re: Bill would let state pay parents up to $15,000 to send kids to private school

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This is just goint to get government more involved in private schools once they start paying the bills.

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The government shouldn’t be in our schools in any capacity

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because they have to keep all the schools running, not because each child costs them 12k

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the school board has to steal money from somewhere

This is the wording on the state education website:
“The average per pupil expenditure is $12,359.”

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Imagine taking the shite kids from public school and giving them money to go to high achieving private schools. What could go wrong.

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Are admissions standards going away?

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few years ago I heard from a catholic school teacher that their school had started accepting voucher program students. Predictably, a few of those new voucher students weren't exactly the most studious or well behaved kids in the class. Parents who were paying their own tuition got upset and quite a few of them moved their kids to non-voucher catholic schools.

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Since every kid will get the funding (it will follow them), the dynamics will be slightly different. The private school will hike tuition. The parents who send their kids there will be paying a smaller share of their tuition, and there will be no excuse for decent private schools not having enough $$$ to pay for the latest and greatest supplies or offer competitive salaries.

There will be some struggling schools that will not hike tuition and they will draw a lot of public school students. If they aren’t careful they can screw things up.

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dated a girl from the niagara falls, canada area once. I dont know if it was just their school or the whole province but she told me they gave students the option to go either a "university" route where they would take algebra 2, physics, AP courses, etc or a "college/career" route where they would take more hands on/life skill focused classes. I feel like this is a much better system for schools to adopt. Trying to push college on a bunch of kids that dont want to go and have no business going to college is kills any chance at forward momentum academically because of the resources and time youre having to spend to get those lower level kids there.

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We have that in Ga. You have to pass specific classes that have an End of Course test and then you can become an Option B student that is dual enrolled at a trade or technical school after your sophomore year

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How would a private school know where the funds are coming from?

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From what I’ve read about the bill, the schools have to opt into the program.

If that isn’t the case, then I don’t see anything changing

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Parents in Louisiana would receive from $5,000 to $15,000

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I’d love to know the income thresholds they are considering for getting $5k vs getting $15k and everything in between.

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Yeah, I mean, because schools can just “pop up” like, in a few weeks.

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Its not hard to create a private school. There are little private schools all over this state that have like 10 students.

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This could have a positive impact for the good kids that are stuck in public schools but can’t afford private.

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a lot of those go to charter schools

I wonder if their parents would be convinced to put them in private schools

It's not just private school tuition; apparently the funds can be used for nearly anything as long as you can justify some educational benefit. From the bill:

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"Qualified education expenses" means any of the following:

(a) Tuition or fees at a nonpublic school or for nonpublic online learning programs.

(b) Tutoring services provided by an individual or a tutoring facility.

(c) Services contracted for and provided by a public school, including but not limited to individual classes and extracurricular activities and programs.

(d) Curricula and textbooks or other instructional materials, including but not limited to any supplemental materials or online instruction required by a participating school or service provider.

(e) Computer hardware or other technological devices primarily used to help meet a student's educational needs.

(f) Educational software applications.

(g) School uniforms.

(h) Tuition or fees for summer education programs and specialized after school education programs but not after school childcare.

(i) Tuition, fees, instructional materials, and examination fees at a career or technical school.

(j) Fees for Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests, national norm- referenced examinations, Advanced Placement examinations, and examinations related to postsecondary education institution admission.

(k) Educational services and therapies, including but not limited to occupational, behavioral, physical, speech-language, and audiology therapies.

(l) Fees for transportation paid to a fee-for-service transportation provider for the student to travel to and from a service provider.

(m) Parent navigation services.

(n) Any other educational expenses approved by the state board.

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This is from an article discussing a similar program in Arizona:

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During a public hearing last June, state Rep. Kellie Butler, a Democrat, read from a state government website a list of items for which the state had allowed parents to use ESA funds. Among the selections: an inflatable bounce castle, a home freezer, a tonal home exercise gym, a kayak, a San Diego whale watching trip, an in-home tower garden, and a hair dryer for dogs.

“If you have a curriculum that says you need these things, apparently you can get these things,” Butler said.

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However, Arizona’s education department said in a February report that it was concerned parents had not uploaded receipts for more than 17,000 debit card transactions during the last quarter of 2022, meaning the department could not review those ESA transactions. The department said it had receipts for another 100,000 transactions during that period.

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I don't know exactly how similar the LA program would be, but who is going to possibly audit all of these transactions? There will be so much bullshite getting paid for with taxpayer money.

LINK