Fr. Andrew Greeley, an eminent sociologist of religion who also happened to be probably the best-selling priest-novelist of all time andthe Catholic church's most prominent in-house critic, died Wednesday inChicago. He was 85.I read several of Greeley's racy novels, starting with The Cardinal Sins, his first best seller. Greeley insists the mildly erotic passages in his fiction sprang from his imagination, for he asserts that he never broke his vow of celibacy. I believe him.
Over the course of a career that generated a staggering 72 nonfiction books and 66 novels, Greeley became the voice of the liberal American Catholicism of his generation -- critical, but deeply loyal. Greeley could be too Catholic for both some on the secular left and the most embittered of the church's dissidents, as well as too outspokenly liberal for the Catholic establishment, but he was always a compelling and commercially successful player on the American stage.
"At the most basic level, people learn from the novels that sex is good," Greeley said. "Then they get the notion that sexual love is a sacrament of God's love, that sexual love tells us something about God. They also understand that God's love tells us something about sex."The idea that sex is good, a gift from God, which many Roman Catholics had already discovered without the help of the celibate authorities in the church, was affirmed publicly for the first time by a prominent member of the RC clergy for many - um - practicing Roman Catholics, whose consciences had been disturbed generation after generation by the intrusions of Roman Catholic clergy into their bedrooms.
The National Catholic Register, for example, opined that Greeley had "the dirtiest mind ever ordained."Oh, I doubt that very much. Whoever wrote the words in the article, ordained or not, probably had a dirtier mind than Greeley, because he had to have read a lot of dirt to know that Greeley's mind was the dirtiest.
The progressive Catholic values of the 1960s informed Greeley's approach, both to secular politics and to the church. Over the years, he supported ordaining married men and women as priests, attacked what he saw as the inflated power of the Vatican, and railed against what he termed the "original sin" of clerical culture: envy. He was no less a lefty in secular terms; his last nonfiction book was titled A Stupid, Unjust and Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007."The progressive values of the 1960s" were right and true. That the RCC backed away from the values was a sad mistake.
Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Andrew. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
Nyada Dué deGravelles, on Wednesday, May 23, 2013, entered into eternal rest at the age of 88.Nyada was a lovely woman who lived the Gospel of love and service to the fullest, and despite "the changes and chances of this mortal life," of which she had her share, she nearly always had a smile on her face like the smile in the picture. Today family and friends bade farewell to Nyada at St John's, the church community that she loved and served so well over many years, where she will be greatly missed.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend the visitation from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 a.m. until funeral time Wednesday at St. John's Episcopal Church on Jackson St. in Thibodaux. A Mass of Christian burial will be at noon Wednesday at the church, with burial in the church cemetery.
She is survived by her son, J.P. deGravelles and wife, Bridgette; daughters, Pamela deGravelles and Trudy deGravelles Bourgeois and husband, Kenneth; brother, Paul H. Dué; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Norbert "Nobby" deGravelles; and parents, Paul Dué and Elva Nase.
Nyada was a native of Covington. and lived in Thibodaux for 67 years.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in her name may be made to St. John's Episcopal Church-UTO fund.
Landry's Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Into thy hands, O merciful Savior, we commend thy servant Nyada. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, a sheep of thine own fold, a lamb of thine own flock, a sinner of thine own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of thy mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer)
As the sun set that first night, turning the rocks and cliffs and plateaus red and pink, the moon rose over the altar. Yes. Literally. The people sang. Dare to forgive. God will be with you. Let those who are thirsty, come.Beautiful, powerful, prayerful, eloquent. Read it all.
And I wept. Tears of joy. Tears of amazement. Pent up tears. Tears I couldn't name because I didn't know their source. Tears of unknowingness. Tears that carved away a Bad Lands in my heart, exposed strong soul cliffs and washed away the unnecessary earth.
And I was not alone in weeping. And it was good.
Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, we pray for all those who have died in wars. We pray the they may rest in peace in the perpetual light of your love. We pray for your blessing upon the families and friends of all those who have died in service to their country. Console them for their aching loss. Bring them healing of body, mind, and spirit. Give them strength and courage to go forward, and Lord God, above all else, give them your peace that passes understanding to keep their minds and hearts.
“We’re talking about real snakes; not the two-legged kind?” state Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, asked Thursday.Ha ha ha.
State Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, had a similar reaction.
“Are we talking about snakes that slither or the kind of snakes with last names,” he asked. “If we’re here working amongst snakes, I guess I need to find out if this is biblical or not.”
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| Water snakes? |
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| PEREDA, Antonio de The Holy Trinity Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest |
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.Image from the Web Gallery of Art.
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And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
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And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’
(Gospel of John, Chapter 1)
That's right, Superintendent White, blame the public schools for the less than stellar results of the brilliant plan by you and Governor Jindal to improve education in Louisiana by privatization. I'm not at all surprised at the results. At least some of the voucher schools teach junk science and junk history. What do you expect? Roman Catholic schools do a creditable job of educating children, but it appears that a good many of the new "academies" that sprang into existence when vouchers became available to private schools are not the solution to poor performance by educational institutions in Louisiana.As Gov. Bobby Jindal tries again to fund his controversial school voucher program, new test scores indicate that many of the current students educated with public money in private schools are not thriving. Or at least they aren't yet.
Released Wednesday, LEAP scores for third- through eighth-graders show only 40 percent of voucher students scored at or above grade level this past spring. The state average for all students was 69 percent.
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[Superintendent John] White said the 2013 scores for voucher students were low because of the large influx of students from failing schools.
Come now, Mr White, no more excuses for the poor results in the private school voucher program that you and Governor Jindal esteem so highly; take responsibility for the consequences of your grand plan. If the two had their way, the end result would be the gradual destruction of public school systems in the state, and what would replace them? More "academies"?"Anytime you start something new, it's going to take some time to grow," White said. "Nearly two thirds of the kids taking tests in those schools had only been there six months."
And he pointed out that the state did take seven schools off the voucher list. "After a period of time we cannot tolerate failure," he said.
Jesus also taught us to beware the leaven of the Pharisees within and among ourselves. Indeed, whilst he said absolutely nothing about what we call homosexuality (hardly surprising, since the concept was not defined until 1892) he said an enormous amount about using the law to lay burdens on others harder than they could bear, not treating others as you would have them treat you, failing to see the human being in need for the child of God they are, erecting the small matters of the law into crucial shibboleths that confound the purpose of the law, thinking that searching the scriptures in itself will bring life, supposing that people were made for the sabbath not the sabbath for people, and so I could go on. St John tells us that it is futile to think that we are loving the God we have never seen, if we do not love towards the person we have seen.Read the letter in its entirety. As I said, it is excellent.
Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the nation and the weakest gun safety laws, according to a recent national study, and state lawmakers are moving to expand the already permissive statutes.According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks gun regulations around the nation, Louisiana's push is contrary to a national trend toward strengthening firearm laws after the recent Connecticut mass school shooting.
"It puts Louisiana in the same category as a minority of states that spend time on largely symbolic measures," said Laura Cutilletta, senior staff attorney for the Law Center. "These laws clearly are not going to be upheld. It's something the courts will have to decide, not the states."Correlation between weak gun laws and gun violence? What are you thinking? Our leaders will permit no such thoughts to influence legislation here in Louisiana. Oh, and the lawmakers here rather habitually pass symbolic laws that will not hold up when challenged in court, and our tax money will be used to defend the legislation, to no good purpose that I can fathom. Oh wait; I thought of a reason: To ensure that the voters of Louisiana will reelect the legislators to pass even more symbolic laws.
But in Louisiana, bills aimed at toughening regulations on weapons never made it past the first debate, including one that would have required owners to secure their weapons in a locked box or with some type of safety trigger when stored in a home.When I consider the number of accidental shootings by children who had access to loaded firearms, such a law seems quite sensible to me, but that's just me.
