By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

BATON ROUGE, La. – Teacher union officials are rejoicing over news that Louisiana officials have barred seven private schools from accepting any new voucher students, due to the schools’ poor academic results.

Leaders of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers say the news is proof the entire private school voucher program is flawed and should be scrapped.

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They couldn’t be more wrong.

According to NOLA.com, 4,700 Louisiana students currently participate in the voucher program, which “was designed to give students in failing public schools some public money to pay tuition at private schools.”

Under the voucher law, private schools have three years to show that their voucher students are making academic progress, as determined by the state’s standardized tests. If the students don’t show signs of improvement, the state can bar the schools from accepting any more voucher kids.

“That’s what tripped up the seven schools now forbidden to accept new vouchers,” NOLA.com writes.

Union official Mary-Patricia Wray described the program as “sending kids from failing school to failing school, basically.”

“This should signal that it’s now time to work on improving the quality of public education instead of just providing unproven alternatives to it,” she added.

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Not so fast.

The state’s decision to cut off new funding to these low-performing schools is actually an indication of how well the program is designed.

Think of it this way: When was the last time a chronically lousy government school went out of business or was denied state funding? We’re not aware of a single time that’s ever occurred.

Instead, leaders of bad public schools use their failure to extort ever-larger “investments” from the state.

Compare that to what’s going to happen to these seven unsuccessful private schools.

While the schools will still able to retain the voucher students they already have (something lawmakers might want to reexamine), they will eventually wither on the vine and blow away, never more to bother taxpayers.

As State Superintendent of Education John White put it, “After a period of time, we cannot tolerate failure.”

Holding schools accountable for their performance and shutting them down if they don’t do the job – isn’t that a refreshing change?

Don’t expect Louisiana’s teacher unions to mention that aspect of the story. Instead, they’ll keep harping on the failure of these seven schools, in hopes of turning taxpayers against the voucher program.

That would be a shame.

As NOLA.com columnist James Varney writes, a voucher school can fail once in a while without it signaling that the voucher program is flawed.

“The idea money should follow the student for which it is intended, and that schools should have to appeal to parents and kids just the way any other significant product must, remains solid,” Varney concludes.