Poll: Overwhelming majority of Louisiana voters want fiscal transparency for schools
(The Center Square) – A new poll reveals that 94% of Louisianans want greater transparency when it comes to how public schools spend taxpayer dollars.
To the question, “Do you agree or disagree that local school districts should publicly post financial information showing how they spend public tax dollars?” 80% of participants answered “strongly agree” and 14% said they “somewhat agree.”
The survey was commissioned by Pelican Action, a division of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit free-market think tank located in Baton Rouge.
In addition, 87% of respondents said they agree that government in general should post information detailing how tax dollars are spent.
A bill has been introduced in the Louisiana legislature that would require school districts to provide information to be posted on the state’s fiscal transparency website, which is called Louisiana Checkbook.
House Bill 38 was originally introduced last year, but had to be scrapped because the legislative session was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was passed out of the House Appropriations Committee April 26 with no opposition.
The survey found that 88% of voters support the measure. In addition, 87% of respondents said they still support the bill, even if it means more costs could be incurred by taxpayers due to the additional work it would require of school districts to provide the information.
A model does already exist that local school districts could follow to increase fiscal transparency without requiring legislative action. The Lafayette Parish School Board, located west of Baton Rouge, last year created its own transparency website that has a complete breakdown of revenues and spending.
“To me, Lafayette is the gold standard for school transparency nationally,” said John Kay, vice president of advocacy at the Pelican Institute.
Kay noted that other school boards around the state are also discussing posting their own transparency sites voluntarily.
“We have a lot of people who support transparency, so hopefully this will continue to get positive support,” he said.
Louisiana will spend more than $4 billion on public schools this year and is also slated to get $1.2 billion in federal aid for schools under the most recent stimulus spending bill. That ranks as the 13th most out of the 50 states.
As the Pelican Institute notes, Louisiana spends more than $13,000 per student annually, more than any of its neighboring states or other nearby southern states, yet students there continually rank at or near the bottom on national assessment tests.
The survey was conducted between March 18 and March 22 among 510 respondents who are registered voters according to records from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percent.
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