Voucher ruling leaves some Louisiana Course Choice providers in limbo

While the status of Louisiana’s new student voucher program garnered the majority of attention after the funding mechanism was recently ruled unconstitutional, businesses setting up classes for the implementation of Louisiana Course Choice have also been affected. The funding for the program was also shot down in the Nov. 30 ruling by District Judge Tim Kelley, but BESE moved forward with the program last week when a panel approved 45 providers to teach courses beginning next year. The state Department of Education website has a target date of Jan. 1 to publish its course catalog online. “We’re not going to enter into any contracts, but we’ll put our thoughts together that if it does go through—we’ll have our ducks in a row,” says Patricia Carley, who along with Kay Snowbarger started Reaching Every Teacher earlier this year. The pair just made the deadline with the application process for the course choice program, and now has to put off decisions like spending “a minimum of $10,000 for a learning management system” to teach students online. “It maybe put us behind the curve,” says Carley, who is also the test coordinator at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. “I’m not going to spend money without a signed contract.” If other funding is approved, Carley and Snowbarger plan to offer a variety of high school courses online to students throughout Louisiana. “What won’t be online is, teachers would have to go through intensive courses how to teach online,” Carley says. You can find an overview of the Louisiana Course Choice program here, and a full listing of approved provider participants here.