Ed department plans for 2014-15 voucher program

BATON ROUGE (AP) — State education officials say 136 schools — including Central Catholic High School in Morgan City — have been deemed eligible to participate in the state private school tuition voucher program for the 2014-15 school year, although only 114 of them will be accepting new students.
The Department of Education on Monday released the application that eligible students will use to seek state-funded tuition for approved private schools through what is formally known as the Louisiana Scholarship Program.
Central Catholic has participated in the program since its inception. Holy Cross Elementary has never participated.
The program is aimed at low- to moderate-income households with children who otherwise would attend poorly performing public schools.
Ten new schools were deemed eligible to participate in the voucher program next school year. Eight schools that have been participating in the program have not performed well enough to accept new voucher students but voucher students already enrolled at those schools can continue to attend; 14 others are opting not to accept new voucher students while continuing in the program, the department said.
Nearly 12,000 students applied to participate in the Louisiana Scholarship Program last year, and approximately 6,700 students are currently enrolled in 126 participating schools, the department said.
Staff reporting contributed to this story.