"Did you know that Gov. Bobby Jindal is a civil rights leader? Although he’s never spoken much about the subject, Jindal wants you to know that he’s a regular Martin Luther King when it comes to education. His passion, it seems, is helping poor minority children get a better education. “The next great civil rights fight is really about making sure that every child has a great education,” Jindal said recently. That’s what he says drives his private school voucher program, enacted hastily during the 2012 legislative session. “Giving every child — no matter race or income — the opportunity to get a great education is a moral imperative,” Jindal wrote in a recent Washington Post column denouncing a U.S. Justice Department motion that would prevent Jindal from awarding vouchers in a way that undermines almost two dozen federal school desegregation suits. At a press event in Washington on Wednesday, Jindal said, “They are using those [desegregation] laws to trap these children in failing schools.” Jindal cares deeply about the education of poor minority children, so much so that he has rescued 8,000 of them from “failing” public schools, giving them “scholarships” at high-quality private schools of their choosing. At least, that’s how Jindal and his supporters hope you’ll see it. The only problem is, that’s not reality. Here’s the reality. Set aside the question of whether the schools are really failing, about 115 private Louisiana schools have accepted voucher students, but most are substandard and mediocre religious outfits. In the most recent round of LEAP testing, the scores for third- through eighth-graders in vouchers schools were terrible. Only 40 percent of voucher students managed a score of “at or above grade level” this year, compared to a state average of 69 percent. Of the lists of voucher schools I consulted, only eight were not obviously church-run schools (i.e., Lafayette Christian Academy, Lighthouse Christian Preparatory School, John Paul the Great Academy, etc.). According to blogger Lamar White, who has reviewed every anti-discrimination compliance report by these voucher schools, these schools are engaging in rampant discrimination, something civil rights leader Jindal completely ignores."
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 02:22:51 +0000