Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In August, I wrote a post about Louisiana’s new school voucher program (Stateside Louisiana: School Vouchers and the Privatization of Public Education) that would use tax dollars earmarked for public education to pay for students’ tuitions to private and religious schools. Last week, State District Judge Tim Kelley “declared the diversion of funds from the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) — the formula under which per pupil public education funds are calculated — to private entities was unconstitutional.” The voucher program is funded by a block-grant program that “Judge Kelley ruled is restricted by the constitution to funding only public schools.”
“Nowhere was it mandated that funds from [the block-grant program]…be provided for an alternative education beyond what the Louisiana education system was set up for,” he [Judge Kelley] wrote. The state can legally fund vouchers, but the funding “must come from some other portion of the general budget,” Judge Kelley said.
The judge, however, did not issue an immediate injunction to stop the voucher program. “The 5,000 students currently receiving vouchers will be able to continue attending their private schools pending an appeal, state officials said.”
Governor Bobby Jindal, a champion of the voucher program, called the ruling “wrong-headed” and “a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education.” He promised to appeal the judge’s ruling. John White, the state superintendent of education, said, “We are optimistic this decision will be reversed.”
According to reports, Judge Kelley’s ruling is not the only challenge Louisiana’s new school voucher program faces. Last week, a federal judge in New Orleans “ruled that the program had the potential to disrupt the region’s court-ordered efforts to desegregate public schools. The federal judge issued a temporary injunction halting the use of vouchers in Tangipahoa Parish over concern that the program was siphoning off state dollars needed to implement the desegregation plan.” There are at least thirty more school districts in the state that are also under desegregation orders. Voucher opponents said they plan to “bring similar federal court cases in those districts.”
The Times-Picayune reported that the voucher “suit was brought by Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT), Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), Louisiana School Boards Association and 43 local school boards.” In addition to the teachers’ unions and school boards, others have also criticized the program because some of the private and religious schools that receive voucher money “focus on so-called Young Earth Creationism over evolution.”
(Note: The Unites States Supreme Court has “affirmed the right of religious institutions to receive taxpayer funds through vouchers, as long as the state itself isn’t advocating a particular faith.”)
Another criticism of the program is that voucher students who attend many of the private and religious schools will not be subjected to the same standardized testing that students in Louisiana’s public schools are.
From my earlier post on the Louisiana school voucher program:
Casey Michel (TPMMuckraker) reported in July that students in every public school in Louisiana are subjected to standardized testing, but “voucher students — who will bring an average of $8,000 in tuition from ‘failing’ public schools to many that are affiliated with religious denominations — will only need to face testing if their new school has taken an average of 10 students per grade, or if the schools have accepted at least 40 voucher students into the grades testing.”
According to Simon[Stephanie Simon, Reuters], there are private schools in Louisiana that have been approved to receive state funds that “use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.” Many of the schools “rely on Pensacola-based A Beka Book curriculum or Bob Jones University Press textbooks to teach their pupils Bible-based ‘facts,’ such as the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster and all sorts of pseudoscience…”
Note: The Louisiana school voucher program not only siphons money away from the state’s public schools to private and religious schools—but also to private businesses and private tutors.
Creationist Textbooks: Darwin Is Wrong Because Loch Ness Monster Is Real
Louisiana Voucher Program Funds Horrible Private Religious Schools With Tax Payer Money
SOURCES
Jindal voucher overhaul unconstitutionally diverts public funds to private schools, judge rules (Times-Picayune)
Louisiana Voucher Program Ruled Unconstitutional (Huffington Post)
Blow Dealt to School Voucher Program (Wall Street Journal)
Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program ruled unconstitutional (Washington Post)
Judge blocks Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature school voucher program (Christian Science Monitor)
Stateside Louisiana: School Vouchers and the Privatization of Public Education (Jonathan Turley)
Nick,
Not all do…. I’ve pretty much have learned to say Fcuk it…… There are some on here that try and control every aspect…. That’s their problem…. Not mine….they have the issues….REBT has been a wonderful tool…..
oh for gods sake:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/12/02/school-encourages-homophobic-humiliation-student-punishment?cmpid=tp-fb
Ay, I love your sense of humor! Too many folks look upon these discussions as life and death. You seem to have the insight that this is not life and death, love and war. It’s just a blog w/ an exchange of opinions, nothing more.
Nick,
Not sure if Genes ever starred in Porn…. But he will give you your facts straight…
Gene, Thanks, it wasn’t explicit but inferred. I like my facts and porn explicit.
I got GI bill money to study computer science, later as a post-grad.
Would it have been refused if my choice had been to study at Notre Dame to become a minister? I believe not.
nick,
If there was no compulsory lower education, such programs wouldn’t be a violation of the Establishment Clause. That should have been apparent in the previous answer when compulsion was mentioned.
