The Monroe (La.) Daily News Star has in recent weeks been putting the screws to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his plan to give public tax dollars to private schools.
Jindal's voucher scheme, the Minimum Foundation Program, would give parents the option of sending their kids to a private school participating in the program, paying for the private school tuition with taxpayers' money.
Needless to say, every church running a small-time pseudo-school in the state saw dollar signs and rushed to sign up for the free tax money Jindal and State Superintendent of Schools John White were planning to give away.
Unfortunately for them, the folks at the Monroe newspaper were watching. New Living Word School in Ruston, a town 32 miles west of Monroe, happily signed up for the voucher program and was approved by the state to accept 315 new students. In preparation for the windfall, the school also raised tuition for the upcoming school year to $8,500. Multiplied by 315, the school would earn roughly $2.7 million in taxpayer money for the upcoming school year.
The only problem for the school: it had nowhere near enough teachers, computers, or facilities to remotely accomodate 315 new students (the school had an enrollment of 122 the previous year). The school's principal, Rev. Jerry Baldwin, a failed college football coach at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, told the News-Star that the school was moving forward "on faith."
Turns out, the state approved New Living Word to increase its enrollment by over 258% without even stepping foot on the school's campus.
Whoops.
Combined with stories from other parts of the state, like the school in Beauregard Parish operating in spite of a fire marshal's order to cease-and-desist occupation following a failed inspection or the school in Calcasieu Parish which had been operating without an occupational license, it looked to outsiders like the state was just giving tax money away to any school, without any oversight or personal inspection.
As it also turns out, Superintendent White, who was at this point operating in a temporary capacity, was due for a state Senate confirmation hearing on May 30, five days after the New Living Word story hit the press. All of this kerfuffle looked like it might cause some problems for White's permanent job prospects.
But White had a plan. Follow me over the orange representation of my SAT score to learn more, Louisiana-style.
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