Jindal: DOJ ‘More Interested in Skin Color’ than Education

In November, the Obama Justice Department dropped a lawsuit aimed at stopping a school voucher program in Louisiana. The Louisiana Scholarship Program is intended to give students in failing public schools a chance to attend better schools, including private ones. Justice tried to block the program on the basis that it may have violated a 1975 federal desegregation order. {snip}

However, when U.S. district court judge Ivan Lemelle handed down his ruling in November, he revealed that the Justice Department had “abandoned” its efforts to end the voucher program. {snip}

But Justice did not completely fold, requesting that the court allow a federal review process of the voucher program. In a November 22 hearing, the judge ordered the two sides to file proposals to modify the process for information sharing with respect to the Louisiana Scholarship Program.

Tuesday evening, those proposals were filed. Read DOJ’s filing here and the state’s counter-filing here. Gov. Jindal wasted no time in harshly criticizing the Justice Department’s plan. According to the governor’s office:

. . . President Obama’s Justice Department is not backing down from its proposal to institute a 45-day period where it can review and have veto power over each individual award. Furthermore, the Justice Department is now requesting information on the racial makeup of Louisiana private schools.

Jindal pulled no punches in his characterization of Justice’s position:

I am also shocked to learn that the Justice Department is now asking for the state to provide an analysis of the racial composition of our states private schools. The federal government’s new request is a frightening overreach of the federal government and shows it knows no bounds.

President Obama’s Department of Justice has admitted it cannot prove that Louisiana school choice is violating desegregation efforts, yet it continues to seek the ability to tell a parent their child cannot escape a failing school because their child is not the “right” race.

The Department of Justice proposal reeks of federal government intrusion and proves the people in Washington running our federal government are more interested in skin color than they are in education.

{snip}