- Oct 7, 2011
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No more Public Unions. Most Americans are sick of their jackbooted intimidation tactics. Their time has passed.
Last week, a lawyer for a Louisiana teachers union wrote a letter to 95 private schools that have agreed to participate in the Pelican States new school voucher program. His message? That vouchers are unconstitutional and if schools accept them, We will have no alternative other than to institute litigation against [you].
Nice little private school you got there. Itd be a shame if an angry education monopoly sunk it with groundless lawsuits.
The letter demonstrates the unions desperation. Teachers unions hate vouchers because they require schools to compete on cost and quality, which means theyre unlikely to increase union rolls by hiring extra teachers. And the unions have every reason to be worried about Louisianas initiative: More than 10,000 kids have already signed up for the four-month-old program, five times as many as the state superintendent expected to sign up by this point.
Bill Maurer of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, tells me that this legal intimidation is unprecedented. The Institute for Justice and the Alliance for School Choice have retained a lawyer to defend these schools pro bono.
Louisianans interest in vouchers grew out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of the storm, which destroyed many of New Orleans schools, state legislators instituted a series of education reforms targeting students in the impoverished city. One of the reforms was a New Orleans-specific voucher program; another allowed independently run, largely non-unionized public charter schools to open in the city. Those reforms have proven both popular and successful. Based on this success, Gov. Bobby Jindal made passing a statewide school choice bill one of his top priorities after winning re-election with two-thirds of the vote in 2011.
This is not about the next election. This is not about the next poll. This is about the next generation, Jindal repeatedly told state legislators. If we want to preserve the American Dream for our children, if we want them to do better than we did, then it is important they get a great education...
Read more: Louisiana teachers' union threatens to sue private schools | The Daily Caller
Last week, a lawyer for a Louisiana teachers union wrote a letter to 95 private schools that have agreed to participate in the Pelican States new school voucher program. His message? That vouchers are unconstitutional and if schools accept them, We will have no alternative other than to institute litigation against [you].
Nice little private school you got there. Itd be a shame if an angry education monopoly sunk it with groundless lawsuits.
The letter demonstrates the unions desperation. Teachers unions hate vouchers because they require schools to compete on cost and quality, which means theyre unlikely to increase union rolls by hiring extra teachers. And the unions have every reason to be worried about Louisianas initiative: More than 10,000 kids have already signed up for the four-month-old program, five times as many as the state superintendent expected to sign up by this point.
Bill Maurer of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, tells me that this legal intimidation is unprecedented. The Institute for Justice and the Alliance for School Choice have retained a lawyer to defend these schools pro bono.
Louisianans interest in vouchers grew out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of the storm, which destroyed many of New Orleans schools, state legislators instituted a series of education reforms targeting students in the impoverished city. One of the reforms was a New Orleans-specific voucher program; another allowed independently run, largely non-unionized public charter schools to open in the city. Those reforms have proven both popular and successful. Based on this success, Gov. Bobby Jindal made passing a statewide school choice bill one of his top priorities after winning re-election with two-thirds of the vote in 2011.
This is not about the next election. This is not about the next poll. This is about the next generation, Jindal repeatedly told state legislators. If we want to preserve the American Dream for our children, if we want them to do better than we did, then it is important they get a great education...
Read more: Louisiana teachers' union threatens to sue private schools | The Daily Caller