The state's governor, Bobby
Jindal, earlier this year joined with a bipartisan coalition of state legislators to create a strong education reform package that included a statewide expansion of the Student Scholarship for Educational Excellence voucher program. And just a few months later, State School Superintendent John White put forth an accountability proposal that would further strengthen the program.
Alternatively,
special interests sued the state over the expanded voucher program, attacked
the officials that stood for children, and argued that “public money should go
to public schools.”
Luckily, AFC Senior
Advisor Kevin P. Chavous set the record straight in a letter
to the editor in The Times-Picayune:
public money should go to educate children in the best way possible, regardless of the system. Here’s what Kevin had to say:
Re:
"Public money should go to public schools," Your Opinions, Oct.
16. State School Superintendent John White's support for the state voucher
program is perfectly in line with his commitment to public schools, but more
importantly, it's consistent with his commitment to making sure all children --
regardless of the system -- have access to a high-quality education.
For
many families, that means a public school, but what about the families for
which the public schools simply aren't working? In a state where 36 percent of
all public schools are ranked D's or F's and 230,000 public school students are
currently performing below grade level, the truth is that we need to give many
families another option -- immediately. We've talked for decades about
improving our public school system, but the pace of reform is too slow, and
Louisiana has always ranked in the bottom five in K-12 public education
outcomes.
Read Kevin's full letter by clicking here.
- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG
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