Jindal voucher overhaul unconstitutionally diverts public funds to private schools, judge rules

By Lauren McGaughy, NOLA.com

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's school voucher overhaul was dealt a blow Friday when a Baton Rouge area judge declared the diversion of public money by the voucher program to private schools unconstitutional.

The ruling, which came almost immediately after a three-day long court hearing, came in two parts.

The first part of Judge Tim Kelley's ruling declared that the law passed to implement the controversial program -- Senate Concurrent Resolution 99 -- was done in a valid and constitutional manner.

He also ruled Act 2 -- the voucher overhaul -- did not violate the "single object" requirement of the state constitution allowing for a bill to only effect one policy at a time.

But in the second part of his ruling, Kelley declared the diversion of funds from the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) -- the formula under which per pupil public education funds are calculated -- to private entities was unconstitutional.

Gov. Jindal commented on the ruling Friday afternoon:

"Today's ruling is wrong headed and a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education. That opportunity is a chance that every child deserves and we will continue the fight to give it to them.

"The opinion sadly ignores the rights of families who do not have the means necessary to escape failing schools. On behalf of the citizens that cast their votes for reform, the parents who want more choices, and the kids who deserve a chance, we will appeal today's decision, and I'm confident we will prevail. This ruling changes nothing for the students currently in the program. All along, we expected this to be decided by the Louisiana Supreme Court," the statement added.

Louisiana Superintendent John White also issued a statement saying, "We strongly disagree with the ruling. We are optimistic this decision will be reversed on appeal."

The suit was brought by Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT), Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), Louisiana School Boards Association and 43 local school boards.

LFT Public Relations Director Les Landon told NOLA.com he felt very emotional after the ruling.

"This is a win for all of the children of Louisiana -- and for the taxpayers," he said Friday afternoon after the ruling.

Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., agreed in a statement issued Friday after the ruling.

"It is no surprise that State District Judge Tim Kelley today ruled the unnecessarily aggressive and overreaching statewide voucher program unconstitutional. A strategic use of state-funded vouchers could be appropriate, but this diversion of public education dollars was a step too far and diminishes resources for meaningful reform efforts already underway at the local level," she said.

Outside the 19th District Court in Baton Rouge, where the ruling was made, Louisiana Association of Educators President Joyce Haynes said the ruling was a triumph for the teachers associations and school boards.

Closing arguments in the case were made Friday morning. Brian Blackwell, Larry Samuel and Bob Hammonds represented the teachers unions and school boards while Gov. Bobby Jindal lawyer Jimmy Faircloth represented the state.

State Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, a witness in the case who testified Wednesday, told NOLA.com "none of us are happy with the state of public education. We all need to work together to improve it but we are truly a nation of laws and we never have the option to do that which is constitutional."

The LFT has also filed a separate suit against Act 1 -- another part of the education overhaul -- of the legislative session, also because it violated the single objection requirement. 

Soledad O’Brien schools Republican Rep. claiming Ryan Medicare plan ‘not vouchers’

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has become the latest Republican to go up against CNN host Soledad O’Brien on the issue of Medicare and lose.

During an interview on Friday, O’Brien called out Chaffetz after he tried to claim that that Medicare plans offered by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), would not turn the program into a voucher system.

“Let’s keep to the facts that President [Barack] Obama did take $700 billion out of Medicare,” Chaffetz told O’Brien.

“We’ve now had this conversation 15 times at least,” O’Brien noted, shaking her head. “As you know, it’s not taking money out of Medicare, right? It’s a decrease in spending over time and it’s a decrease that you yourself, I assume, voted for, right? In Paul Ryan’s budget in 2011 and 2012, he had that same number in his budget. Didn’t you vote for that?”

“It’s not exactly the same number,” Chaffetz replied. “I did vote in favor of the two budgets.”

“But now you’re criticizing something that you voted for twice, right?,” O’Brien observed.

“It’s a totally different approach,” the Utah Republican maintained. “For instance, the Independent Payment Advisory Board — IPAB — is not something that I support, but is something that takes that $700 billion that Obama took and puts it into the control of these bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”

“At the end of the day, that same number crunching was voted on by virtually every single Republican in 2011 and then again in 2012. That is fair to say,” O’Brien pointed out, adding that both Romney and Ryan had promised to “save” Medicare by turning it into a “voucher program.”

“No, it’s not!” Chaffetz objected.

“It’s not a voucher program?” O’Brien wondered.

“It is not a voucher program,” Chaffetz insisted. “It is a premium support, and that is totally different than a voucher program. And every time somebody says, ‘Oh, it’s a voucher program,’ it’s false, it’s misleading, it’s derogatory and it’s inaccurate. That is not what it does.”

“You will give people money to go and buy their own insurance, right?” O’Brien pressed. “But we’re arguing over symantics. At the end of the day, isn’t it — you would give someone money to buy their own insurance.”

“No, a premium support program is different than a voucher program,” Chaffetz repeated.

“Walk me through how it’s different,” O’Brien dared the congressman.

