Louisiana Legislature budget plan nixes school choice expansion

Thousands of Louisiana students will have to wait for school choice scholarships if the state Legislature’s budget becomes law.

The $49 billion spending plan, which passed by a wide margin Thursday, the final day of the session, includes $50 million for the state’s new LA GATOR school choice program, well short of Gov. Jeff Landry’s requested $93.5 million.

Lawmakers in the Senate said they had only agreed to $50 million – enough to cover those already using school choice, but not to expand the program. 

The state is replacing its former private school scholarship initiative with GATOR, which stands for Giving All True Opportunity to Rise, beginning this fall. 

Nearly 40,000 students applied for what was expected to be 12,000 scholarships this year, but that number will now be cut in half. 

“Because the Legislature refused to fund LA GATOR, these children will continue to wait,” Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute, said in a statement. “I’m heartbroken for the tens of thousands of families who raised their hands to ask for another option. We will not give up on them, even if the Legislature failed them today.” 

Club for Growth, a national supporter of school choice, went further. 

“The so-called ‘Republicans’ who gutted this program are in for a rude awakening when voters hold them accountable for siding with liberal special interests over parents and students,” club President David McIntosh said in a release, which noted successful primaries of 14 Republicans who opposed school choice in the last election cycle. 

Instead of funding school choice, lawmakers directed $30 million to a public school tutoring program that has been credited with helping improve the state’s national reading assessment scores. 

Another portion of the funds Landry requested – $18 million – will go toward boosting payments to sheriffs who house state prisoners in parish jails, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. 

The budget now heads to Landry, a Republican, who can sign it, veto it, or use his line-item veto authority to strike specific provisions. Any vetoes could face override by the Legislature, which strongly supported the budget in Thursday’s vote.