NEW ORLEANS (AP) — After saying last August
that a public records request would be fulfilled, Louisiana's education
department
is again refusing to provide The Associated Press with records on
how schools were chosen to participate in Gov. Bobby Jindal's
new statewide voucher program.
The Associated Press requested the records on June 12. The department initially rejected the request on Aug. 3. However, a
spokesman for Education Superintendent John White later told an AP capital bureau reporter that the records request would
be fulfilled in September — after the final voucher enrollment numbers were tallied.
But, on Monday, White said in a letter that
the request for records, emails or other communications was "overly
broad." He
also said records pertaining to the development of policies or
deliberation among managers and staff are not public records.
"It was never our intention to provide documents that went against the advice of counsel and were not deemed public record,"
Erin Bendily, a deputy secretary in the department, said in an interview Monday.
The AP's June 12 request cited the state
constitution and state law regarding public records. The request was for
"any and
all records, emails or other communications pertaining to the
development of criteria used in selecting schools eligible to
accept students in the Student Scholarships for Educational
Excellence Program or associated with the voucher/scholarship
program created under Act 2 of the just-ended legislative session;
and any and all such records, emails and communications
regarding individual schools accepted or rejected for the
program."
The department's initial rejection came more
than eight weeks later, on a Friday evening, Aug. 3. The department did
not cite
open records laws in its denial. Rather, department spokeswoman
Sarah Mulhearn's email cited two court cases involving disputes
in which the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office was denied
documents from the Public Service Commission and the Department
of Insurance.
The News-Star newspaper in Monroe has a lawsuit pending against the Department of Education over a public information request
regarding the voucher program. That suit has not yet gone to trial.
More than 4,900 students from poorly performing public schools have taken advantage of the state's newly expanded voucher
program, which uses government money to pay their private school tuition.
The voucher program began on a limited basis
in New Orleans early in Jindal's first term. Jindal backers pushed a
statewide
expansion of the program through the House and Senate in the early
days of the Legislative session. Backers tout it as a means
of allowing low- and middle-income students to escape bad public
schools.
Opponents, who are challenging the program
in court, say it diverts money needed for public education. They also
have raised
questions about the quality of some of the 117 private schools in
the program and whether some schools chosen to receive hundreds
of thousands in tax dollars have adequate facilities, teaching
staff and curricula.