State superintendent: No cherry-picking for voucher program

State education superintendent John White says private schools that participate in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed voucher program will not be permitted to turn away qualified students. White says a school might say it has, for example, 10 open slots for voucher students. Students with vouchers will apply to the state, not to the school, he says. “The state then says to the school: These kids [have named you their first preference]. You have 10 slots. You are going to take these children,” White says, adding, “And at that point it is the law that you accept those children.” Skeptics say it is unrealistic to expect private schools to accept poor children with open arms. State Rep. John Bel Edwards, an Amite Democrat who sits on the House education committee, says Louisiana should do what Indiana did, which is require private schools who accept children with taxpayer-subsidized vouchers to submit to all of the same accountability measures as public schools. Edwards says private schools will find ways to cherry-pick students by telling the kids they don’t want that they’re better off in public schools. “The next kid who comes in, who’s 200 pounds and he’s six feet tall and he runs a 4.3 [second] 40 [yard dash], ‘Well come on in son,'” he says. “This notion about open enrollment, don’t believe it for a second.” White and Edwards made their comments as panelists at an education forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Baton Rouge this afternoon. —David Jacobs