(The Center Square) − Supporters of expanding Louisiana’s school voucher program defended their position on Tuesday as critics continued questioning the cost.
LA GATOR sends public education dollars to eligible students who want to attend private schools or be homeschooled. It pays for tuition, tutoring, education materials and more. Those advocating for an expansion include the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank that addressed the issue during the organization’s summit in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.
“A piece of legislation, a law with no action, is really just an empty promise,” Erin Bendily, senior vice president of the Institute, said. “We have to put action behind that and provide real opportunities for our kids.”
The Institute has worked closely with Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration to implement and promote LA GATOR. Its new poll suggests voters in the state who are familiar with the voucher program largely support it, even as top lawmakers continue to question whether it can be sustained financially.
The poll was conducted by Cor Strategies and those surveyed were split evenly between parties, with 38% identifying as Republican, 35% as Democrat and 27% as independent.
According to the survey, 61% of voters who know about the LA GATOR program view it favorably, while 65% saying Landry and the legislature should seek to fully fund the roughly 40,000 applicants. The $43 million approved last year funded around 1,000 applicants.
Former GOP state Rep. Julie Emerson, who now serves as Landry’s chief of staff, framed LA GATOR as giving parents more control over how state education dollars are used.
“It’s this basic principle of your tax dollars that you send to the government to educate your child, and we want you to have more flexibility in how those dollars are spent,” Emerson said. “You’re all sending your tax dollars to Baton Rouge, and you all want your child to be educated the best way that you see fit, and you would like to see those dollars follow your child into that education situation of choice, because every child learns differently.”
But the program faces skepticism in the state Senate, where Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, has raised repeated concerns about its funding and oversight.
In a recent interview with The Center Square, Henry said “GATOR as a whole just needs to be scrapped.” He argued the program’s cost could double each year and questioned whether the state can manage its structure and spending.
Last year the Senate reduced Landry’s $100 million request by around half, an effort that was led in part by Henry. He has made clear that his opposition to the program is unchanged and that he has no intention of approving the governor’s request for more funding.
Landry has recommended adding $44.2 million to the program on top of its existing $43.5 million allocation, which would bring total funding to nearly $88 million.
Henry has said he would favor narrowing the program to focus on students leaving failing schools for higher-performing schools, and eliminating funding for what he described as supplemental services.
“Giving them the ability to buy school supplies online is not a priority right now,” Henry said. “It’s very convoluted how the money flows, and no one really seems to be able to answer the question.”
Asked about potential “roadblocks” to the program, Emerson did not directly address Henry’s role in limiting past funding.
Supporters remain confident the state has the money for the program and that the increased funding would lessen the state’s contribution to the Minimum Foundation Program, the state’s main public school funding formula that sends per-pupil dollars to K-12 school systems each year.
