Bill to give parents tax money for private school tuition passes Senate, giving Jeff Landry a big win (2024)

A bill to give parents tax dollars to pay for private school passed the Louisiana Senate on Thursday, handing Gov. Jeff Landry a major victory and thwarting critics — including some Republicans — who balked at the plan’s possibly massive cost and its potential to destabilize the state’s public schools.

Senate Bill 313 passed 24-15 largely along party lines just before 7 p.m., but with four Republicans joining Democrats in opposing it. The heavily amended bill now heads to the House, where a similar measure easily passed last month.

The bill’s passage follows a last-minute push by Landry, who pressured reluctant senators to get behind his signature education proposal through television ads, town hall meetings and private conversations on the Senate floor Thursday. He was backed by influential conservative groups and GOP donors who have long sought to offer students an alternative to the public school system.

“It will put us on the first step to be able to transform education in this state,” Landry said Thursday during an event at a Catholic school where he argued that the state should pay for students to attend whatever school their parents choose, whether public or private. “Your money deserves to follow your child.”

The legislation would establish “education savings accounts,” or ESAs, that would give parents state tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, uniforms, tutoring and other approved expenses. Initially, the grants would go to low-income families, students with disabilities and students seeking to transfer out of public schools. But eventually, any parent could apply for the money regardless of financial need and even if their children already attend private schools.

Members of the Senate have expressed concern about the program’s potential cost, which could exceed $500 million per year after all families are eligible, according to one estimate. So Landry and his allies made some concessions to secure the bill’s passage.

The amended Senate bill strips language that sets the size of the ESA grants, which ranged from about $5,200 for higher-income families to more than $15,000 for students with disabilities. Now state education officials will determine the grant amounts.

The revised bill also removes the timeline for the program’s expansion. In an earlier bill, the family income cap increased annually until, in year three, all parents were eligible for the grants. In the amended bill, families become eligible for the tuition grants in phases. But no timeline is stipulated for the phases, raising the possibility that some families might not be able to apply for the money until far into the future — if at all.

“BESE would make those decisions, certainly not us,” said Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, referring to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He added that, if the board decides there is not enough funding to offer grants to all families, “they may decide we'll do the special needs kids and nothing more.”

Even if the House passes the revised bill and Landry signs it into law, it remains to be seen how much funding the Legislature will give the program.

On Thursday, Landry suggested the Legislature could pay for the ESA program by rewriting part of the state constitution to free up money that is reserved for specific uses.

“There are pots of money that we could absolutely use that are restricted from us,” he said at the Catholic school event. He did not specify which money, but educators fear it could include public school funding, which is currently protected in the constitution.

However the Legislature pays for the program, critics say it will divert badly needed resources from public schools, which educate the majority of Louisiana students. School board members, superintendents and teachers have pleaded with Republican lawmakers to reject the plan to send tax dollars to private schools, but to no avail.

“This is an abandonment of public education,” Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, said Thursday minutes before the bill passed.

James Finn contributed reporting.