What Will “School Choice” Look Like in Louisiana?
By: Briley Wilkerson, Louisiana State University Student & Louisiana Progress College Fellow
Louisiana has long been at the bottom of education rankings in the United States. The new administration, headed by former attorney general and now Governor, Jeff Landry, has promised sweeping education reform in the name of “universal school choice.” With a Republican supermajority in the state legislature and support from the governing Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), it is likely he will get his wish. With that being said, what will the implications of “school choice” be in Louisiana?
One of the proposed laws, House Bill 745, will create an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that will eventually be open to all students in Louisiana. If passed, HB745, known as the LA GATOR scholarship program, would be the 14th program of its kind in the nation. However, there are several questions about the program that can’t be overlooked.
First, Louisiana already has a form of school choice. In 2012, former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal passed a much more limited school voucher program, which applies to students who are stuck in failing public schools. Parents can also claim a tax credit of up to $6000 per student.. Altogether, Louisiana already spends about $45 million per year on its existing voucher program.
The LA GATOR program, on the other hand, will eventually be universal, meaning any student could receive the voucher. As a result, the cost to the state will be significant, especially since Louisiana has one of the highest private school attendance rates in the nation. This is immensely problematic considering Louisiana is already projected to be in a near $700 million deficit next fiscal year. Before a similar program passed in Arizona, it was estimated it would cost about $64 million per year. In reality, the cost is exceeding $900 million per year and contributed to a large budget deficit in the state. If universal school choice is passed in Louisiana, it will almost certainly exacerbate an already massive budget deficit and will result in cuts to public services.
Passing the universal school choice bill is also likely to result in unintended consequences. One of these is a program that overwhelmingly benefits students that already attend private school. In New Hampshire, 89% of the recipients of a similar voucher program were already attending private schools prior to the implementation of the universal school choice program. In Arizona that number was 75%, and in Wisconsin it was over 76%. In Indiana, recent data has revealed that almost a third of students who receive school choice benefits came from a household making $100,000 or more per year. Evidence clearly suggests that a universal school choice program would mean taxpayer money originally intended for public education would now subsidize private school tuition for a large majority of students who already attend those schools.
Prominent proponents of school choice in Louisiana, such as superintendent Cade Brumley and Governor Jeff Landry, argue that parents should be in the driver’s seats of their children’s education. This notion is logically unsound because private schools can choose who they enroll. The proposed bill makes it clear that private schools will maintain complete autonomy over their admissions process, which means private schools do not have to accommodate students with disabilities or learning disadvantages like public schools do. This leaves children with disabilities or learning disadvantages on an uneven playing field. This complete autonomy also means that private schools will not have the same accountability measures as public schools.
Although HB745 would require yearly testing of students, the school would have the freedom to choose the test. As a result, there would be no clear way to gauge a student’s proficiency based off of statewide standardized tests. Also, in the current school choice program, private schools stop receiving voucher funding if they get a failing grade two years in a row. In HB745, the language is vague, stating funding would stop when a school shows a “persistent lack of academic competence.” Overall, this program creates a lack of accountability in an already flawed school system.
The amount per student account would be about $5000, and subsidizing demand in a competitive market usually leads to higher prices. This can be observed in many higher education institutions over the past 40 years. Because there is nothing preventing private schools from raising tuition rates and demand will be subsidized, students with lower socioeconomic status may be unable to access many schools. For instance, studies show that school choice increases racial segregation even when parents do not care about race. This contradicts the stated goals of school choice advocates around Louisiana.
Existing evidence suggests establishing a separate school system on the back of a structure originally intended for public schools would not benefit Louisianians and their children. The negative implications of a school choice program, such as the high cost, public schools losing money, and lack of oversight, outweigh the potential benefits. With such an expensive reform, Louisiana will be left without the money to address existing problems in the state’s education system. Additionally, the proposed reform would further limit the market of opportunity for disadvantaged children in a state where 70% of students are already impoverished. Instead of this flawed approach, legislators should look at other solutions to improve our state’s education system, like raising teacher pay to the regional average, fully funding early childhood education, and making sure disadvantaged children have access to nutritious food.
