Protest urged over voucher ruling

AMITE — The Black Alliance for Educational Options and the Louisiana Federation for Children are urging parents of voucher students in Tangipahoa Parish to organize and protest a federal court ruling striking down the state’s voucher program within the parish.

“There are people that wake up every morning with the sole purpose of killing this program,” alliance state director Eric Lewis told a half-dozen families of Tangipahoa Parish students participating in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program, commonly known as the voucher program.

“People need to hear from you about why this program is important,” Lewis said.

The families of the parish’s 50 voucher students were informed by the Louisiana Department of Education about the meeting, Wednesday night at Greater Refuge Temple Ministries in Amite, Lewis said.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle ruled Nov. 26 that the voucher program interfered with the parish school system’s ability to comply with its court-ordered desegregation plan, and issued an injunction against its implementation in the parish.

“I think it’s horrible that 50 kids are being held hostage because it has taken 47 years to resolve this case, because lawyers can’t figure this out,” Lewis said. “People have to realize how ridiculous this is.”

Lewis told the families if they organized a protest or held a march against the School Board office, “That’s the type of stuff we’re here to help you with.”

The parents group suggested starting a petition drive opposing the court ruling, with a door-to-door campaign for signatures and fliers informing people about the program’s impact.

Several parents also asked whether the ruling would force their children to transfer back into the public school system before the end of the school year.

“If you have not been told by your school principal or school leader to get out, then you’re good,” Lewis said. “The schools may be working things out that we don’t know about.”

Parents should contact their children’s school administrators to get more information, he said.

Amanda Henshaw said her 6-year-old son, Nathaniel Langston, cried when he heard he may have to re-enroll at Independence Elementary School.

“He calls it ‘the bully school,’ ” Henshaw said. “He was bullied there on a daily basis.”

Langston attends Mater Dolorosa Catholic School, also in Independence, where Henshaw said her son is no longer being bullied and is beginning to make friends.

“He makes straight A’s now and hasn’t missed a single day of school,” Langston’s father, Benjamin Langston, said. “He was threatened with failing last year because he missed so much, but now he’s doing great.”

Michael Lemane said he also removed his daughter from Independence Elementary School in favor of Mater Dolorosa after a fight among parents broke out at his daughter’s kindergarten graduation.

“My impression is that the school is trying to do good things, but their hands are tied, their resources limited,” Lemane said.

Ungie Powell said her daughter, who has learning disabilities, was not receiving the resources she needed in public school.

“She was on accommodation, but I never saw any accommodating being done,” Powell said. “She had F’s before, but she’s doing great now.”

Wanda Carter said she paid out-of-pocket for her youngest child to attend pre-kindergarten at a private school where her older child has enrolled.

“And she’s actually reading words,” Carter said. “In public school, all they ever did in kindergarten was paint and draw all day.”

Comments

1) Comment by coachblades - 06/12/2012

Mlemane you are right. Our hands are tied. We cant discipline kids because they have state and federal laws protecting them. Our "evil" unions have lobbied BESE and legislators to remove some of the laws inhibiting student discipline. Neither group will listen because many on our BESE board WANT public schools to fail so that private schools and private online schools can swoop in and rescue the students from the evil public system. I personally could care less if we have a voucher system. My only problem is the lack of accountability at private schools. There is zero accountability for the curriculum and methods of teaching in private schools. TommyRucker wants to say public schools dont want accountability. ***** We have had accountability for years. Standardized test, professional development weekly, observation after observation after observation, student surveys, parent surveys, lesson plans, degrees, certification. All are accountability measures required of public schools. Private schools....NONE. Private schools have total freedom over everything including who they let enter their school. Children with discipline history, bad grades, bad test score, bad reputations. We are forced to not only take them in but make them perform academically as well. Private schools can just say...sorry we arent accepting you. I get kids every week from "great" private schools who are far behind my own students. They come to me and say..."but i was on honor roll at Oak forest, silliman, ASC, Parklane, holy ghost, St. Thomas" Just make sure your child is having REAL success not just miraculous improvements that may look good now under the veil of private schools that can determine their own standards but later may turn out to be a "holy cow maybe that private school was just fooling me the whole time"

2) Comment by mlemane - 06/12/2012

I see truth in both of the last two commentors. Good teachers aren't paid enough while bad teachers happily fall under the "You get what you paid for" category. It's truly a horrible problem. Society is full of bad parents who want the school to lead, schools are limited with discipline thanks to lawyers, and all the big money alloted education is sqwandered away into waste by school boards whose members arent educators. I say, if your money isn't producing good results in the public system, let the private system have it. How many kids on bad tracks, given this opportunity might escape the traps of violence and stupidity. A scholarship now is certainly cheaper than incarceration later. Of all the mistakes that state government can make, I believe this program is good and should stand until public schools pick themselves up and find their pace that produces better students.