The total operating expense associated with the privatization of nine LSU hospitals will hit $1 billion during the new fiscal year, Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols said Thursday.Kristy Nicholls says that the state will benefit in the long run, but I'll hold my applause until a source outside the Jindal administration breaks down the figures. As you may or may not know, in Jindal's plan to ditch personal and business income taxes and make up the difference in sales taxes, the math did not compute. I'm not sure what method the administration uses, but the numbers don't always pan out as presented. When Jindal realized that his tax plan was DOA in the Legislature, he withdrew the mess at the last minute.
That’s more than is in the current year’s budget — $955 million — for the state to operate the charity hospitals.
And more than the $626 million Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed for private companies to operate the public hospitals in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Nichols said the administration would submit amendments to the state Senate Finance Committee to close the funding gap, recommending using some money from hospital leases as well as other state and local revenues.
Even though governors and lawmakers in five Deep South states oppose a plan to cover more people through Medicaid under the health care overhaul, 62 percent of the people in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina support expanding the program, according to a new poll.There you have it. The voice of the majority does not prevail, and many of the citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi will go without health insurance, because their governors are ideologues who do not put the welfare of the citizens first. Of course, when the governor has national ambitions, he has to keep one eye on the Tea Party and the other on Grover Norquist, with no third eye to look at the hardships he inflicts on the residents of his own state.
The level of support for expanding Medicaid – the state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled – ranged from a low of 59 percent in Mississippi to a high of 65 percent in South Carolina, according to the poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a leading research and public policy think tank that focuses on African-Americans and other people of color.
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But the five states in the poll, all led by Republican governors, have decided not to participate. Ironically, Mississippi and Louisiana rank dead last among all states in the overall health of their residents, according to America’s Health Ranking, an annual report by the United Health Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the insurer UnitedHealth Group.
Whoever recommended that I read The Promise by Chaim Potok, thank you. Once I began reading the novel, I could hardly put it down. A major theme in the story is the age-old conflict between fundamentalists, who read the Talmud literally, and those who engage in critical reading of the sacred texts - a conflict which continues throughout the history of Judaism and Christianity until the present day. The people who adhere strictly to a literal reading of the sacred texts, Jewish and Christian, do so in the face of contradictory passages that appear impossible to reconcile. Other passages in the text don't really make sense unless one assumes the possibility of a mistake in copying a manuscript and explores different wording that make the passage understandable."Of course, that's the problem,"he said to me once. "How can we teach others to regard the tradition critically and with love? I grew up loving it, and then learned to look at it critically. That's everyone's problem today. How to love and respect what you are being taught to dissect."One great benefit from reading the book is that I came away with the reminder that no one is "other" and that no matter how deep and broad the disagreements, our opponents are human, like us, and deserving of respect because of our common humanity and, if we are people of faith, because we are all of us God's creation and beloved of God. In that sense, the novel was life-giving in a way that was completely unexpected. I heartily recommend the book.
American teachers spend on average 1,080 hours teaching each year. Across the O.E.C.D., the average is 794 hours on primary education, 709 hours on lower secondary education, and 653 hours on upper secondary education general programs.Why?
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American teachers’ pay is more middling. The average public primary-school teacher who has worked 15 years and has received the minimum amount of training, for example, earns $43,633, compared to the O.E.C.D. average of $39,007.
The prayers of Episcopalians are with the people of Oklahoma in the midst of this tragic event. May the spirit of God hover over the broken, lost, and grieving, and may they meet the love of God in their neighbors’ responses.Prayer after a tornado especially for those who were directly impacted by the storm.
Merciful God,(Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Hear our cry for mercy in the wake of wind and water.
Reveal your presence in the midst of their suffering.
Help them to trust in your promises of hope and life
so that desperation and grief will not overtake them.
Come quickly to their aid that they may know peace and joy again.
