Expanded school choice runs into obstacles
An expansion of Louisiana’s school voucher program pushed by Gov. Jeff Landry and voucher advocates is meeting resistance in the state Legislature again this year.
Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said Friday he remains skeptical of spending more taxpayer dollars on the state’s LA GATOR program, warning that lawmakers should take a “good look” at how money flows through the system.
“I think GATOR as a whole just needs to be scrapped and you need to come up with a different system to help these kids out,” Henry told The Center Square.
Louisiana’s voucher program, similar to those passed in other Republican-led states in recent years, sends public education dollars to eligible students who want to attend private schools or be homeschooled. It pays for tuition, tutoring, education materials and more.
In a Friday hearing at the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, Henry raised concerns about the program’s funding and oversight. Similar concerns led the Senate last year to scale back Gov. Jeff Landry’s $100 million request to $50 million.
Landry’s budget recommendation for the upcoming fiscal year includes $44.2 million for LA GATOR in addition to the program’s existing $43.5 million, bringing the total to nearly $88 million.
Henry said he would favor narrowing the program to focus on students leaving failing schools for higher-performing schools, and eliminating funding for what he described as supplemental services.
“Giving them the ability to buy school supplies online is not a priority right now,” Henry said. “It’s very convoluted how the money flows, and no one really seems to be able to answer the question.”
The program is administered by the third-party contractor Odyssey, which secured a $2 million state contract in June. Odyssey operates the online portal parents use to access and spend LA GATOR funds, a system Henry argues the Legislature should have more control over.
Prior to Odyssey’s contract, Cade Brumley, the state’s education superintendent, had said the program “is a much broader sense of educational freedom than a simple voucher.” Brumley said the intent was to provide families with “an array of services” so those costs could be deducted from the overall cost to attend a non-public school.
“As the state agency responsible for administering LA GATOR, we will continue to operate this program in alignment with state law,” the state education department told The Center Square.
School choice advocates welcomed Landry’s proposed increase, saying it could help address long waitlists and unmet demand. Erin Bendily, senior vice president of the conservative Pelican Institute for Public Policy, said the additional funding would nearly double the size of the program.
Last year, nearly 40,000 families applied for LA GATOR but fewer than 1,000 new students received awards, according to the Pelican Institute.
Much of the program’s initial $43.5 million appropriation was used to cover more than 5,000 students from a prior voucher program, leaving only a small number of new slots available.
“Families have made it clear that they want these options for their children, and we certainly hope the legislature will retain this amount of funding in the budget,” Bendily said.
Bendily pushed back on criticism of the purchasing portal, saying it operates under a state contract authorized and funded by the Legislature and is subject to oversight.
She said the portal is not limited to supplies or tutoring and that it provides access to hundreds of academic and elective courses, including offerings from Louisiana colleges, universities and industry-based training providers.