LSU STUDENTS ORGANIZE PROTEST AGAINST BOBBY JINDAL'S HATE-BACKED MASS PRAYER EVENT

Students at Louisiana State University are organizing a demonstration in protest of the Baton Rouge campus administration’s decision to host “The Response,” a mass prayer event sponsored by the American Family Association hate group. A number of high-profile conservative political figures like Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will join Christian evangelists in what the AFA has described as a group meditation.

"What we really need in these United States is a spiritual revival. It is time to turn back to God," Jindal explained in a video invitation to the event. "It's time to light the spark that starts the spiritual revival that will put these United States of America back on the right path." 

Earlier this month the AFA published and quickly pulled an official prayer guide for The Response suggesting, amongst other things, that marriage equality and abortion were the causes of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

"As a member of the LSU student community, it saddens and offends me that our administration would welcome to campus a recognized hate group whose vile rhetoric targets gay and transgendered people, Muslims, immigrants, and other marginalized groups," said Maggie Cloos, a student responsible for creating a petition to ban the AFA from the LSU campus. the organizer of the student-led petition.

Organizing Against Hate Groups, the protest, is set to be an all day event featuring workshops teaching attendees how best to speak across political and social differences. So far six organizations housed at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus have signed up to participate in the protest with more expressing their interest in offering support.

Both The Response and Organizing Against Hate Groups will take place on January 24. Watch the American Family Association's video invitation to The Response - Louisiana: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis

Louisiana asks US Supreme Court to rule in same-sex marriage

In an unusual move, the US state of Louisiana has asked the Supreme Court to hear arguments around a same-sex marriage lawsuit, before a federal appeals court has ruled.

The request was filed by attorney Kyle Duncan this week, asking the US Supreme Court justices to hear appeals of the case.

It also requested that the court hear appeals in the case upholding the same-sex marriage bans of Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The appeal in Louisiana’s case is set to be heard by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on 9 January.

Brian Brown: SCOTUS Will Totally Rule Against Gay Marriage Because Louisiana

"Oh, you didn’t hear much about the Louisiana decision? No surprise. Here’s what happened. U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman, following extensive briefing and argument, ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit the state of Louisiana from defining marriage solely as one man and one woman, nor refusing to recognize so-called same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. He found that the state had several valid reasons for having adopted this position, which was approved by 78 percent of its voters. One reason, Feldman wrote, was to encourage children to be raised by their mother and father in an intact family. Another was to ensure that any change in such a foundational issue as marriage should only be considered via the democratic process and not be judicially imposed. [snip] We’re probably 10 months away from the Supreme Court issuing a definitive ruling on whether defining marriage in state law solely as the union of one man and one woman violates the Constitution. When that ruling comes, many people will once again be shocked that the 'inevitable' didn’t happen because they hadn't heard much about Feldman and his prescient ruling in Louisiana." 

- Hate group leader Brian Brown, writing for US News & World Report.

LSU Fraternity Apologizes for Michael Sam Gay Sex Joke Banner

A fraternity at Louisiana State University has apologized for flying a game-day banner outside its house last weekend that read “Michael isn’t the only Sam getting the D tonight.” The school was playing Sam Houston State University at the time.

The Times-Picayune reports:

The Delta Kappa Epsilon's Zeta Zeta chapter displayed the message, which some deemed offensive, on what appeared to be a bed sheet secured over the entrance of the fraternity house Saturday (Sept. 6). The apology letter says the chapter will stop hanging signs in front of the DKE house "indefinitely." 

"Zeta Zeta is a chapter full of rich traditions, one of them being our game day banners," the fraternity wrote. 

"Though satire is sometimes the goal, crossing the line and causing offense to others is never the intent," the letter from the DKEs, addressed to LSU President and Chancellor F. King Alexander, said. "We truly apologize to you and all other members of the LSU community who have had to deal with the effects of this banner."

LSU, which asked the banner be taken down, said it did not condone the fraternity’s “hurtful actions” and the school’s Dean of Students K.C. White plans on meeting with interested parties to further discuss the incident.

Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a long line of offensive banners that the fraternity has flown in past years. You can check out an LSU Tiger TV report on the current controversy and previous frat banners,

New Orleans Mayor Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

Mitch Landrieu  

Support for marriage equality in the deep south continued to grow last week when Mitch Landrieu, Democratic mayor of New Orleans publicly endorsed same-sex marriage, HRC reports.

