“We, as parents, don’t like to see our kids fail. It hurts.”
As Shannon Mejia-Flores says this, the pain in her eyes is real. Shannon is a single mother in Denham Springs, Louisiana. As Shannon’s oldest daughter, Sierra, was growing up, she always enjoyed school. At an early age, she was diagnosed with A.D.D. and Dysgraphia but was able to attend her local public school and succeed with a 504 plan and special accommodations.
But then, between her 8th and 9th grade years, everything changed.
Sierra’s entire personality and demeanor shifted dramatically. She ran away from home, attempted suicide multiple times, had numerous trips to the ER and 3 psychiatric hospital stays. Eventually, a therapist discovered that Sierra was sexually assaulted and bullied at school (unfortunately, a common occurrence for special needs children). Because of this trauma, she suffered from severe PTSD.
Public school was no longer a safe option for Sierra. But, as a single working mother, Shannon couldn’t afford private school. Louisiana’s education system gave them no options.
For years, Shannon and Sierra’s situation was sadly not unique. A one-size-fits-all educational system prevented thousands of families across Louisiana from giving their children the schooling options they needed—and deserved.
The Pelican Institute for Public Policy has always fought for school choice in Louisiana. But as more and more families were being forced into the painful dilemma Shannon and Sierra experienced, Pelican’s team knew they had to act.
In 2020, Pelican’s team launched a grassroots campaign with a single, clear goal: Universal school choice in Louisiana by 2025.
At that time, Louisiana’s legislature was growing more conservative but had also grown weary of the political battles involved in education reform. The then-governor, John Bel Edwards was also aligned with the public education establishment which generally opposed school choice reforms. But despite those obstacles, Louisiana families were desperate for better options for their students. And if Pelican could reach them with the right message, those families would champion reform from every corner of the state.
Pelican’s team launched a marketing and communication campaign to show families what school choice would mean for their students and how all families—not just those with special needs students or zoned to failing schools—could benefit from school choice.
After a year-long campaign that included a series of well-designed, informative webpages; social media content; op-eds; and dozens of radio interviews and talks; Pelican’s team worked with the legislature to support two education savings accounts (ESAs) bills. The legislature passed the bills but Governor Bel Edwards vetoed them (politics always seems to trump good policy).
But the defeat elevated school choice to the forefront of Louisiana’s public debate and showed even more parents around the state the need for choice.
Then in 2023, Pelican unveiled Louisiana’s Comeback Agenda. This primer not only gave the state’s leaders a roadmap for reforms Louisiana needed, it set the terms of the debate for the upcoming fall election. Pelican’s team dedicated a large section of the Comeback Agenda to “giving every kid a school that fits.” This recommended universal ESAs along with other student and family-focused solutions.
With the Comeback Agenda in hand, Pelican’s team met with candidates, civic groups, and community leaders all across the state to garner support for universal ESAs. They also invited each gubernatorial candidate to film a video sharing their thoughts on school choice with Pelican’s audience during National School Choice Week.
After months of advocating for the reforms needed, Pelican’s team worked with Louisiana’s education reform coalition and advanced the state’s first universal ESA bill during the 2023 session. The bill was called the Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (GATOR) Educational Savings Account Scholarship Program. This empowered families across the state to choose a school that fits their child’s individual needs.
To get GATOR passed, the Pelican team met with lawmakers and other state and local groups involved in the legislative process, continued external messaging and outreach, offered testimony in committee hearings, and helped to address any question or concern lawmakers might have.
In the end, after months of work from Pelican’s team, the legislature passed GATOR and Louisiana’s new governor, Jeff Landry, signed it into law.
No piece of legislation or policy reform can change what happened to students like Sierra. Anti-choice advocates like teachers’ unions and the public-school establishment have forced thousands of students into failing schools that don’t serve their needs.
But thankfully, common-sense school choice legislation like Louisiana’s GATOR ESA bill can give future students the options and opportunities they need and deserve.