Strengthen them in this time of trial
with assurance of hope in the death and resurrection
of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A few days ago, the book arrived in my mailbox, but I have not yet read it. I have thumbed through and found brief passages much to my liking, such as the words quoted above."You must let go of all conception of what eternity is, which means letting go of who you are, in order to feel the truth of eternity and its meaning in your life - and in your death."
My Bright Abyss; Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman.
A Tullahoma man is accused of shooting his 13-month-old baby girl Sunday night while cleaning a handgun at the family's home.Why is the police chief astounded or surprised by stories of reckless handling or storage of loaded guns? I decided to limit my series of reports of accidental shootings to infants and children, because I could not keep up with the weekly numbers if I included adults. I don't even manage to keep up with all the reports of children who are victims of accidental shootings.
Kevin Sayre, 26, faces a charge of aggravated assault after police said he was cleaning the 9mm gun at the East Gate Apartments when the weapon fired, striking the baby in the chest.
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The child is listed in critical but stable condition.
"We're always disappointed, astounded, surprised when we heard of someone who is handling a firearm recklessly, neglectfully," said Tullahoma Police Chief Paul Blackwell.
Twice last week I missed parts of a movie and a TV show, because I'm visually squeamish about scenes that are too violent, too bloody, or too frightening. Obviously, my aversions rather limit what I watch. I read about the movies I select for my Netflix queue, and sometimes when the films arrive in my mailbox several weeks later, I wonder why I chose them.
The BBC series, The Bletchley Circle, tells a story of four women, Susan, Millie, Jean, and Lucy, who worked at Bletchley, the top secret code-breaking headquarters in England during WWII, and have moved on with their lives post-WWII. When a serial murderer kills a number of women, and the police cannot discover the identity of the murderer to stop the killings, the four join together, using their skills developed at Blatchley, to help find the killer. When the police refuse to take seriously the information given them by the women, they decide to find the killer on their own. In the final episode of the three Susan finds a clue, and, in true mystery story convention, she goes off alone to find the murderer and puts herself in great jeopardy. Without spoiling the ending, I'll just say that I could not watch the frightening scenes, and, once again, I missed necessary parts of the drama. And how could I spoil the end anyway, if I didn't see it? |
| An icon of the Christian Pentecost, in the Greek Orthodox tradition. This is the Icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. At the bottom is an allegorical figure, called Kosmos, which symbolizes the world. |
Image from Wikipedia.The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
T S Eliot - "Little Gidding"
The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office is investigating a shooting at the Haymeadow Trailer Park in Bossier City that sent an 11-year-old boy to the hospital.The injuries to the 11 year old boy are not life-threatening, and the shooting was determined to be accidental. Will anyone be held responsible for owning a loaded hand-gun which is accessible to children?
Authorities say two boys, aged 11 and 13, were at the older child's home around 4 p.m. Friday when the teen accidently shot the 11-year-old in the abdomen with a .22 handgun revolver. The weapon belongs to a family member of the teenager.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.The "well-regulated" descriptive in the 2nd Amendment is completely ignored by those opposed to regulations on gun ownership. Before the spate of mass shootings, an incident such as the above may not have been the subject of a news report, so perhaps we should consider that we are making progress.
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| John C. White |
Southwood High School junior Randall Gunn is a straight-A student.Our whiz kid State Superintendent of Education, John C. White, touts the course on the state website.
So when the school’s principal saw his name come up as registering to retake several courses online, it immediately raised a red flag. Gunn was called into a counselor’s office and told he was enrolled in three Course Choice classes — all of which he already had passed standardized tests with exceptional scores.
“I had no clue what was going on,” Gunn said. “I have no reason to take these classes and still don’t know who signed me up.”
More than 1,100 Caddo and Webster students have signed up to participate in what some say are questionable Course Choice programs. According to parents, students, and Webster and Caddo education officials, FastPath Learning is signing up some students it shouldn’t — in many cases without parent or student knowledge.