"The mayor has long supported ending marriage discrimination at all levels of government," Landrieu spokesman Tyler Gamble said in an e-mail to The Advocate. "As an employer, the city of New Orleans recognizes domestic partnerships and allows our employees’ partners to be eligible for benefits."

Landrieu’s name also appeared on a resolution from the U.S. Conference of Mayors that reaffirmed the organization’s support for gay marriage rights.

The resolution reads, in part, that the conference "reaffirms its support of the freedom to marry for same-sex couples and urges the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to speedily bring national resolution by ruling in favor of the freedom to marry nationwide."

Landrieu’s comments are in direct contrast to Louisiana’s Republican Governor Bobby Jindal who received a 0% rating from HRC due to his anti-gay stance. Jindal has also been a vocal proponent of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

There are currently three lawsuits challenging Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Welfare Dynasty: Duck Dynasty Cast Recieves $70,000 from Louisiana Taxpayers PER EPISODE

Do you remember a time when Patriarch Phil Robertson said that African-Americans were better off “pre-entitlement, pre-welfare?” When they were “happy” and “Godly?” Do you remember those remarks? Good. Keep them in mind, because while Robertson was complaining about Blacks on welfare, the cast of his show, Duck Dynasty, soaked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in welfare money from the State of Louisiana every year.

According to Inquisitr, the cast receives $70,000 per episode in government handouts from the state, and are paid $200,000 per week to be on the show:

One industry insider estimates that the Duck Dynasty cast, which is paid $200,000 per week to appear on the popular reality show, receives government benefits of $70,000 for every episode of the A&E cable show from the state, even though Louisiana recently slashed funding for health care programs and pension programs for public employees such as police, teachers, and firefighters.

Bobby “we should stop being the party of stupid” Jindal, the Louisiana governor who may harbor presidential ambitions, recently presented Phil Robertson with Louisiana’s first Governor’s Award For Entrepreneurial Excellence and landed a high-profile guest appearance on the show during Season Six’s premiere. This was at the same time the state was paying out the subsidies for the production of the show.

According to Inquisitr, the handouts are part of an incentive program that the state has for film and TV productions, earning the state it’s nickname: “Hollywood South:”

The handouts are part of Louisiana’s incentive program for film and TV productions, a program which began in earnest in 2002 and which has earned the state the nickname “Hollywood South.” Dozens of film and TV projects shoot there, to collect the generous taxpayer-backed subsidies, which cover about 30 percent of a film or TV show’s production costs in Louisiana. 

While advocates of film subsidy programs say that they lure big-time production to states that offer the money — 43 states now offer some version of a film subsidy program — economists have said that the programs cost states millions and produce very little economic benefit in return. 

Louisiana recently did a study that found only 15 cents of economic benefit for every dollar spent by state taxpayers are used to prop up Hollywood productions, including reality shows such as Duck Dynasty.

The nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) published a report on film subsidy programs, which found that the subsidies are big money-losers for states, and result in budget cuts to needed programs, to compensate for money poured into the pockets of productions such as Duck Dynasty. 

Those budget cuts further stifle state economic growth.

The CBPP stated in the report that:

The revenue generated by economic activity induced by film subsidies falls far short of the subsidies’ direct costs to the state. To balance its budget, the state must therefore cut spending or raise revenues elsewhere, dampening the subsidies’ positive economic impact.

According to the CBPP, the subsidies are given the productions that were likely going to be filmed in the state anyway, even without taxpayer handouts — for example, Duck Dynasty, which could only be shot where the Robertson family lives: Louisiana. The welfare payments that go to the show, then, do nothing to keep it the state. What’s more, the handouts may even have kept the show from being canceled, despite declining ratings.

LOUISIANA VOTES TO KEEP UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAW CRIMINALIZING SODOMY

The Louisiana House voted 66-27 to reject a bill that would have repealed the state's unconstitutional law criminalizing sodomy, the Times-Picayune reports:

A House Committee passed the legislation onto the body's floor by a vote of 9-6 last week. But one of the state's most powerful lobbying groups, the conservative Christian Louisiana Family Forum, opposes striking the sodomy ban.
The law remaining on the books came under national scrutiny last summer when East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs' Deputies used the statute to arrest men who agreed to have sex with undercover male law enforcement officers. The District Attorney declined to prosecute the men, and the sheriff, Sid Gautreaux, under intense criticism, later apologized for the arrests.

Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith, a Democrat who represents Baton Rouge, said she brought the bill, in part, because of those arrests, which drew negative national attention to her community.

The Supreme Court invalidated all anti-sodomy laws with its Lawrence v. Texas decision in 2003 but 17 states have still not formally repealed or revised their laws.

Court sides with MoveOn over Jindal

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) administration in Louisiana picked an unusual fight recently, taking MoveOn.org to federal court, accusing the progressive activist group of violating trademark rules when it put up billboards criticizing Jindal’s opposition to Medicaid expansion.

 

So far, that hasn’t turned out well for the Republican governor: a federal judge ruled yesterday afternoon that the Baton Rouge-area billboard is legally permissible.

In his original court filings, [Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne] said the national liberal organization improperly mimicked his office’s trade and tourism branding in its satirical billboard posted just outside of the state capital. But U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick disagreed Monday, siding with MoveOn.org in stating the group’s free speech rights trumped the state’s case.

 

“The State has failed to demonstrate a compelling reason to curtail MoveOn.org’s political speech in favor of protecting of the State’s service mark,” Dick said in her ruling. She added “irreparable injury” would not be caused to Louisiana’s tourism campaign if the ad remained in place.

For those who haven’t been following this dispute, Louisiana is one of several red states that refuse to adopt Medicaid expansion, despite the fact that he policy would bring coverage to nearly a quarter of a million low-income residents. It led MoveOn.org to put up a billboard that reads, “LOU!SIANA Pick your passion! But hope you don’t love your health. Gov. Jindal’s denying Medicaid to 242,000 people.”

Judge Issues Order Against Christianist Indoctrination in Louisiana School

For years, Louisiana has maintained one of the most subversive creationist laws in the country. In lieu of mandating that teachers offer creationism or intelligent design in the public classroom – both of which have been struck down in courts as scientific fact – Louisiana has allowed teachers to augment their lessons with “supplemental material,” circumventing established law and slipping religious tracts into public schools.

The state, and GOP Governor Bobby Jindal, has defended this law by noting that it not only doesn’t contradict prior rulings, but that it’s never actually been challenged in court. If the law were so preposterous, officials say, why has no one come forth to point this out in court? Why do parents and children seem so happy with it?

And, to be fair, many do. Creationism has a massive following in Louisiana – a strong majority noted that they prefer to have Christian folklore taught as fact in the classroom. But a court order this month may, finally, stem the tide of un-scientific education in Louisiana’s classrooms.

A federal judge has ruled that officials at Louisiana’s Negreet High School had been indoctrinating students with Christianism, and that they must promptly cease and desist. The ruling came in the form of a “consent decree,” and, per the ACLU’s release, ends the lawsuit filed on behalf of one of the school’s former students, a Buddhist child identified as C.C.

According to C.C. and his family, the school not only subjected students to Christian iconography in school, but even went so far as to implement Christian rhetoric in testing. As The Daily Beast wrote when the lawsuit was initially filed in January:

[I]f you aren’t religious, or if you aren’t a Christian, don’t worry. … Just ask the superintendent of schools in the parish, Sara Ebarb, who has said, “[t]his is the Bible Belt” and who asked the parents of a Buddhist student recently if he “has to be raised Buddhist” or if he could “change” his faith and suggested to them that he should transfer to a school where “there are more Asians.” Religious objectors, Ebarb has said, should simply accept the pervasive of official Christianity in Sabine Parish public schools. Easy-peasy, folks, just convert!

One of the more notable pieces of evidence came on one of C.C.’s tests, in which the teacher asked children to fill in a bizarre, caps-locked quote: ““ISN’T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _______ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.” (The correct answer is “Lord,” though more exclamation points may earn credit, also.)

