Louisiana’s Streamlining Government Commission recommends two new school choice proposals. The first directs the state government to pursue a funding system in which the money follows the child into each school through a student-based budgeting system. The second recommendation is the implementation of a statewide refundable education tax credit program that would offer parents of children from failing public schools the choice to attend any private school.
According to the News-Star,which reports on 143 reccomendations by the commission, the recommendation on student-based budgeting states:
Direct the Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to pursue student-based budgeting. It is an effort to streamline education funding by reducing duplication in central office and directing more resources to the school level to focus on improving school outcomes.
Learn how student-based budgeting works from Reason’s Weighted Student Formula Yearbook here.
In addition, Education Week reports on the commission’s education tax credit proposal:
The state streamlining commission is recommending that Louisiana embark on a statewide school choice program that would give out tax breaks for sending children from failing public schools to private schools. . . .
Under the proposal, parents could get a $4,000 refundable state income tax credit per child, if the parents move the child from a public school deemed “academically unacceptable” to a private school.
The proposal also would give a $4,000 state tax credit to any taxpayer who donates $4,000 to a nonprofit organization that uses the money for scholarships to families who move their children from a failing public school to a private school.