The Gator Scholarship Program, an expanded use of the school voucher program received final passage in the Senate Thursday. Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin said while passage is a win for the governor, a watered-down version of the original bill is what he’ll have the opportunity to sign.
“The one we started talking about at the beginning of the session was very expansive as well as expensive. And through the course of the entire legislative process here, that’s kind of been whittled down quite a bit,” said Erwin.
Erwin said the Education Savings Account bill still offers opportunities for families to use tax dollars to pay for private school, but the program will be phased in slower than originally intended.
“At first it was going to be a three-year process, one, two, three, and then it was going to be fully implemented. Now we have three phases, and there’s no timeline on the phases so that could go out for quite a long runway,” said Erwin.
In the final version of the legislation, Erwin said the amount of money each family could potentially receive remains to be determined. He believes lawmakers wanted to proceed with caution due to an anticipated budget shortfall in the future.
The program will begin the next school year and Erwin said it will primarily focus on students currently enrolled and eligible for the school voucher program, then open to other students depending on their family’s income level.
Oversight and accountability of the program will fall under the purview of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and determine the mechanics of how the program will work.
“After that they will be doing the oversite and reporting back to the legislature on how’s it working, what’s happening schools in terms of the test scores of the kids,” said Erwin.
