Issue Position: K-12 School Funding & Early Childhood Education

Issue Position

I oppose taxpayer funding, or "vouchers," for privately managed charter schools and parochial schools.
Federal courts in Colorado, Florida, and several other states have already ruled against public funding for religious schools.
Federal courts continue to grapple with the legality of school vouchers because they often violate the Establishment Clause of the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1974, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Source: "Private School Vouchers: Legal Challenges and Civil Rights Protections")
The State of Louisiana should keep all public funding allocated to our schools in our public schools.
I support universal, public, early childhood education programs like pre-kindergarten and Head Start programs. Parents should be allowed to opt in or opt out of these programs based on their choices for their children.
I support consistency and full transparency regarding the "scoring" of our publicly funded schools, specifically our schools' overall letter grades, classroom quality ratings, and accountability formulas.
I support the study and implementation of public school programs and procedures that have been proven successful in states that rank higher than Louisiana in measures of educational success.
Comprehensive sexual education should be available to all children in Louisiana's public school system and should require parental permission and SIECUS-certified instruction. (SIECUS.org)
Parents of public school students should have to option to allow their children to be anonymously interviewed by the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Department of Health regarding their sexual health and sexual practices for the purposes of public health reporting, education, instruction, and disease prevention.
The state constitution protects funding for education, which is secured through the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP). The MFP provides school districts with the necessary funds for operations, salaries, employer contributes to the retirement system, and other budgetary items. Also, the state constitution guarantees lifelong defined benefit payments to retirees of the state retirement systems. In the past, the legislation was proposed to remove these protections. I will fight to protect these funding items for our teachers and retirees in the State Department of Education.

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