Jindal on School Choice Success in Louisiana

"Despite the ability for school choice to change this, the left fights to stop it, in the name of union special interests and on the spurious grounds that it will harm public education.

This is nonsense. The hypocrisy that the left perpetuates is this: Poor parents are not allowed school choice, but rich parents can buy it.

But not in New Orleans, not in Louisiana and not on my watch. Thanks to the reforms we passed, the dollars follow the child instead of the child following the dollars. That means every child has the opportunity to go to any school, regardless of geography or income.

Ninety-three percent of students in New Orleans attend charter schools -- the highest percentage in the nation --

That's because we created a publicly funded scholarship program for low income students, which we then expanded statewide; implemented a centralized enrollment system for all the types of choice in New Orleans called OneApp; and streamlined the charter application process.

The turnaround since 2005 shows a true Louisiana comeback:

-- Before Katrina, only 545 in the city were graduating from high school, now 73% are." CNN