Jeff Landry’s administration announced the Gator Scholarship program (also known as school choice or vouchers) as a top priority. Even so, it faced uncertainty as the various bills worked through the 2024 regular legislative session. Ways and Means Chairman Julie Emerson‘s version, HB745, sailed through the House but stalled in the Senate. On April 15th, it was sent to the Education Committee but never heard.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Rick Edmonds had his own version of the bill, SB313. It had cleared the senate committee a few weeks earlier, on March 20th. Then it was recommitted to the Senate Finance Committee, where it languished until finally emerging on May 6th. It was called and returned to the calendar several times for the next week and a half, received numerous amendments on the Senate Floor, and was finally sent to the House on May 20th.
The bill was sent to the appropriations committee but discharged days later before it had time to be scheduled. On May 28th, Julie Emerson guided its passage on the House Floor at 68:28 without ever being approved by a House Committee. It was “finally passed” by Senate concurrence on May 30th.
We win! The bill passed!
The signing of Rick Edmonds‘ SB313 was followed by much celebration. While attending the bill signing at Fatima, I heard the story. Edmonds was exhausted from the arduous effort on this bill. At a moment when he was feeling particularly low, his phone rang. It was Jeff Landry who encouraged him to continue. We’re almost there; you can’t give up now!
Now that the bill has been passed, everyone thought it was over. After all, we passed a bill. That means it’s finished, right? We’re finally embarking on this multi-step journey where any child in Louisiana can finally attend the school of their choice. After years of talking, no student will be held back from their true potential due to a lack of resources. A failing school system will no longer become a life sentence of hopelessness and lack of opportunity. If you’re unfamiliar with the three steps for universal school choice, here they are:
In phase one the following students are eligible: (1) any student entering kindergarten; (2) those who attended a public school in the prior year; or (3) a student with a family income below 250% of federal poverty guidelines. In phase two, in addition to those eligible in phase one, students with a family income below 400% of federal poverty guidelines are able to apply, and phase three provides for “universal” eligibility.
However, there’s still a process to ensure the law changes are implemented. That process contains some common-sense oversight to assure the public that everything is done correctly. However, these checks can also be turned and used as an Achilles Heel.
The process
RS 17:4037.5(B), which doesn’t appear to have been added to the legislature’s website yet, can only be found in the text of SB313. It appears on page 8 of Act 1. Vis:
B. The department may enter into any contract for the administration and management of the program or parts of the program subject to the approval of the state board and the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.
The state board is BESE, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, sometimes called JLCB, is an obscure committee we’ve rarely discussed here at Citizens for a New Louisiana. Nevertheless, this committee must agree with BESE before engaging a program administrator. At their October 8th meeting, BESE unanimously approved an agreement for an organization named Odyssey to create and manage a web portal for the program, among other things. The discussion began at about the two-and-a-half-minute mark, with unanimous consent occurring at about the 26-minute mark.
The agreement commences on October 28th. With the JLCB meeting scheduled for October 25th, this process seems to be moving along relatively smoothly. Former legislator and current BESE member Lance Harris even asked a few questions he thought would be important during the upcoming meeting of the JLCB. At that time, the JLCB meeting agenda hadn’t been posted yet.
Upcoming meeting: Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget
We noticed late on Friday, October 18th, that the JLCB meeting had been scheduled for next week, on Friday, October 25th. That schedule appears on the Legislature’s website but has not yet been published on JLCB’s site. However, the October 25th agenda does not include any item that references the BESE agreement with Oddesy.
The discovery came at about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, so I checked on who the JLCB Chairman was. That legislator is Senator Glen Womack, who appears on our legislative scorecard as a good conservative senator. We also know him from when he helped Jamie move furniture into our new Baton Rouge office at the Roumain Building. While waiting for an as-yet-unreturned message, I checked his voting record on the school choice bill. While he did vote for all four of the Senate Floor amendments, Womack voted against this school choice bill not once but twice. He voted no for final passage and the vote to concur with the House changes.
The Louisiana Senate is almost famous for the ability of one lonely senator to inflict catastrophic damage to any effort. Anyone paying attention for a while will remember Ronny “Judas” Johns. In return for not attending a veto override session, John Bel Edwards rewarded him with a six-figure Gaming Board appointment. As a result, not a single veto was overridden. A single Louisiana Senator can (and did) change everything.
Conjecture and speculation
At this point, we find ourselves relying upon the shifting sands of conjecture and speculation. Self-authenticating public records (his votes) make clear that Glen Womack did not support school choice becoming law in Louisiana – at least not as written in this particular bill. That’s his right and responsibility as an elected Senator. His district sent him to Baton Rouge because they felt he was most closely aligned with their values.
As the chairman of the JLCB committee, it’s also clearly his responsibility to set the agenda. While that meeting was scheduled and the agenda was set, the BESE-approved agreement with Odyssey was not included. What’s unclear is whether this is an oversight or if he’s using his chairmanship to block the school choice movement that he could not stop through the legislative process. Either way, the answer would be gauged as good or bad depending upon your position on school choice.
A third possible option is that some unknown box hasn’t been checked. However, considering that the contract is supposed to begin on October 28th and that no one seems to know what hurdle has yet to be jumped, the committee should certainly hold a public hearing to explain why the contract can not yet be approved. After all, qualified students who cannot choose their school deserve to know why.
The clock is ticking—the approval deadline to begin the contract is October 28th. Perhaps Senator Womack will realize the omission of this critical agenda item. There’s plenty of time for it to be added before the meeting on Friday. However, he could also allow the deadline to pass without action, stymying the smooth roll-out of school choice in Louisiana.
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Citizens for a New Louisiana is excited to invite you to participate in our Banquet and Silent Auction, Champions of Change: Spot-Lighting the Movement to de-woke government institutions. Our honored guest, James Lindsay, Ph.D., is a world-renowned Enlightenment advocate who champions conservative values like reason, individual rights, and free speech. Lindsay argues that Critical Theory, especially in modern iterations like Critical Race Theory (CRT), gender studies, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), etc., undermines traditional scholarship, science, and societal norms.
The founder of New Discourses, Dr. James Lindsay, is a vocal critic of modern educational and governmental policies that aim to reshape cultural norms through “Social Justice” frameworks. Dr. Lindsay, an author known for exposing the mechanisms of “Critical Social Justice,” will delve into how these ideologies are funded by tax dollars and implemented in our educational systems, public libraries, and government policies.
Special thanks to our event sponsors. Find out how you can become a sponsor by emailing us at [email protected]. 
