BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana lawmakers will soon vote on legislation that would carve out a new school district from the existing East Baton Rouge Parish School System and provide the new “breakaway” school system with funding.

On one hand, the decision looks like a no-brainer.

Twenty of East Baton Rouge Parish’s 85 schools recently received an F-rating from the state, reports TheAdvocate.com.

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Proponents of the “breakaway” plan say a smaller school district would be “more responsive to students’ needs and would allow students to attend schools in their own neighborhoods, rather than be bused to other parts of the city,” reports NOLA.com.

But – once again – what’s best for students is being weighed against what’s best for the adult school employees.

According to NOLA.com, opponents of the plan – which includes the Louisiana Federation of Teachers – argue that shrinking the existing East Baton Rouge district would also shrink its tax base, leaving it with “less revenue to work with as it tries to address growing retirement and health benefit costs – expenses that won’t decrease with fewer students.”

State lawmakers in the House of Representatives might very well approve the “breakaway” and funding plans. Both bills have already passed the Senate.

However, since school funding matters are a constitutional issue, Louisiana voters would have final say over the plan in the November 2014 election.

If the plan eventually becomes law and a new school system is created, 10 existing East Baton Rouge Parish schools would be reassigned to the new district, along with roughly 7,100 students.

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Opponents of the plan are already laying the groundwork for a statewide campaign against the effort. In addition to claiming that the plan would create a financial disaster for the existing East Baton Rouge Parish school system, opponents claim the effort “is a thinly veiled attempt to remove white students from failing Baton Rouge schools and place them in the new system,” NOLA.com reports.

Proponents of the plan counter that 57 percent of the students in the new system would be African-American.

“This is not a diversity issue. This is an education issue,” said Norman Browning, a supporter of the breakaway plan and president of Local Schools for Local Children, in a speech earlier this year.