accounts.
ESAs would give families of eligible students, public money to help pay for private school or other learning expenses such as tutoring or home schooling.
“Put parents back in control and let the money follow the child,” Landry said.
Teacher organizations such as the Jefferson Federation of Teachers oppose ESAs.
JFT President Sandra Hauer said she’s concerned about the potential cost of the program and what it would mean for public education funding in the state.
“Teachers couldn’t get a raise,” Hauer said. “Our school support workers couldn’t get a raise. But we can take funds and let that money go out the door, instead of funding the educators and the school support workers we have now.”
Louisiana School Superintendent Cade Brumley supports giving families school choice, even if that means opting out of the public system.
Brumley told WWL Louisiana, “Parents should be empowered to choose the best education for their child. Education savings accounts expand Louisiana’s growing portfolio of school choice options for families.”
Teachers fear a lack of accountability if students leave the public schools.
“When we look at our public school systems everything in there is accounted for, regulated, all our kids are serviced, we have special education programs, we have ESL programs, all that is documented and accounted for,” Hauer said.
Last year, lawmakers voted down bills pushing for education savings accounts.
ESAs have a better chance of passing this year with Gov. Landry’s support.
In a statement, United Teachers of New Orleans President Dave Cash said, “We are working every day to make sure that schools are improving by fighting for every educator in the building to have a meaningful voice. We see it as the responsibility of government to see that all students are getting a quality education. Choice must not come at the expense of quality. Quality should be measured in ways that are fair, transparent, and consistent in every educational context where taxpayers’ dollars are being used. Additionally, it is unclear at this point exactly what this will cost in a year that our governor is proposing to deny educators in Louisiana the kind of compensation our peers in the south already enjoy."
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.