On Nov. 21, Louisianans elected West Point graduate and state legislator John Bel Edwards as governor, the first Democratic to win statewide office there since 2008. Edwards is a critic of charter schools and the statewide voucher program, a stance that helped him earn an endorsement from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. This is a marked departure from the policies of his predecessor Gov. Bobby Jindal, a two-term Republican who put Louisiana on the national school choice map.
While Democrats across the country see Edwards’ victory as a hopeful sign for the 2016 presidential election, school choice advocates are rightfully concerned about the future of choice in the Pelican State.
Regardless of the election’s results, Jindal’s tenure created some lasting policies that will make completely thwarting parental choice efforts in Louisiana a herculean feat. Here are a few things Pelican State voters, parents, educators, and elected officials should keep in mind as Edwards begins to design an education agenda for when he assumes office on Jan. 11.
Private school choice programs are tough to unhinge. Louisiana parents have received public funds to pay for private, mostly Catholic school education for over half a decade. Currently, Louisiana is one of four states (the others being Arizona, Ohio and Wisconsin) with at least four private parental choice programs on the books.
Louisiana’s four programs offer several options for families: The Elementary and Secondary School Tuition Deduction program is the largest of the four. The legislature created it in 2008 and at least 106,549 parents deducted educational expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks and uniforms in 2012. The Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program was enacted in 2008 for low-income students enrolled in low-performing public schools in New Orleans. In 2012, the legislature renamed it the Louisiana Scholarship Program and expanded it statewide.
The School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities began in 2010 to support students with an Individualized Education Plan. The Tuition Donation Rebate Program was created in 2012 and offers tax relief to individuals who give money to a student tuition organization, which in turn awards a scholarship to low-income students.
Louisiana is unique among the four states because it enacted all its choice programs between 2008 and 2015 (the others began in the 1990s) and its programs benefit the most families (approximately 114,000 combined). While student achievement data about the effectiveness of the programs are mixed, parental satisfaction remains high. For many families, private school choice has opened new doors of opportunity for their children. And now that racially diverse, low- and middle-class parents are accustomed to having these four options, it will be tough politically for a new governor to take them away.
Parental choice through charter schools is also here to stay. Louisiana enacted a charter school law in 1995, and approximately 60,000 students statewide attended a charter school in 2014-15. New Orleans has the largest charter school market in the U.S., with 93 percent of its students enrolled in charter schools. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Louisiana’s charter law is ranked second out of 43 laws nationwide.
What accounts for this? According to the alliance, “Louisiana’s law does not cap public charter school growth, includes multiple authorizers, provides a fair amount of autonomy and accountability, and provides relatively equitable operational and categorical funding to charters.” And voters elected a reform-focused majority to the state board of education in 2015.
At the same time, then-Rep. Edwards sponsored House Bill 21, which would prohibit the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from approving a charter school located in a school district rated “A” or “B,” but would allow the state board to convert a preexisting public school into a charter school if it received a “F” letter grade. Whether the bill is considered an accountability measure or an anti-reform initiative is in the eye of the beholder. But if Gov.-elect Edwards thinks of curtailing the charter movement, he should look at what happened to New York City Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio when he tried to curtail the growth of charter schools in the nation’s largest public school district. As I have covered previously, an estimated 18,500 families, children, educators and charter school employees gathered in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn in October to rally in support of charter schools.
So the election of a Democratic governor does not necessarily mean the end of parental choice. The election of Janet Napolitano in 2003 as the second Democratic governor of Arizona since 1988 did not result in the abolishment of the state’s tax credit program. In fact, Napolitano expanded it.
Likewise, when Wisconsin voters elected Democrat Jim Doyle as governor in 2004, it was seen as a “signal” to teacher unions that the end of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was near. However, Doyle signed a law in 2006 that raised the program’s student enrollment cap from 15,000 to 22,500. In 2007, Ohio voters elected Ted Strickland as governor, making him the second Democrat to hold the office since the mid-1980s. During Strickland’s term, student enrollment in Ohio’s Autism Scholarship Program increased from 734 to 1,978 students and enrollment in the Education Choice Scholarship Program expanded from 3,169 to 13,733 students.
Regarding charter schools, there was some growth during the tenure of each Democratic governor. In the end, parental choice programs did not close their doors when states shifted from Republicans to Democrats.
School choice programs are different than other reform fads because they engender deep buy-in from parents and create unique coalitions. Once these programs build up these constituencies, even when the political winds change, existing programs are likely to be preserved.
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