The Louisiana Legislature passed the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (LA GATOR) program through Senate Bill (SB) 313, heading to the governor’s desk for signature.
SB 313 creates the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (LA GATOR) Scholarship Program to provide educational savings accounts for parental choice in K-12 education. The ESAs could be used for tuition to attend the school of a student’s/parents’ choice (although students would have to be accepted by the school of choice). They could also be used for educational expenses and services such as fees, tutoring, textbooks, educational software, and special education services.
The LA GATOR program will initially be created in phases and eventually open to all school-aged children.
There are some concerns about whether the LA GATOR ESAs would truly be accessible to ALL, as promoted for the program and indicated in the program’s name.
An ESA for a student would have a specific amount of money put into it. Although no amounts have been determined yet (nor has funding been provided yet), for this example, let’s use $6,000 annually for regular education students and $12,000 annually for special education students.
If a student/parent decides on ABC Private School for their regular-ed child and the tuition is $8,000 a year, the parents would need to pay the difference. Although paying the difference between the ESA amount and the actual tuition amount should be understood, nothing found has stated a parent may be faced with paying a difference in tuition for their school of choice for their child. Would the possibility of paying the difference between the student’s ESA and the actual tuition for the school of choice be advised upfront to parents before they consider or work to move their child to a school outside the public school system?
A parent having to pay the difference in tuition could prevent some students from benefiting from the “Louisiana Giving ‘ALL’ True Opportunity to Rise.”
It is understood that provisions may have been made for students receiving special education services. Many private schools do not provide special education (SPED) services; for those that do provide (SPED), it may be for students with milder disabilities. For students with more significant disabilities, would a private school even accept and be able to provide for those students?
SPED students may be prevented from benefiting from the “Louisiana Giving ‘ALL’ True Opportunity to Rise.”
For any regular or special education student who cannot afford the difference in tuition or who is not accepted into the school of choice, they would remain in public school.
In the above scenarios, students may not have the option of the school of choice and, therefore, would not benefit from the “Louisiana Giving ‘ALL’ True Opportunity to Rise” as touted for the program.
Should public funds be allocated to private education? For comparison, should public funds for police protection be used for private resident protection?