3) Comment by coachblades - 06/12/2012

Really Tommyrucker. You say all we want is more money for the teachers. get your facts straight. We teachers havnt had a raise in years. no state raises, no district raises, no step raises. If your going to get on here and spew rhetoric please try and make it semi true

4) Comment by TommyRucker - 06/12/2012

MODERN PUBLIC SCHOOL ARE EXPENSIVE BABY SITTING INSTITUTIONS WHERE THE 'TEACHERS' DEMAND MORE AND DO LESS AND LESS WHILE THEY CONTINUE TO TREAT THE KIDS AS A COMMODITY TO BE USED TO GET MORE MONEY FOR THE SYSTEM. IF THEY REALLY CARED ABOUT THESE KIDS, THEY WOULD SUPPORT THE VOUCHER SYSTEM AS MAYBE IT WOULD LOWER THE NUMBER OF KIDS IN EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOM AND ALLOW THE TEACHERS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO ACTUALLY DO WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING-TEACH, BUT THEN THEY MAY HAVE TO ACTUALLY WORK AND BE ACCOUNTABLE WHICH IS TOTALLY AGAINST MODERN UNION PRINCIPLES AND VALUES. WHY ARE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SO AFRAID TO COMPETE WITH THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS FOR STUDENTS??? ARE THEY REALLY ADMITTING BY THIS ACTION THAT THEY ARE SO BAD THAT THEY CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE COURT SYSTEM PERSERVING THEM? IF THAT IS THE CASE, WE ARE IN A LOT WORSE SHAPE THAN MANY PEOPLE REALIZE OR CARE TO ADMIT AND EVENTUALLY THE PRESENT PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM WILL DIE BECAUSE EVEN THE COURTS CANNOT FORCE A DESTRUCTIVE SYSTEM ON THE PEOPLE FOREVER.

5) Comment by TommyRucker - 06/12/2012

These parents are poor and cannot afford to send their children to private schools but they LOVE their children and desire an opportunity to help their children who are OBVIOUSLY being abused, used and neglected and treated like cattle in the pubic school system. We see being against the voucher system for SELFISH reasons as there are hundreds are examples where taxpayer money goes into private institutions or business etc. and these partnerships have been around for decades. They have served society well. The public school 'champions' have failed to do what they were supposed to do and now they are increasing their political power to hold on to their MONEY and get more as they know they failed the children as they have put themselves FIRST and treat these kids like pieces of meat, warehouse them, etc. public today are at the best massive baby sitting centers with highly paid guards and care takers. If these judges had to send their children to some of these public school, if they were in the economic condition of some of these poor people, they would think twice about denying these poor people who only want their children educated in peace by teachers who look at teaching as a vocation and not some sort of a professional care taking job where as little work as possible is done and there is NO accountability while still demanding big benefits and a guarantee job for life.

6) Comment by TommyRucker - 06/12/2012

The problem is a terrible public school system that has been terrible for a long time and the only solutions offered by the teachers and administrators has been MORE MONEY for the teachers, etc. It is ashamed that the courts don't see that these children are being denied a good education in PEACE and are cowing down to the agenda of the unions and the democratic party mob who want to use the children to make money for the adults running the public school system in a way they use children to make money in the welfare system. These poor parents and their children are being denied the opportunity to obtain an education in PEACE and it is all because of politics and union greed. These judges and the people who are trying to kill this voucher program are going to have to answer for their abusing of these innocent children one day. These judges need to send their children to the public schools so they can see the mess they are forcing these children into. The public school system is going more harm than good these days but will not change as it has been given lots of money and decades to change and it refuses to do nothing but serve the pocketbooks of the teachers and the administrators in the system.

7) Comment by mlemane - 06/12/2012

I'm so thankful to be given a chance to further comment on my quote from last night. Let me just say that if I had the confidence that public schools could properly manage the money that this program utilizes and yield an equal or better result, I would be in favor of getting rid of what would then be perceived as an obsolete program. However, that isn't the case. I'll take results over no results any day. All these comments come across like government and public schools are well oiled machines that run perfectly and it's offensive to take money away from their obvious sucessful track record (sarcasm). This program is so packed with successful student stories it's obscene to me for anyone to want to backslide any student's accomplishments. I would say that if private schools are so successful that everyone wants in, public schools and their school boards should find ways to mimic the private school success instead of disrupting a student's path in the name of the 'where's mine so I can mismanage it' mentality. So let me fill in the blanks that being polite obviously failled to do...and this applies to most public schools whose accomplishments are small...'their hands are tied to poor execution of practice and their resources limited due to mismanagement of assets'.

8) Comment by agagent - 06/12/2012

I favor giving parents more choices of where to send their children to be educated. If parents are not satisfied with their local public school, give them a voucher to send their children elsewhere. The voucher costs the taxpayers less than what we are paying to educate a student in a public school. The competition should spur public schools to improve. We know that many public schools need improving.

9) Comment by Ivy - 06/12/2012

Nice to be able to read why some parents are all for vouchers. I guess until you're in that position, you truly don't know what motivates a person's choice. Problem-solving 101: let the state do it.

10) Comment by cbelse1 - 06/12/2012

“My impression is that the school is trying to do good things, but their hands are tied, their resources limited". . . Their resources are limited and will only SHRINK with programs like this one that syphons the money away from its designated destination. And to the parent whose child wasn't receiving her accommodations: the private school is not required to provide these; if you were dissatisfied with the public school's ability to provide them, you should have pitched a fit to ensure that your child and other children were getting what is required for them by law.