As it is, the state is still assessing the fallout from the ruling, which also forces the school board to offer First Amendment training for school staff. But the biggest fallout may come from the precedent the lawsuit has set. Finally, a family has challenged the state’s claims that its “supplemental materials” legislation has brought not further scientific education, but religious indoctrination. While the law remains on the books, the ruling bolsters the opposition’s arguments that Louisiana has helped creationist back its way into the classroom.

Jindal shifts gears on free speech

In December, Phil Robertson, one of the stars of a reality-television show called “Duck Dynasty,” made a series of offensive comments during an interview. A&E, the network that airs the reality show, decided to suspend him over his bigoted remarks.

 

Almost immediately, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) leapt to Robertson’s defense. For a private business to suspend an employee, Jindal was, was an affront to the “First Amendment.” As a constitutional matter, this was gibberish, but the far-right governor dug in anyway, positioning himself as a free-speech absolutist – Americans must be able to communicate whatever message they please, without exception or consequence. “The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with,” Jindal said. “This is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views.”

 

At least, that’s what Jindal thought when the controversy was over bigotry from a television personality. The governor’s take on free speech is different now.

MoveOn and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) are locked in a fight over ObamaCare, billboards and free speech.

 

Louisiana’s lieutenant governor has issued a cease-and-desist order to MoveOn, arguing the liberal group is improperly using Louisiana’s “Pick your passion” tourism slogan to slam Jindal’s refusal to accept an expansion of Medicaid.

 

The liberal group’s billboard in Baton Rouge reads: “Louisiana! Pick your passion! But hope you don’t love your health. Gov. Jindal is denying Medicaid to 242,000 people.”

As the Jindal administration sees it, when a television network suspends an employee, it’s an outrageous First Amendment violation, but when the government tries to restrict political speech on a billboard, that’s fine.

 

Hmm.

Louisiana AG Hires Outside Counsel To Help Fight Challenges To State’s Gay Marriage Ban

Earlier this week Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell (pictured right) announced that the Bayou State would enlist outside counsel for the sole purpose of helping to defend that state’s ban on same-sex marriage, according to The Times Picayune.

Caldwell tapped former Louisiana solicitor general Kyle Duncan to take on the role. Duncan recently worked as general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The announcement from Caldwell’s office directly responded to comments made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that state attorneys general could choose not to defend their constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, as seven attorneys general have already chosen not to do:

"The Louisiana Constitution is a sober expression of the will of the citizens of Louisiana and I intend to defend every sentence in it," Caldwell said in a statement. "To that end, I've retained Kyle Duncan, a nationally renowned expert in this area of the law, to assist this office in our defense of the Constitution of Louisiana."

Caldwell's office said Duncan will retain the title of "Special Attorney General." But details of the contract with Duncan, including payment, were not immediately available. The office is preparing information regarding the prevalence of hiring of special attorneys general in Louisiana.

The decision to hire outside counsel comes on the heels of a recently announced challenge to Louisiana's gay marriage ban and a federal judge's ruling that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. You'll recall late last year a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit intending to make marriage equality legal in Louisiana. 

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes previously announced that his state would also hire outside counsel to fight marriage equality.

Trans Woman Dares Bible-Quoting Councilman to Stone Her to Death

A City Council member in Shreveport, La., has abandoned his effort to repeal an LGBT-inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance, following outcry from the public, including a transgender woman who dared him to stone her to death.

The council passed the ordinance in December by a vote of 6-1, following a successful campaign by a pro-LGBT coaltion known as Be Fair Shreveport. The ordinance, which bans discrimination in housing and employment within city limits on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, received its lone "no" vote from Councilman Ron Webb. During the council's debate last December, Webb voiced his opposition, saying, "The Bible tells you homosexuals are an abomination," adding that he does not socialize with LGBT people, according to TV station KSLA.

Ten days after the council approved the ordinance, Webb drafted a proposal designed to repeal the nondiscrimination policy. On Tuesday, dozens of people registered to testify at the City Council meeting, ready to speak out against Webb's measure, report Lone Star Q.

