Late last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the state of Louisiana, saying it had evidence the Louisiana Scholarship Program -- "private school vouchers," to the rest of us -- impeded longstanding desegregation orders last year in 13 local school systems. The suit would require the state to get approval in federal court before assigning vouchers to students from 34 systems, including those in Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes.
But state Education Superintendent John White says the program in fact benefits black students, who may attend private school at taxpayer expense if they had been enrolled at C-, D- or F-graded public schools.