“This all goes back to all of the education reforms that were passed within eight days during last year’s session. This is what you get,” state Rep. Gene Reynolds, D-Dubberly, said of the apparent lack of oversight. “I’m not saying the idea was bad, but they are not doing it the way it should be done.”Oops! Oversight missing. If you read the entire article at the Alexandria Town Talk, you will see that the tactics used by FastPath to sign up students are no more than flim-flammery on a scale which boggles the mind. The Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled that public school funds cannot be used to pay for courses offered by private entities. Last year, the purveyors of the courses were paid with funds taken from local public school districts, and apparently no definitive decision has yet been made by the Department of Education as to whether the company can continue to sign up students for the online courses with public school funds.
But that’s not the message Webster Parish education leaders are getting from Baton Rouge. Morris Busby, the district’s supervisor of secondary education, said he was “joyous, but cautiously joyous” with the court ruling. But the next day, he was still trying to get clarification from the state’s Course Choice counselors and got the impression state education officials are “bent on going ahead."If they believe they can get away with it, Jindal and Co. appear determined to circumvent the court ruling against using public school funds to pay private entities of one kind or another to "educate" the children of Louisiana.
A man accidentally shot himself in the leg while bowling at Jupiter Lanes about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Witnesses said the man had been carrying a gun in the pocket of his shorts.I did not realize this sort of incident happened so often. Or is the media just beginning to take note? The consequences this time are not grave, but they could have been. Bowling with a loaded pistol in his pocket? Is this man a responsible gun owner?
"The guy just stepped up to bowl," Jim Miller said. "I think he hit his leg on his back swing."
Added fellow witness Mike Martin: "The ball hit him in the leg, which triggered the revolver."
So. I slept till 9:39 AM by the clock today, although I went to sleep at my usual time of midnight or 12:30 AM. Grandpère kept looking into the room to see if I had died in my sleep, but he did not wake me, for which I'm grateful. I rarely get the 8 hours recommended sleep, as I average about 7 or somewhat less, which is not bad, but I do love to sleep. I'm a night owl who can't go to bed early, and then I have to read myself to sleep. Reading is my sleeping pill.
James Gill, who has been lampooning Louisiana politicians for more than a quarter of a century, will join The Advocate this week.James, the TP is no longer what most people would call a daily.
Gill’s column will appear on The Advocate’s opinion pages on Thursday and Sunday, beginning this week.
He had been appearing in The Times-Picayune.
“We’re looking forward to having James appear in our newspaper,” said Peter Kovacs, the Advocate’s editor.
“I was privileged to be James’ editor at The Times-Picayune, and the best part of the job was being the first person in Louisiana to read his column.”
“Louisiana has always been fertile ground for a newspaperman, but these are particularly exciting times,” Gill said. “Few other places have the benefit of competing dailies.”
Today’s announcement marks the second time in a week that prominent journalists from The Times-Picayune signed on with The Advocate.A number of subscribers stayed with the TP for Gill's columns, so now what? The Advocate's New Orleans edition has a way to go to before it becomes a real New Orleans daily, since it lacks its own op-ed page and coverage of arts, entertainment, weddings, and obituaries, but they're moving in the right direction.
Last week, two Pulitzer prize-winning editors and two reporters left The Times-Picayune to join The Advocate’s growing New Orleans bureau only days after the newspaper was purchased by businessman John Georges.
In a shooting so brazen that it shocked a city hardened by recurrent gun violence, 19 people were rushed to local hospitals after gunmen opened fire on hundreds who had turned out for an annual Mother’s Day second line parade in the 7th Ward.Yes, it's got to stop, but how? It's way past time for Police Chief Serpas and Mayor Landrieu to deliver on their promises to reduce the the number of shootings in New Orleans, or my beloved home town will die a slow death from the rampant violence.
The attackers sprayed the crowd with bullets, despite the fact that police were embedded in the parade and several of the revelers were children.
The victims included 10 adult men, seven adult women, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, said officer Garry Flot, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman. The 10-year-olds suffered graze wounds, as did most of the victims, Flot said. Many of the victims’ injuries were not serious, he said.
