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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Louisiana Educator: Another Major Victory for Public Education

Louisiana Educator: Another Major Victory for Public Education:


Another Major Victory for Public Education

A Thirty Million Dollar fine is being assessed to State Superintendent White to be paid back to local school systems as part of the recent Supreme Court decision on vouchers and the MFP. Unfortunately that's a fine that must be paid by taxpayers, not by White, and it could eventually be assessed back to local school systems as the Jindal controlled BESE prepares to rubber stamp another Jindal/White revision of the MFP. The 2013-14 MFP formula is being sent back to BESE as a result of yesterday's action by the Senate Education Committee.That's a big victory for public education advocates but the revision by BESE is far from guaranteed to be fair to our public schools.

According to the AP story linked here, White informed the Senate Education Committee that the Supremes had not only struck down the use of MFP funds for vouchers but had declared the 2012 approval of the MFP by the legislature to be null and void because the House vote approving the MFP was not a legal majority. This means that the MFP, according to the constitution must revert to the 2011-12 formula which did not employ the various