Bobby Jindal Claims that the Justice Department is Racist – For Not Letting Him Have His Way

Oh Bobby Jindal, I just can’t quit you. Actually, it’s more like we in the “liberal mainstream media” can’t quit you. I mean after all, you stated that you wanted to end “dumbed down conservatism” when you spoke to Politico after the 2012 election in which Obama pretty much pulled up Romney’s magic underwear and gave him a wedgie as America laughed. Here’s the full quote, just in case you don’t remember it:

“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.” (Source)

And you know what? For a brief moment, a few of us in the media suspended disbelief and thought that just maybe you would somehow move the party back ever so slightly to the center. Maybe you’d finally get the country club Republicans to say enough and kick the snake handling preachers, the fundamentalists and the conspiracy nuts off your golf course – even if it meant they would go vote for someone like Virgil Goode or David Duke. In the autopsy report for the 2012 election, it was quite obvious to you and just about everyone else that pandering to those very people was what killed any chance Romney would ever have at sitting behind the desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In that moment of suspended disbelief, the possibility crossed my mind that your party would even be willing to lose a couple of election cycles in order to get your political house in order, even if it meant doing the political version of fumigating the entire place to get rid of the cockroaches.

A sensible Republican governor from a Southern state, the son of Indian immigrants. You could’ve been a 2016 contender, Bobby. You could have shown everyone that the Republican Party had ideas that didn’t just work for rich white men, but also for everyone – including minorities like yourself. Instead of taking your own advice, you chose to go straight back to the “derp.”

Remember when you said that President Obama could “learn from Louisiana“? I thought that was hilarious – even more so when I found out you intended that as a serious statement. Or how about that time you appointed Tony Perkins, who is the head of a documented hate group, to the Louisiana Law Enforcement Commission? At first I thought this had to be a joke, but upon further investigation I just shook my head and said “that’s my governor.” Then just the other day I found out you decided to hire an out-of-state firm at the cost of $4 million dollars to find ways to save money in the state budget. That one had me in stitches, seriously.

I don’t know if you intended this latest statement as humorous but it was just icing on the cake for writers like me. Now for those of you who are reading and aren’t from here, Louisiana is still quite segregated. So much so that in some parts of Louisiana, there are still “white churches” and “black churches,” often right down the street from each other. Bobby Jindal has been trying to ram a school voucher system through (really just a ploy to move taxpayer dollars to private religious schools) and he’s been repeatedly blocked by the Justice Department due to the fact that many of Louisiana’s school districts are still under desegregation orders after all these years. That’s why the following statement, in his own words and from his own website, is so ridiculous that I had to make sure I hadn’t fallen asleep and woken up in Michele Bachmann’s diary:

“The Department of Justice proposal reeks of federal government intrusion and proves the people in Washington running our federal government are more interested in skin color than they are in education.” (Source)

That’s right, Bobby Jindal claims that the Justice Department is being racist for not letting him push a voucher system that will essentially create two separate school systems – in other words, segregation. Seriously though Bobby, you’re a gold mine for political writers like myself. If it wasn’t for the fact that your incompetence (even though you are very well-educated) at running a state was affecting the 4.6 million people who are unfortunate enough to have you as their governor, the dumb things you keep on doing would be hilarious. I really do hope you run for president – Hillary will eat you alive.

Little Civil Rights Pioneer Reunites With US Marshal Who Protected Her

In November 1960, when Ruby Bridges became the first African-American student to integrate a white Louisiana elementary school, Charles Burks was one of four federal marshals who escorted her to William Frantz Elementary School as an angry crowd stood outside.

Bridges, who is now 58, reunited Thursday with Burks, 91, for a special conversation about the historic moment, which was filmed for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis permanent exhibit called “The Power of Children.” Burks is the only marshal who is still alive.

She told Burks:

Thank you Charlie for doing what was right at a time when it might not have been the easiest thing to do.

Burks said escorting Bridges to school was a highlight of his life, adding that he supported the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down segregation in public schools. Bridges was in first-grade when she started attending William Frantz Elementary School on Nov. 14, 1960, as the court-ordered integration of public schools began in New Orleans.

It was a privilege to be able to do what I did, even though it was one of my duties. Everybody says it was just another job to do, but it was a wonderful job.

Bridges said she didn’t realize at the time the role she was playing in helping end segregation because her parents had not explained everything that was happening. She thought the loud crowds that gathered daily outside the school were taking part some sort of parade, such as Mardis Gras, and they didn’t frighten her.

Burks and the other marshals escorted the young Bridges to and from school for several weeks before local police took over that duty. Eventually the crowds dispersed and she no longer needed protection.

