2006 Louisiana Laws - RS 17:1322 — Findings of fact, declaration of necessity, and statement of public policy

§1322.  Findings of fact, declaration of necessity, and statement of public policy

It is hereby determined and declared as a matter of legislative finding:

(1)  A clear and present crisis exists in the State of Louisiana with respect to the education of children in elementary and secondary schools.

(2)  This crisis is the result of unprecedented rising costs in all areas of operation, and unprecedented demand for improvement in the quality and calibre of education and opportunities for education available for Louisiana children, including those who are being educated in nonpublic schools;

(3)  Certain of the financial aspects of this crisis in education in nonpublic schools are the direct result of state and local government taxation to support pay increases for public school teachers, and to defray costs of improved public school facilities; nonpublic schools have been reduced to a noncompetitive position for the employment of qualified teachers of secular educational subjects;

(4)  In some of its aspects the crisis in education is national in scope, e.g., the demand for excellence in all programs of instruction, for the creation and implementation of innovative methods and techniques of teaching, and for improvement of teacher salary schedules to assure a high level of quality within the teacher corps itself;

(5)  That the State of Louisiana recognizes the fact that its literacy rate is among the lowest in the nation and that only through continued concentrated efforts on the part of the Legislature and educators can the educational level be raised;

(6)  That the elementary and secondary education of children is today recognized as a public welfare purpose; that nonpublic education, through providing instruction in secular subjects, makes an important contribution to the achieving of such public welfare purpose; that the governmental duty to support the achieving of public welfare purposes in education may in part be fulfilled through governmental contracts for secular educational services provided by teachers in nonpublic schools.

(7)  Attendance of children at nonpublic schools constitutes compliance with the Louisiana Compulsory School Attendance law; and that nonpublic education in the State of Louisiana today, as during past years, bears the burden of educating 15 percent of all elementary and secondary school pupils in Louisiana, thus making a significant educational and economic contribution to education in the state;

(8)  It is in the public interest that all Louisiana children receive the best education its citizens can provide; that the State of Louisiana has the right, the responsibility, the duty and the obligation, in order to accomplish the objective of quality education for Louisiana children, to provide financial assistance to qualified teachers of secular subjects in nonpublic schools, by the purchase of their secular educational services.

Added by Acts 1970, No. 223, §2.

{{NOTE:  UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTS 1970, NO. 223, WHICH ENACTED THIS SECTION, WAS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL BY THE LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT IN THE CASE OF SEEGERS V. PARKER, 256 LA. 1039, 241 SO.2D 213.}}