It’s a hypothetical, but you did not answer my question. Many countries do not have compulsory education. Some states mandate up to age 16, 17, 18. I currently live in a 18 state but have also lived in 16 and 17 states. But let’s say there was NO compulsory primary education. Would vouchers then be ok w/ you folks as it is w/ higher education? I’m not busting balls here, I’m simply trying to understand.
And what Elaine just said, but that’s a policy position, not a Constitutional issue.
nick,
No. There is an adequate number of public schools to educate our children in elementary, middle, and high schools. There are not, however, enough public colleges and universities to enroll all those who choose to continue their education.
You miss the objection, nick. I’m okay (and I’m pretty sure Elaine is too) with Pell Grants, etc., in higher education whether the school is religious or secular already because it is discretionary. The government does not compel anyone to go to college. The problem is that an analogous transaction in compulsory education for private schools violates the Lemon test when applied to religious schools. The Lemon test is the judicial test for determining whether or not governmental action is a violation of the Establishment Clause. It has three prongs:
1. The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose;
2. The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
3. The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.
Using taxpayer money to pay for compulsory schooling arguably doesn’t violate the the first prong if it is a secular private school. However, paying for religious schooling does violate both the second and third prongs. Failing any one element of the test constitutes an Establish Clause violation.
So, if primary education was not mandated by law then everyone here would be ok w/ vouchers ala Pell Grants, VA, used in higher education?
Elaine,
Apologies for going OT. Guess BKs Obama FDA czar comment got me going on the similarity between religious and corporate control of our nation, 😉
All control of thought is dangerous IMHO. Just as speech suppression also is.
Although al Cajun terrorists who explode chicken gumbo stew sounds nice.
What Elaine said. There is no comparison between the public funding compulsory private lower education and funding discretionary private higher education. The violation of the Lemon test and the Establishment Clause for religious elementary and secondary schooling is practically a given by the very nature of private religious schooling.
BK,
Say it isn’t so.
“This will continue as Obama picked a Monsanto VP and lobbyist, Michael Taylor, as a senior adviser to the FDA. As the Czar of food safety division, Taylor is in charge of all food and farms in the US.”
Why doesn’t Obama just sell it to Monsanto? When dear lord did he do this?
I was preaching here a year ago about a group within the FDA who is responsible for keeping an eye out for microorganisms who damage food production.
They found a new one which study showed caused a nationwide strong increase in miscarriages (50 % total) in first time pregnant heifers.
This was traced to GMO alfalfa. The study was confirmed in several other countries.
They asked for more time to study to define what other effects that the active substance in Roundup caused. The answer from the Secretary of Agriculture. NO, repeat NO.
Did anybody here react. NO, repeat NO. And now you have Monsanto safeguarding our food producition chain. ROTFLOL.
Do you realize what this means for us? Total regulation requiring GMO origin for all foodstuffs sold in the USA. Ten years and we are there.
A nightmare only? Dream on.
Using our government barriers, this will force other countries who wish to sell to our market to conform.
What did Dredd say? 128 corporate groups rule the world. More and more for each day.
Shano, I don’t have the figures but allergies are on the increase. Is nature or the environment change the cause? Is it our foodstuffs? Is it our genes?
Shano,
YES!!!!!
Written before reading contents:
“Note: The Unites States Supreme Court has “affirmed the right of religious institutions to receive taxpayer funds through vouchers, as long as the state itself isn’t advocating a particular faith.”)”
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Take it for what it is worth, but doesn’t the constitution say “…. Congress shall make no law…….as to religion…..”.
Religion is restricted however in the activities that it may do, but not in dogma or worship, etc. That the religion shall be allowed to perform alternatives to public services funded by taxes is not forbidden.
That the Sct says they should be allowed to use taxes is of course ridiculous.
Why? Because it supports that religion, by supporting the ideas promoted for religious reasons. Therefore, this a in clear violation of the separation of state and rellgion.
Who and when was this decision made?
nick,
I don’t think you can compare government grants provided to college students to vouchers that pay student tuition to private and religious elementary, middle, and high schools when children are required by law to attend school until a certain age.
Why siphon away money earmarked for public education to private and religious schools that may be far worse than the public schools?
Elaine,
Wonderful piece… As you’re aware I worked for NEA…. It has been an attack for years…. I agree with the US District Courts ruling more so than the State Court…. It needs to be permanently enjoined…. Thanks for a wonderful, thoughtful piece….
Religious schools already get the benefit of their money coming from tax-free donations to the extent their respective religious authorities support them. They should get not a single other tax benefit; they should get no tax dollars at all. People should not be paying their taxes to support schools that are teaching religion or failing to teach the secular subjects that this country has determined, by elected officials, by policy, and by constitutional process, to be required of its educational system.