By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is spelling out some ugly truths about teachers unions and their role in stifling school choice for American families.

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In a speech Tuesday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Jindal told his audience that “Were it not for the teachers unions’ herculean efforts, every low-income family would have the opportunity to enroll their children into a better performing school – a school that meets the unique needs of their kids,” according to Real Clear Politics.

“To oppose school choice is to put the wishes of the adults who control the status quo ahead of the needs of children,” Jindal said. “To oppose school choice is to oppose equal opportunity for poor and disadvantaged kids in America.”

The union opposition to school choice, particularly Louisiana’s expanded private school voucher program, currently takes the form of a lawsuit against the state challenging the constitutionality of the program.

A district judge recently ruled in favor of the state teachers union, but the state has appealed the decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The progress with a pilot voucher program in New Orleans serves as convincing evidence that educational options outside of government schools have the potential to significantly boost student achievement, particularly with low-income and minority students who are often concentrated in the worst schools, Jindal said.

“Since 2007, the last five years alone, the percentage of students in New Orleans that are reading and doing math at grade level has more than doubled,” he said.

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But in Louisiana, Indiana, Wisconsin and other states that allow students to use vouchers to attend private schools, teachers unions and their allies are ignoring the evidence and using all of their political and legal might to fight school choice.

Local public school administrators have also spoken out against private school vouchers.

But these defenders of the status quo are simply looking out for themselves because they depend on the government school system for their livelihood. They loathe the idea of competing with private schools for students and the state funds that follow them.

Unfortunately, the government education system isn’t working for millions of K-12 students across the country who are trapped in dangerous, underachieving public schools. The teachers unions have demonstrated time and again that they have no interest in giving parents more educational options for their kids to escape their failing schools.

Thank goodness reformers like Jindal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and their like-minded colleagues are willing to tell the public like it is, and to fight for a proper education for all students.

“It is completely dishonest to pretend today that America provides equal opportunity in education,” Jindal told his audience. “We do not, and if you say that we do, you are lying. I would try to be more direct, but I don’t know how.”