Jeb Tate, a spokesman for New Orleans EMS, said three of the nine people paramedics rushed to Interim LSU Public Hospital following the shooting were in critical condition.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu visited several of the victims in their hospital rooms, then, in a somber tone, told reporters that “the specialness of the day doesn’t seem to interrupt the relentless drumbeat of violence on the streets of New Orleans. ... It’s got to stop.”
Continuing with the Hamlet theme... 
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| John Barrymore as Hamlet, 1922 |
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| Stained glass in Julian's cell |
And from the time that [the vision] was shown, I desired often to know what our Lord's meaning was. And fifteen years and more afterward I was answered in my spiritual understanding, thus: 'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'From the Lectionary.
Thus I was taught that love was our Lord's meaning. And I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made us, he loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his work, and in this love he has made all things profitable to us. And in this love our life is everlasting. In our creation we had a beginning. But the love wherein he made us was in him with no beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end ...
Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.(Lesser Feasts and Fasts of The Episcopal Church.)
"How did it happen?" the doctor asked the middle-aged farmhand as he set the man's broken leg.
"Well, doc, 25 years ago . . . ."
"Never mind the past. Tell me how you broke your leg this morning."
"Like I was saying, doc, 25 years ago, when I first started working on the farm, that night, right after I'd gone to bed, the farmer's beautiful daughter came into my room. She asked me if there was anything I wanted. I said, 'No, everything is fine.' 'Are you sure?' she asked. 'I'm sure,' I said.
'Isn't there anything I can do for you?' she wanted to know. 'I reckon not,' I replied."
"Excuse me," said the doctor, "What does this story have to do with your leg?"
"Well, this morning," the farmhand explained, "when it dawned on me what she meant, I fell off the roof!"
Cheers,
Paul (A.)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Monday that it had arrested a Minnesota man for plotting a “localized terror attack.”Obviously, Rogers was not a well regulated militia type. Is it absurd to suggest that militia type individuals and groups known to have large stocks of arms and ammunition should be a tad more closely observed by law enforcement authorities?
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Several guns and explosive devices were discovered during the search of the residence” on Friday. Buford “Bucky” Rogers, 24, was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. An Associated Press report said that he had previously been convicted for felony burglary in 2011 and a misdemeanor charge of dangerous handling of a weapon in 2009.
The FBI believes that a terror attack was disrupted by law enforcement personnel and that the lives of several local residents were potentially saved,” the FBI said in a statement.
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| Bobby Jindal |
BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that funding the state voucher program with funds intended for public schools is unconstitutional.Bobby and the legislators who went along with the voucher plan will now have to find another way to pay for the vouchers. This in a state where there is a constant struggle to balance the budget, and where the rule is cut, cut, cut, because the governor refuses to raise any taxes at all. I wonder if Bobby and the legislators even pay attention to the Louisiana Constitution when they write and pass laws. When there is no money, it seems strange to pass laws that will almost certainly be challenged in court, with the state having to pay for litigation costs to defend the laws. Or, in their arrogance, do Bobby and his supporters in the legislature think the court will not notice, and they'll get away with the foolishness?
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The Supreme Court ruling states "After reviewing the record, the legislative instruments and the constitutional provisions at issue, we agree with the district court that once funds are dedicated to the state's Minimum Foundation Program for public education, the constitution prohibits those funds from being expended on the tuition costs of nonpublic schools and nonpublic entities...."
The ruling, a setback for Gov. Bobby Jindal, upheld and expanded on a ruling last year by the 19th Judicial District Court Judge Timothy Kelley.
It sets up a late session battle on how to finance the aid, which triggered weeks of pointed arguments last year.
In addition, Michael Faulk, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, said the decision will force the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with a new plan to fund public schools for the 2013-14 school year.
The one approved earlier this year includes the use of public school dollars to fund vouchers. “It is going to have a big impact,” Faulk said of the ruling.
