In what may have been the apex of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s power and influence over the Legislature, his team pressed nonstop to push through a far-reaching package of education bills in the first three weeks of this year’s session, which is considered warp speed at the Capitol. The centerpiece of those laws, establishing a statewide voucher program by which over 5,000 public school students are having their tuition paid to attend private and church schools, faces challenges in state and federal courts. A ruling handed down this week does not bode well for Jindal’s new order for education, while it might also change the course of schooling, again, for many of those 5,000 children. Trial is scheduled to start on Wednesday in state district court in Baton Rouge on a lawsuit brought by two major teachers unions and 43 local school boards, which are challenging the constitutionality of how the vouchers are funded and how the law was passed. And earlier this week, the voucher law was dealt a heavy blow when a federal judge ruled that it, along with a law revamping teacher tenure, conflicts with his school desegregation order in Tangipahoa Parish. While his ruling affects only one parish, dozens of other school districts under desegregation orders in Louisiana could be on their way to federal court soon to raise the same point. Read the full column here.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
