Governor Jeff Landry expects Louisiana will continue to rise in the national rankings for K-12 public education. According to the latest U.S. News and World Report, Louisiana ranks 40th. Landry says reforms and approved in the last regular session will lead to a higher ranking.
“We are going to improve our educational ranking in the United States in two years because of a lot of the things we just did,” he explains. “I will guarantee you that, that we’ll be in the thirties in three years.”
Landry says the state is putting policies in place that puts the parents in charge of a child’s education. The governor says the best example of that is the Louisiana Gator Program, which will replace the state’s current voucher program. He says Louisiana Gator will expand over time allowing more students of all income levels to use taxpayer dollars to attend the school of their choice.
“It is immoral to have children stuck in failing schools in the state because of the zip code that’s attached to their mailing address,” he says.
Landry is also excited about the state’s Let Teachers Teach imitative. He thanks to new laws approved by the legislature and finalized by BESE, teachers will no longer be subjected state-mandated training on issues that do not need to be addressed every and teachers are also getting more freedom over lesson plans.
“We are going to make sure that our teachers in this state are happy and are not forced to be social workers,” he says.
