Louisiana Lawmakers Should Look West Before Killing LA GATOR
Texas just offered a powerful lesson to every state debating school choice: when parents are given the option, they respond in overwhelming numbers. More than 100,000 families applied for Texas’ Education Freedom Accounts in just weeks. That surge sent a clear message — school choice is not a fringe issue. It is a kitchen-table issue.
Louisiana lawmakers would be wise to pay attention. In order to get to this point, Texas kicked several anti-school choice Republican legislators out of office less than two years ago. Nine of sixteen anti-school choice Republicans lost reelection and four others saw the writing on the wall and decided not to even try to run for reelection.
Gov. Jeff Landry has championed the LA GATOR education savings account program as a way to expand opportunity, particularly for low- and middle-income families who feel trapped in underperforming schools. Yet legislative hesitation over funding has slowed expansion, even as tens of thousands of Louisiana families express interest and many remain on waitlists.
The political environment has changed. School choice is no longer an abstract policy debate dominated by education unions and think tanks. It is a voter-driven movement. Parents are organizing. They are testifying. They are showing up.
In Texas, lawmakers who embraced choice were rewarded with national momentum and grassroots enthusiasm. The rapid uptake of the program validated their position and undercut union arguments that “no one wants this.” Louisiana legislators now face a similar crossroads.
Those who didn’t embrace choice are a relic of the past.
Ignoring parental demand for LA GATOR funding could carry real political risk. Voters who feel their children’s futures are being sidelined in favor of institutional resistance may remember that at the ballot box. Education consistently ranks as a top concern among families across party lines. When lawmakers appear to block expanded opportunity, challengers are quick to frame the issue as siding with systems over students.
This is not about partisanship. It is about political reality. Parents increasingly expect empowerment, not gatekeeping. Texas demonstrated what happens when leaders lean into that demand. Louisiana now has to decide whether it will lead or lag.
In today’s climate, education policy is electoral policy. Lawmakers who underestimate that shift may find that voters are paying closer attention than ever.