Louisiana Supreme Court Strikes Down Funding Mechanism For Jindal Education Reforms

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL) -- The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday morning that the way in which the state's education voucher program is funded violated the state's constitution.

Tuesday's 6-1 decision upholds a state district court ruling that the state constitution forbids using money earmarked for public schools in the state's Minimum Foundation Program to pay for private school tuition.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said his organization had been arguing that since the beginning.

"That's where we centered the argument, and that's what the court has addressed, and so  it did play out exactly like we thought it would when we started the contest," Monoghan said.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, though, called the voucher program "alive and well" in a release sent to members of the media Tuesday afternoon, and he assured parents of the 8,000 students scheduled to take part in the program next year that they would still be placed.

"We're disappointed the funding mechanism was rejected, but we are committed to making sure this program continues and we will fund it through the budget," Jiindal said.

It remains unclear how the program will be funded, now that use of the MFP money has been struck down.