School choice groups are accusing Gov. John Bel Edwards, D-La., of breaking his promise not to cut the Louisiana Scholarship Program, which gives low-income students a scholarship toward private school tuition.
The American Federation for Children has launched JohnBelFailedUs.com, which includes videos of parent and student testimonials in support of the scholarship program. “He lied to me,” one parent says in a video. “He lied to my child.”
The current budget for the program is $42 million, but Edwards proposes to cut that to $36 million. It’s unclear if the cut would restrict eligibility, by pushing 1,000 children out of the program, or reduce the level of funding per scholarship. According to the Louisiana Federation for Children, the program would need to be funded at $47 million for every eligible family that wants a scholarship to get one.
Edwards pushed back against the ad campaign Tuesday, claiming that every student who currently gets a scholarship will still get one. “This ad is a blatant attempt to leverage Bobby Jindal’s budget crisis for political gain,” Edwards said. “People who purposefully mislead the public about issues as important as our kids’ education have absolutely no place at the table. I’m working for solutions, and I won’t be distracted from the fight to save our education system.”
Edwards claims the proposed $6 million cut came from the Department of Education. But Louisiana Superintendent John White says, “I would never have proposed this cut to this program.” The cut would be a 14 percent reduction in funding for the private scholarships, while Edwards has proposed to cut the traditional public school budget by only 1 percent.
The state actually saves money for each student in the program. The scholarship value is capped at no more than 90 percent of the total state and local funding in the student’s district. When private school tuition is below that amount, the scholarship only covers tuition. So when a student leaves traditional public schools through the scholarship program, the state saves money.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
