Usually, the best leaders choose silence over provocative speech.
John White, state superintendent of
Louisiana’s schools, would have done better to say nothing at all
rather than accuse the
state’s two teacher unions of getting “in the way of student
achievement.” That was insulting to the teachers that those unions
represent.
The unions chose to fight in court
the Louisiana’s voucher program, which is paying with state dollars to
send students in
mediocre or failing public schools to private or parochial schools
— and hopefully to better results. It is the unions’ perfect
right to take their case to court.
Moreover, the teachers won at the local level when a state district judge ruled recently that it is unconstitutional to send
the state’s public funds to private schools to fund the vouchers. The state will appeal. But the teachers’ victory at the
local level suggests that their position is at least plausible, if it does not prove to be ultimately correct.
The voucher program deserves an
opportunity to succeed. At the very least, students in failing schools
deserve the opportunity
to gain a good education where they can find one. If that means
they go to the private or parochial school of their parents’
choice, good for those lucky families.
After all, of the state’s more than
1,300 public schools, more than 900 are rated as C,D or F. Small wonder
that parents of
almost 5,000 students, given their druthers, have opted for
different paths to educate their children. Everyone should want
what is best for their children.
But the voucher program this school
year was put into motion in great haste. There were initial problems in
approving school
sites, which put the voucher program in a bad light around the
state. The superintendent himself may have misspoken when he
said safeguards were always in place about the schools approved
for the program; that undercut his credibility with some legislators
and the public. That does not mean that vouchers are wrong — they
promise better opportunities for students — but the voucher
program must pass constitutional muster.
All that said, the issue now
belongs before the state’s judiciary, the one branch of government that
Gov. Bobby Jindal does
not control. One judge has ruled. The governor’s response to
losing at the first level of courts — he called the judge’s decision
a “travesty” — was disappointing. This is no time for White to
insult his adversaries in court or for the governor to deride
the judge’s interpretation of the law.
It is time for Jindal and White to back off from political grandstanding and to let Louisiana’s freely elected judges coolly
and dispassionately decide this matter.
• • •
This editorial was written by a member of the American Press Editorial Board. Its content reflects the collaborative opinion of the Board, whose members include Bobby Dower, Ken Stickney,
Jim Beam, Crystal Stevenson and Donna Price.