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Despite lofty promises, Louisiana’s private-school vouchers fall short

Vouchers don’t help poor kids-they hurt them, in Louisiana and everywhere else. As Diane Ravitch explains, “Remember the claim that vouchers would ‘save poor kids from failing public schools’? As we see in state after state, it’s not true. Josh Cowen wrote in his new book The Privateers that voucher researchers have known for years that vouchers don’t help poor kids; in reality, vouchers actually hurt poor kids. The poor kids don’t go to elite private schools; they mostly go to religious schools with uncertified teachers. The greatest benefit of vouchers goes to wealthy kids, who use the...
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Senate Action Alert

Voucher bills are headed to the floor of the Senate this week-contact your Senator and urge them to vote NO on SB 87 and SB 75. SB 87 is an expansion of the current tax credit “scholarship” voucher program that was further expanded in committee by Rep. Adam Thomas who added provisions to increase the current cap from $10 million to $15 million and expanded the overall maximum to $25 million annually. The bill also expands the tax credit to 100% which means “donors” are mere tax evaders, and it’s the rest of us who actually foot the...
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House Action Alert

We’ve reached the part of the session where bills go to the floor. Please contact your Representative in the House and urge them to increase the funding for SPED in HB 2007, the budget bill. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to slash additional SPED funding from the $30 million that came out of a bipartisan vote in the K-12 Education Budget Committee. (Recall the Governor and State Board of Education have recommended around 5 years of $72 million annual increases to make up for the current shortfall, and the legislature funded the first $72 last year.)...
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