The DOJ Attempt to Block School Vouchers in Louisiana Undermines Civil Rights

Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst :

The U.S. Department of Justice has entered into a lawsuit opposing Louisiana's voucher system. The state's program, passed into law in 2012, offers a voucher to attend a private school to students from families with incomes below 250% of the poverty line attending low performing public schools. Parents apply for the vouchers and to date about 90% of the recipients are black.

The DOJ is not intervening as you might naively expect because of concerns about the constitutionality of voucher programs, or because they believe that private schools in Louisiana discriminate, or because they think the state has designed its voucher program in a way that discriminates against minorities. No. Their argument is that the voucher program will have an impact on federal desegregation orders that require certain school districts to achieve a racial distribution in each of their schools that mirrors the racial composition of the district as a whole. So, if 40% of the school-aged population in these districts is black then each school has a target of 40% black enrollment.

Here is an example the DOJ provides of the harm caused by the voucher program they are intervening to halt:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 12, 2013 12:52 AM
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