Louisiana: Key Vote YES on Three Education Reform Bills

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our 15,000 Louisiana FreedomWorks members, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on three education reform bills. Introduced by Rep. Steve Carter (R-District 68), H.B. 933, H.B. 974 and H.B. 976 will allow parents to choose their child’s school and improve the quality of education in Louisiana. If these bold education reforms are passed, Louisiana will become a model for the rest of the nation to follow.

Rep. Carter’s House Bill 933, which outlines a framework for a single coordinated early childhood education system with accountability for academic outcomes. Louisiana spends approximately $12,000 per student yet only a small percentage of students are proficient in reading and math. This bill would make Louisiana schools more accountable to students and parents. 

Rep. Carter’s House Bill 974, which links teacher tenure to performance, makes effectiveness the primary criterion for personnel decisions, and grants authority for hiring and placement of personnel to school superintendents. Tenure is a major problem in our education system since it practically guarantees a teacher their job for life, no matter what. H.B. 974 would link teacher tenure to performance which would prevent bad teachers from earning tenure. It would also grant more authority to school superintendents in order to help ensure that only the best teachers get hired to teach students.

Rep. Carter’s House Bill 976, which expands school choice, including the scholarship program, pathways for charter schools, the providers who can offer courses to K12 students, and a “parent trigger” for failing schools. H.B. 976 will allow low-income students in poor-performing areas to attend a better school. Eligibility includes any student in a “C” or below school who also lives in a household with income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty rate, about $55,000 for a family of four. That means that about 380,000 Louisiana students will qualify for a voucher.

I urge you to call your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on H.B. 933, H.B. 974 and H.B 976. The status quo is not working. These three education reform bills will move us in the right direction to break the teacher unions’ monopoly over our schools. It’s urgent that H.B. 933, H.B 974 and H.B. 976 pass for the sake of Louisiana students trapped in schools that have failed to meet their needs.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a PDF version of this key vote notice.]