As Gov. Bobby Jindal tries again to fund his controversial school voucher program, new test scores indicate that many of the current students educated with public money in private schools are not thriving. Or at
least they aren't yet.
Released
Wednesday, LEAP scores for third- through eighth-graders show only 40
percent of voucher students scored at or above grade level this past
spring. The state average for all students was 69 percent.
....
[Superintendent John] White said the 2013 scores for voucher students were low because of the large influx of students from failing schools.
That's right, Superintendent White, blame the public schools for the less than stellar results of the brilliant plan by you and Governor Jindal to improve education in Louisiana by privatization. I'm not at all surprised at the results. At least some of the voucher schools teach junk science and junk history. What do you expect? Roman Catholic schools do a creditable job of educating children, but it appears that a good many of the new "academies" that sprang into existence when vouchers became available to private schools are not the solution to poor performance by educational institutions in Louisiana.
Public schools have been struggling from cuts in funding from the state since Jindal took office in his first term, and, were it not for the Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that paying for vouchers from public school funds was unconstitutional, the schools would have suffered further as more and more voucher money was siphoned away from their budgets. Keep in mind that private schools can weed out troublesome students and students with challenges, but public schools must accept all who apply.
Why not focus on improving public schools?
"Anytime you start something new, it's going to take some time to
grow," White said. "Nearly two thirds of the kids taking tests in those
schools had only been there six months."
And he pointed out that
the state did take seven schools off the voucher list. "After a period
of time we cannot tolerate failure," he said.
Come now, Mr White, no more excuses for the poor results in the private school voucher program that you and Governor Jindal esteem so highly; take responsibility for the consequences of your grand plan. If the two had their way, the end result would be the gradual destruction of public school systems in the state, and what would replace them? More "academies"?
According to the article, White did not actually take seven schools off the voucher list; he merely stopped them from accepting new voucher students, so, in my book, he is still tolerating failure.
Oh, and lets not forget the earlier glitch in the effort by Jindal and White to provide quality online education by private companies to the students of Louisiana.
When will Jindal and White have gone far enough down the road of poor results to give them a grade of F in educational reform?
