NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is suing the state of Louisiana to stop the state from distributing school vouchers in districts that remain under desegregation court orders.

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal called the department’s action Saturday “shameful” and said President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder “are trying to keep kids trapped in failing public schools.”

In papers filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, the Justice Department says Louisiana distributed vouchers in 2012-13 to nearly 600 public school students in districts that are still under such orders, and “many of those vouchers impeded the desegregation process.”

The department said Louisiana has given vouchers this school year to students in at least 22 districts remaining under desegregation orders.

Jindal called school choice “a moral imperative.”

(MGNonline)