How will Jindal's private school initiative effect Louisiana's Catholic Schools?

Limited capacity at Catholic schools for vouchers

Associated Press
Posted on February 14, 2012 at 2:38 PM

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's Catholic schools could take in only a sliver of the students who would be eligible under Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to use state tax dollars to send children to private schools.

As many as 380,000 students would meet the eligibility requirements under Jindal's plans. But under an informal tally, the state's Catholic schools — which make up two-thirds of the state's private and parochial schools — estimate they could fit about 1,000 of those voucher students.

That would greatly limit the capacity of whatever program might get approval from lawmakers in the upcoming session that begins March 12, raising questions about why the Republican governor is pushing so hard for the legislation and whether opponents are overreacting when predicting a voucher program could decimate public school funding.