A Louisiana Democrat announced on Tuesday he is voting for a school choice bill, bucking his party that typically votes against school choice.
Louisiana Democrat State Rep. Jason Hughes spoke during a committee meeting as state representatives discussed a bill that creates education savings accounts.
The ESA is a school choice model adopted by several other states that enables parents to use public funds to cover a variety of education expenses, including private school tuition, instructional materials, and homeschooling costs.
"I can't close my eyes to the 67% of 3rd graders in public schools who cannot read. I cannot close my eyes to the number of kids living in poverty in our state that are trapped in failing schools."
"What do those families do? When a child is trapped in a failing school, a parent is working a minimum wage job, they can’t afford to do anything but leave their child in that failing school–what do we do? Do we just say I’m sorry and just leave that child in a failing school? What is the alternative for that child?"
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Hughes was the only Democrat to vote for a bill that passed the Louisiana Appropriations Committee by a 13 to 8 vote. The bill is headed to the House floor.
If passed, Louisiana would become the 12th state to pass universal school choice, a trend occurring among red states in the United States.
School choice, or providing all families with alternatives to the public schools they’re zoned for, can be expanded through multiple avenues at the state level, including school voucher programs, tax-credit scholarship programs, individual tuition tax credit programs and deductions, and ESAs.
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Charter schools, magnet schools, and homeschooling are also forms of school choice programs.
Universal school choice made significant gains in the past couple of years when a wave of red states passed legislation into law. Alabama recently passed universal school choice and more states are looking to join the fold this year.
Ten states have passed universal school choice legislation so far, with Arizona leading the charge in July 2022.
