Ramifications of voucher rulings could be far-reaching

The state will appeal two recent court rulings—one in Baton Rouge, one in New Orleans—that went against the state’s private school voucher program. In the meantime, advocates on both sides are speculating about possible precedents stemming from the decisions. Baton Rouge District Court Judge Tim Kelley on Nov. 30 agreed with teachers unions and school boards that money allocated through the state’s minimum foundation program is constitutionally guaranteed to public schools and can’t be spent on private school vouchers. Attorney Jimmy Faircloth, who argued the state’s case, says Kelley’s ruling, if allowed to stand, could threaten BESE’s traditional discretion over the MFP formula. “What the court has done is basically give local districts ownership of the formula rather than the product of the formula,” he says. “The next challenge could be that they don’t like the weighting,” he adds, referring to the factors that go into creating the formula. A federal judge based in New Orleans has said the voucher program conflicts with a decades-old desegregation case in Tangipahoa Parish. Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association, says it’s conceivable that the ruling could impact the 30 or so school districts statewide that have some sort of active desegregation litigation. “It’s my assumption,” he says, “that it could possibly get the feds to take a closer look at what’s happening in all of those districts.” —David Jacobs