The Louisiana Scholarship Program, launched three years after Hurricane Katrina, grants poor children the opportunity to escape failing public schools and attend a different school chosen by their parents, according to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Last year, the program helped over 5,700 needy children (91 percent of whom are minorities) and raised test scores – all while saving taxpayers $18 million.
Attorney General Holder’s Justice Department is suing to return 570 of these children to failing schools, on the grounds that it is more important to preserve a school’s racial make-up than help children, Toomey says. For example, the Justice Department argues that six African-American children should be returned to a failing elementary school, to change the school from 29.2 percent to 30.1 percent African-American. If these six children were white, the Justice Department would not be trying to deny them a better education.
Toomey wants to know why and is demanding an explanation.
“Our children are not statistics,” he said. “They are young minds that deserve every opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty and violence through a good education. The fact that Attorney General Holder would block any child from obtaining a good education is bad enough. The fact that he is doing so based solely on the children’s race is inexcusable. These 570 kids deserve to know why they are not entitled to the best education possible. The American taxpayers deserve to know why their money is being spent to undermine their learning.”
Toomey Fights Holder, Defends Children
