re: House Bill 745 - State Grants for private school tuition, what are your local thoughts?

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I think if they want to help out people who send their kids to private over public, then they should just give the parents who do that a tax credit for a portion of tuition costs every year. Wouldn't this be a much easier solution? That's how it works with graduate school, I believe it was something like a tax credit for 25% of tuition costs on the year, up to 10k.

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They already give a tax deduction for up to $5K, I beleive, in tuition per child. Not as valuable as a credit but it is something.

Also a credit is no different than spending. Less money coming in is no different than spending more money, end up in the same net result.

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It will basically Section 8 some private schools.

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We are basically already there in the city of New Orleans with respect to the current voucher program and some Catholic schools.

There are some Catholic schools in the city where 90% plus of students get a voucher.

If mine weren’t at Pius they’d probably be at Ascension.

There’s Cecilia in Broussard too

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Not an LA resident but if I were I’d have voted no for this. Sounds good in theory, but in practice the private schools will just raise there prices to match and you’ll see no change.

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That's the thing, we don't get to vote on this. Lawmakers are making the laws and the public input is just a dog and pony show.

Rounding the numbers, the state spends $10k per public school student, zero on private. In theory, under the GATOR plan the state will save $5k per student that switches. Unfortunately the numbers don't work at all. Based on Arizona's similar program, only 4% of students switched. The amount the state will save by students switching to private school is a fraction of the cost of ESAs for the 100,000 currently receiving $0 from the state.



And this is the projected PER YEAR cost starting in 2028 once all non-public school students are eligible.

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I hate it. It will only drive tuition up in the private schools and the same kids will be attending. Why don’t we fix the problem we have with public schools using this money? Reduce the number of administration positions, empower the teachers to discipline students in the class, kick kids out if they are disciplinary problems, and hold parents accountable for students being shite heads.

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Because public school systems have had many many many chances to do this. They continually choose to not.

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If the parent’s child is attending that school they are already.

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Sure, but if my child is in EBR and wants to attend a Livingston Parish school, then the funding show follow the student to Livingston Parish. I am not sure why only private schools should benefit from this concept. That is what competition is all about.

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huge new spending program for the state of Louisiana.. to the tune of $500M a year in NEW spending once the restrictions are lifted.

No one is talking about how this will be paid for.

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They are talking about how they have no idea how this will be paid for...but if you take an example from previous playbooks: get it passed and funded for one year, then it's political suicide for anyone to claw it back down the road and the state is forced to cut other things or raise taxes to deal with it.

We know public schools can be better, but this is shooting them in both feet. Private schools will see this as a free $5k tuition pay bump that they do not have to worry about. It's going to make the schools even more unaffordable for people like me who have to consider private school as mandatory for my family.

A tax credit would've been much better and more impactful for the community. Instead, you're making a failing system even worse than it already is, while making middle class families suffer even more.

This will crush poor communities immensely because the funding that they would've received is being diverted from them.

I'll take a little money for his tuition, but not too much. I pay the money to keep my kid away from all that cultcha. Don't want that garbage infiltrating our private schools.