Governor Landry pushes for use of public funds for private or home schools

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Thursday the governor held town hall meetings in Metairie and Mandeville to try and drum up support for HB 745 and SB 313, bills which would lay the groundwork for Education Savings Accounts in Louisiana. “It's not the panacea to fixing our educational system,” he said, “but it is a first step.”

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Many advocacy groups have expressed concern that the money could be diverted from funding that would otherwise go to public schools. Jan Moller, Executive Director of Baton Rouge-based think tank Invest in Louisiana, said he worries that public funds would be used for private schools that do not have the same transparency or testing requirements as public schools. “The public needs to know how their dollars are being spent, what results we're getting for those dollars,” he said.

He also noted that with a significant sales tax ending in 2025, the state is heading for a “fiscal cliff,” and to fund LA GATOR “you either have to raise that much money in taxes, and I don't think any politician wants to raise taxes, or you have to cut it from somewhere else in the budget,” like public schools.

Governor Landry said Thursday that the program would cost about $1.8 million to create, then at least tens of millions more to fully implement depending on how many families opted in. The bills provide for the program to be rolled out slowly, starting with students with special needs and low-income families and eventually becoming available to all families in the state.

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