Will the lack of letter grades for private school rankings kill ESA expansion

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

The devil is in the details in any piece of legislation, and the expansion of the educational savings accounts by the Louisiana Legislature has been put to the discretion of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in Senate Bill 313. As the evaluation system outlined in the bill does not conform to BESE’s letter grade system, the body could plead poverty – and refuse to ever expand the private school scholarship program.

By a vote of 67-29, the Louisiana House last week opted not to adapt their own school voucher proposal from earlier in the legislative session, but to adopt the Senate’s proposal for Educational Savings Account implementation. The bill changed two critical elements from the House’s original proposal. Last Tuesday, May 21, legislators rejected Stonewall GOP Rep. Larry Bagley’s amendment mandating that private schools who receive ESA money receive letter grades based on students’ test scores (similar to the public-school rating system using the LEAP test), which he said would help hold private schools accountable for student performance.

Grading the schools with differing testing methods was considered an unfair comparison with charter and public schools by the legislative majority, yet this decision may not sit well with BESE, who has based its entire rationale for closing failing schools on the letter grade system, earned by competitive examination. That might make BESE reticent to divert public Minimum Foundation Formula funds to expand scholarships for private and parochial school tuition, and it was its “power of the purse” that constituted the second change from the original House legislation.

The Senate bill does not set the grant amounts or any timeline to expand its scope beyond the current recipients of vouchers – the poorest students in failing school districts. Rather, SB313 charges BESE to determine how much tuition money to give parents and at what point, if ever, to make higher-income families eligible.

“We can implement it faster or slower as needed, as appropriated funds allow,” the House co-author of the bill, GOP Rep. Julie Emerson of Carencro, explained. However, while she undoubtedly meant that the changes enable the Legislature to adjust the program based on available funds, BESE has been rendered the real power in SB313.

The state’s school board could direct funds however its members wished, and that is the rub. It could change many of the standards of qualification or not expand the program at all, especially if future budgets do not increase the base funding. BESE has long maintained a greater skepticism to ESA impact on the overall school funding formula than legislators, after all.

The Legislature’s fiscal office said the earlier version of the ESA bill would have cost about $258 million in fall 2027, and as much as $500 million when all families will eventually be eligible for tuition grants. Gov. Landry has pledged to reach that ubiquitous threshold, yet under SB313, his power will be limited. Short of discovering a vast pool of uncommitted revenue, such as the .45 sales tax expiring next year, the Landry administration may just give BESE the power to kill ESA expansion – at least for the near future.

This article originally published in the June 3, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.