“Because some people that have maybe more needs or medical needs or they have less income, they’re going to have more flexibility and more assets to go and do what they need to do in order to have some choice and flexibility and create competition in the marketplace,” Chaffetz explained.

“Which is they get a voucher to go buy something!” O’Brien concluded.

On Monday, John Sununu, who serves as the chairman of Romney’s national steering committee, had also lashed out at O’Brien after she tried to fact check his claims about Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as it exists today and turn it into a voucher system.

“Soledad, stop this!” Sununu shouted. “All you’re doing is mimicking the stuff that comes out of the White House and gets repeated on the Democratic blog boards out there.”

“I’m telling you what Factcheck.com tells you, I’m telling you what the CBO tells you, I’m telling you what CNN’s independent analysis says,” the CNN host explained.

“Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead when you do this!” the frustrated surrogate quipped.

“You know, let me tell you something,” O’Brien said. “There is independent analysis that details what this is about. … And name calling to me and somehow by you repeating a number of $716 billion, that you can make that stick when [you say] that figure is being ‘stolen’ from Medicare, that’s not true. You can’t just repeat it and make it true, sir.”

And then on Wednesday, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Romney’s national campaign co-chair, became flustered and suggested that O’Brien couldn’t understand plain English after she pushed back on his claim that is was “absolutely beyond factual dispute that [Obama] has cut $716 billion” from Medicare.

“I speak English incredibly well, sir, as you know,” O’Brien told Pawlenty.

Earlier this week, PolitiFact determined that it was “mostly true” that the plans offered by Romney and Ryan would turn Medicare into a voucher system.

“We agree that in the world of policy wonks, there are distinctions between ‘vouchers’ and ‘premium support,’ having to do with the type of inflation adjustment used and the degree of marketplace regulation imposed,” the fact-checking publication wrote. “But the Romney-Ryan approach pretty much matches the dictionary definition of ‘a form or check indicating a credit against future purchases or expenditures.’ … For a political discussion aimed at voters rather than policy wonks, we think Obama’s use of the term ‘voucher’ is close enough to earn it a rating of Mostly True.”

Watch this video from CNN’s Starting Point, broadcast Aug. 17, 2012.

On Veteran’s Day, Romney suggests ‘voucher’ system for vet benefits

By David Edwards/Raw Story

At an Veteran’s Day campaign event in South Carolina Friday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney hinted that he might introduce “private sector competition” for veterans’ health care and other benefits.

Romney told a group of veterans at Mutt’s BBQ in Mauldin that it might be possible to create a “voucher” system.

“When you work in the private sector and you have a competitor, you know if I don’t treat this customer right, they’re going to leave me and go somewhere else,” the candidate said. “Whereas if you’re the government, they know there’s nowhere else you guys can go. You’re stuck.”

Romney added: “Sometimes you wonder if there would be some way to introduce some private sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know, each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them. And then they can choose whether they want to go into the government system or the private system with the money that follows them.”

“Like what happens in Florida, where people have a voucher that goes with them. Who knows?”

Last week, the former Massachusetts governor proposed a Medicare overhaul that would also include the option of vouchers, a plan similar to one offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) earlier this year.

A Bloomberg Government study found that the Ryan plan would result in very little health care savings.

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Nov. 11, 2011.

Sen. Kit Bond Wants To Privatize Medicare With Vouchers

By Matt Corley In his interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric before the Super Bowl earlier this week, President Obama said that he was going to ask Republicans to put their health care ideas “on the table.” “What I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there,” said Obama. “How do you guys want to lower costs?”

Just days before Obama made his call for GOP health care ideas, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) offered a radical proposal for reform in a conversation with the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. According to a blog post by the editorial board, Bond called on Friday for giving means-tested vouchers to Medicare enrollees:

Even before he asked, Missouri’s senior U.S. senator was outlining his: Privatize Medicare and limit benefits for upper-income retirees. Meeting with Post-Dispatch editors and reporters on Friday, Mr. Bond called for radical changes to the federal health insurance program that covers 45 million elderly and disabled Americans.

Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has provided the same basic package of benefits to everyone, regardless of income. On Friday, Mr. Bond called for giving Medicare enrollees a voucher to buy health insurance on their own. “You’re going to have to means-test the benefits,” he said, adding that upper income retirees wouldn’t “get much of a voucher.”

Though Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and RNC Chairman Michael Steele have made protecting Medicare part of their argument against President Obama’s health care reform plans, Bond isn’t the alone in dreaming of dismantling the system. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told ThinkProgress last weekend that Americans should be weaned off Medicare. In his recent alternative budget proposal and the one he released in April 2009, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) advocated giving vouchers to everyone 54 and younger instead of having them enter the traditional Medicare program. It is unclear whether Bond is referring to current enrollees or just future enrollees.

Bond also isn’t the only Missouri Republican with disdain for Medicare. In July 2009, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who is hoping to succeed Bond after he retires, suggested to a conservative Missouri radio host that the “government should have never” started Medicare or Medicaid.