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Voucher Battle Isn't Over

“Court fight over Louisiana school vouchers isn’t over”
by Mike Hasten
Alexandria Town Talk
July 15, 2012

It’s been an eventful week.

A Baton Rouge judge cleared the way for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program to go into effect Aug. 1, the Department of Health and Hospitals approved a budget reduction plan that shifts most of the cuts to the LSU hospitals that provide care largely to the poor and uninsured, and Jindal racked up more miles on the state’s credit card.

It’s not that Judge Tim Kelley approved the voucher plan, which uses public money to fund tuition at private schools. He just agreed with the state’s attorney, Jimmy Faircloth of Pineville, that his hands were tied by a state law that says if a state official declares that a judge’s decision would force a budget deficit, the judge can’t do it.

Kelley saw the flaws in that provision of law before the attorneys from the Louisiana Association of Educators. Louisiana Federation of Teachers and Louisiana School Boards Association had their say.

Anyone could “stick an affidavit in there saying anything you want it to say and you remove my jurisdiction,” Kelley said. “If the certifications are false, there are perjury issues” but that wouldn’t come up until long after the funding was distributed.

And what about those affidavits? Superintendent of Education John C. White’s original one said there would be a $23 million deficit. He filed a second one, along with Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, that says there would be a $3.4 billion deficit — the total amount of school funding.

LAE attorney Brian Blackwell says the law goes against everything that court is supposed to be about. There’s no chance to offer evidence that the affidavits could be false, no chance to cross examine the state officials that claim there would be a deficit and no way to call witnesses to dispute the affidavits.

Kelley told the attorneys pressing the suit, “I have affidavits. I can’t grant you an injunction” that would block funding the voucher program.

So, White moved ahead with the voucher program. He announced this week that 10,300 applications for about half that number of slots have come into his office.

He also announced some rules, which if properly enforced could knock out some of the 250 schools that offered slots so they could get state and local money.

Of course, the Jindal administration says no local money is involved. But if the state is sending to a private school the full total of what the state and local school board contributes to educate a child and then deducts that total amount of state and local funding from what the school system gets, it’s just a matter of semantics whether local money is going to private schools.

When a school board loses the amount that the state pays, plus the amount it pays to educate a student, it’s just like the local money went with the student.

Just because Kelley didn’t block the program from starting doesn’t mean it escaped from the groups’ legal challenges. The judge is setting a date for a trial on the constitutionality of the voucher program and the way the Minimum Foundation Program — the funding source — was approved.