Louisiana's new voucher program gives $$ to religious "schools" without facilities or teachers [View all]

[HiPointDem]

New Living Word School in Ruston has been approved by the Louisiana Department of Education to accept 315 students as part of the state’s scholarship program, but the school doesn’t currently have the facilities, computers or teachers in place to accommodate that many students.

State education officials wouldn’t know that because site visits aren’t a part of the approval process... The school... applied for and was granted approval for an additional 315 students... the largest number of available seats for any single school in the state. The next largest number of available seats at a single school is 214 at The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in Orleans.

According to the school’s application, the cost per student for the next school year will be $8,500, which is $32 less that the state’s maximum allowable reimbursable tuition... If New Living Word meets its goal of 315 new students, it would receive almost $2.7 million in Minimum Foundation Program money for those new students.

Baldwin said students in classes are given primary instruction by watching a DVD, which he calls a “technology teacher,” while a classroom teacher manages the class, reviews homework, answers questions and gives assignments.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20120525/NEWS01/120525022/School-willing-take-315-students-through-vouchers-lacks-building-computers


Louisiana's bold bid to privatize schools

Louisiana is embarking on the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children...Every time a student receives a voucher of either type, his local public school will lose a chunk of state funding.

Of the plans so far put forward, Louisiana's plan is by far the broadest. This month, eligible families, including those with incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applications for vouchers to state-approved private schools. That list includes some of the most prestigious schools in the state... The top schools, however, have just a handful of slots open...As elsewhere, they will be picked in a lottery.

The school willing to accept the most voucher students -- 314 -- is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition. The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, a bunker-like building with no windows or playground, also has plenty of slots open...

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students...Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains "what God made" on each of the six days of creation...

In general, (Superintendant of Education) White said he will leave it to principals to be sure their curriculum covers all subjects kids need and leave it to parents to judge the quality of each private school on the list...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601


What happens when money is channeled into religion? It gives it a bigger power base.

These schools charge tuition, which used to be paid for by parents, and was less than the cost per pupil at public schools. They are now raising tuitions to be comparable to public school cost per pupil so they can get more money. So much for the cost argument.

Do you think the extra money is going to go into the kids?