Bridges said was happy she got to meet again with Burks to discuss their shared experience and record their memories for the museum’s exhibit, which also highlights the lives of Anne Frank and Ryan White.

She said she hopes the exhibit can help children understand both U.S. history and the civil rights movement’s victories and the work that still remains to overcome the nation’s legacy of racism.

At Least A Dozen Men Arrested In Louisiana Under Invalid Anti-Sodomy Law

At least a dozen men since 2011 in Baton Rouge have been arrested under an unenforceable law "to ensnare men who merely discussed or agreed to have consensual sex with an undercover agent," an investigation by The Advocate magazine found.

The District Attorney said his office refused to prosecute each of the cases because no crime was found to have occurred, and a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman denied to the Advocate that investigators had been misapplying the anti-sodomy law, which is currently a state-statute. 

“This is a law that is currently on the Louisiana books, and the sheriff is charged with enforcing the laws passed by our Louisiana Legislature,” Casey Rayborn Hicks, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said. “Whether the law is valid is something for the courts to determine, but the sheriff will enforce the laws that are enacted." 

Louisiana Wastes Tax Money on Creationist School

The Louisiana Department of Education should never have approved New Living Word School in Ruston to take voucher students transferring from public schools. The 122 students attending the church-affiliated school when the state approved it in 2012 for the voucher program were getting most of their instruction via DVD, the principal told the News-Star in Monroe. The school lacked teachers and facilities to handle an influx of new students but was proceeding "on faith," he said at the time.
Even so, the department approved New Living Word for 300 voucher students when Gov. Bobby Jindal persuaded lawmakers last year to offer the program statewide. The actual number at the school ended up being fewer than 100 for 2012-13 -- but that almost doubled the size of the school. And it was still a lot of taxpayer money going to a campus that was so woefully unprepared.
New Living Word didn't last long, though. As of June 28, the school was out of the Louisiana Scholarship Program.
But it wasn't the questionable academic setup that was its demise. State Superintendent John White removed it from the voucher program because of reported financial improprieties.
An audit by Postlethwaite & Netterville found the school violated state rules by charging more in tuition and fees for voucher students than for students paying their own way, according to a Department of Education statement. The non-voucher students were getting the benefit of in-kind services that the school used to reduce their tuition costs, the auditors found. That is not allowed under state law.
The school principal denied the accusations in the audit and told the News-Star that New Living Word has been made a scapegoat by the state.
Mr. White argues otherwise. The state will have "zero tolerance for fiscal mismanagement of taxpayer dollars," he said in the department's statement. That is as it should be.
But it is still puzzling why the department didn't do more due diligence before approving the school to take voucher students.
In fact, the process last year for choosing schools for voucher students was backwards. The Department of Education OK'd a list of private and religious schools statewide to take low-income public school students whose schools were graded C, D or F by the state. After that list was compiled, the state came up with academic and other standards for the voucher program.
In 2011, vouchers were used only in Orleans Parish in a pilot program. Even then, there were signs of academic weaknesses in some of the schools. It was no surprise, then, when the 2012-13 academic results for voucher students statewide were unimpressive.
LEAP scores for third- through eighth-graders released in May showed that only 40 percent of voucher students scored at or above grade level. That compares with a statewide average of 69 percent for all students.
Seven schools in Jefferson and Orleans parishes posted such poor results that they are being barred from accepting new voucher students this fall, although they can keep those they already have.
New Living Word's iLEAP scores for third-, fifth- and sixth-graders were substantially lower than their counterparts in Lincoln Parish public schools and the state as a whole, according to the Department of Education report.
Those poor results wouldn't have triggered the school being removed from the voucher program this year, though. A school has to post three years of poor LEAP results before getting sanctioned.
But the audit results accelerated the process. The roughly 150 voucher students that had been enrolled at New Living Word for the fall semester are being immediately transferred to other schools.
That is an inconvenience for those families, but it is better to move the children. If the state had applied acceptable standards to the school last year, the voucher students never would have been there.
Now the state is left trying to get back more than $375,000 in tax dollars that New Living Word overcharged for students in the voucher program. And the public has to wonder why the state didn't guard its money more carefully from the beginning.