Flournoy questions voucher proposal
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s school voucher plan won’t work, the head of nonprofit advocacy group said Monday.
The money available will not be enough, plus the Jindal administration does not support imposing the same accountability standards on private schools that are required for public schools, said Melissa Flournoy, the former state representative who is director of the Coalition for Louisiana Progress.
The group was incorporated in 2005 as a nonprofit that says it aims to mobilize progressive leaders and activists in Louisiana.
“They (students) could actually end up in schools that are worse than what they had in the public sector system,” Flournoy told the Press Club of Baton Rouge. “At the end of the day vouchers, however appealing they might sound, they will not be a viable public sector response.”
Though the bills that would create the programs to revamp public school education have not been filed, Jindal has said in speeches he would propose greatly expanding the use of taxpayer dollars to help pay tuition at private schools.
Jindal calls the aid “scholarships.” Opponents call it “vouchers.”
Under the plan the governor outlined, students from lower income families and attending schools that have been graded by the state as being a “C,” “D” or “F” facility, would have the option of getting the aid.
Jindal says the change would give families a way out of failing classrooms.
Flournoy said such aid would divert much-needed money away from public schools. Also, it would be impossible to accommodate in private schools the 380,000 public school students, which is the number Jindal’s plan envisions being eligible for aid, she said.
Jindal’s plan must be approved by the Louisiana Legislature, which is scheduled to meet between March 12 and June 4.
The average amount of the scholarship money a student could receive would be about $5,000, Flournoy said, basing her estimate on the rumors circulating around the State Capitol.
Jindal’s aides say they don’t have specific numbers but they have outlined parts of the formula that might be used and that calculation would hinge, in part, on how much per student aid a particular district receives from the state.
“The tuition is not the hard part,” said Flournoy, ticking off a number of well-known private and parochial schools in the Baton Rouge area, none of which, she said cost less than $5,000 a year.
For instance, parents will pay $14,600 tuition for a 6th grader entering Episcopal Lower School on Woodland Ridge Blvd., according to the 2012-2013 Enrollment Contract.
In addition, at any private school, parents must also pay fees, books, uniforms and other costs that often run into thousands of dollars, Flournoy said.
“Really, the only people who are going to be able to access the vouchers are at the top end of the eligibility,” she said. Those are the parents who can come up with another $5,000 or so out of their own pockets to supplement what the state gives them, she said.
Flournoy’s group, Louisiana Progress, favors a plan that would first emphasize training for principals at individual schools and administrators at the districts, and would focus resources on helping teachers become more effective, she said.
Louisiana Progress is sponsoring an education policy forum 5:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Louisiana Municipal Association building in Spanishtown, she said.
“We hope to frame these issues in a more accessible way,” Flournoy said. “We’re being diverted by political rhetoric when we should be focusing on outcomes and what happens with kids.”