Governor Jeff Landry signed Louisiana’s universal school choice program into law and the teachers unions swore it would be the end of civilization. Kids would suffer. Schools would crumble. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria.
Well, a brand-new report just dropped and — oops — it turns out the kids are doing spectacularly. Somebody get the teachers union a tissue.
Studyville, a Louisiana-based education organization, just sent Governor Landry the receipts on the LA GATOR program — that’s “Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise,” because apparently we’re required by law to make every government acronym spell something fun. The findings? Graduation rates and college acceptance numbers are skyrocketing in Louisiana’s highest-crime zip codes. The same neighborhoods where the public school system had been warehousing kids for decades with zero results.
Let that sink in for a second. We’re not talking about rich kids in the suburbs. Nearly 64% of the families in this program are economically disadvantaged. More than half have household incomes under $50,000. These are working families who were trapped — TRAPPED — in failing schools because their zip code said so. And now their kids are thriving.
Here’s the part that should make every school board bureaucrat in America break out in hives: 85% of families reported that their child’s academic performance improved after entering the program. Two-thirds said their kid’s behavior got better. Students are averaging 1.5 to 2 years of academic growth in a single year. Reading fluency scores jumped 173%.
One hundred and seventy-three percent. In reading. That’s not an improvement — that’s a resurrection.
And the safety numbers? GATOR schools reported 95% fewer incidents of bullying and suspension compared to the public schools in the same neighborhoods. Ninety-five percent. Almost zero bullying incidents. These aren’t schools in gated communities — they’re in the same high-crime zip codes. Same streets. Same kids. Different results.
You know why? Because when a school has to earn your kid’s attendance instead of having it handed to them by a government monopoly, they tend to actually give a rip about safety, discipline, and whether little Johnny can read above a third-grade level.
Now here’s the kicker that really makes the union bosses lose sleep at night. The state spends $9,568 per student in the public school system. The GATOR scholarship? $7,220 on average. So we’re getting dramatically better results for $2,300 LESS per kid. The program literally saves taxpayers money while producing kids who can actually graduate and get into college.
Someone please explain to us how the Left opposes this. We’ll wait.
Oh right — they oppose it because the teachers unions told them to. The same teachers unions that spent the last several decades turning America’s public schools into holding pens where administrators make six figures and kids can’t find Louisiana on a map. Those teachers unions. The ones who care deeply about “the children” right up until “the children” try to leave.
Governor Landry put it simply: “That’s what happens when you give families a choice.”
He’s right. And the numbers prove it. The program currently serves about 5,500 students. Know how many applied? Forty thousand. That means roughly 34,000 families are on a waiting list, desperately trying to get their kids out of the schools that the education establishment insists are just fine.
Forty thousand families raising their hands and saying, “Please, let us leave.” And Democrats look at that line and say, “No. Get back in your assigned building. We know what’s best for your children.”
That’s not education policy. That’s a hostage situation.
The Left has spent decades telling minority families and low-income communities that school choice is somehow bad for them. That vouchers and scholarships are a “threat to public education.” Translation: a threat to the public education BUREAUCRACY. Because the kids? The kids are doing better than ever. The parents are happier. The schools are safer. And it costs less.
Every single metric moved in the right direction the moment families were given the freedom to choose. Every. Single. One.
Louisiana was the 11th state to pass universal school choice. After these numbers, it won’t be the last. The data is in. The experiment worked. And no amount of union lobbying is going to put this genie back in the bottle.
To the 34,000 families still waiting for a GATOR scholarship — hang tight. When results like these hit the news, even politicians have a hard time saying no. And to the teachers union executives pulling down cushy salaries while fighting to keep poor kids trapped in dangerous, failing schools — maybe update those résumés. The parents have spoken, and they didn’t pick you.
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