which Landry has unsuccessfully sought to expand

While standing just a few feet from him Tuesday, Gov. Jeff Landry said he hopes to convince Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, to spend more state money on a private education voucher program. 

“​​I am trying to convince him that we can do it in a way that is sustainable,” the governor said while glancing and smiling at Henry during an economic development press conference. 

The Senate President has emerged as the most prominent skeptic of Landry’s signature education initiative, LA GATOR, which would greatly expand the amount of public funding going toward private education expenses.

Landry has proposed doubling the public dollars spent on private K-12 school tuition and related expenses for the second year in a row. State spending on LA GATOR would go from $44 million to $88.2 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1 under his budget proposal.

Henry told The Times-Picayune last week the Senate will not allow the LA GATOR program to grow in spite of Landry’s request. The Senate also blocked Landry’s request last year for additional LA GATOR funding during budget negotiations. 

For well over a decade, Louisiana had a small statewide voucher program that used state funds to pay for around 5,600 low-income students to attend private schools mostly affiliated with the Catholic Church. Landry and conservative lawmakers overhauled the school voucher guidelines in 2024 to be far more permissive.

Henry has questioned whether Louisiana would be able to afford the new version of the vouchers as the program grows. If fully funded, LA GATOR would eventually allow all families, including those who are wealthy, to apply for public assistance to cover their children’s private school bills.

Proponents of LA GATOR have said that as more children receive vouchers to enroll in private schools, the state should see a drop in the amount of money it has to spend on public education. But the program would allow families who already have their children in private schools to receive public assistance for tuition these families currently cover. This could amount to a new expense for the state that doesn’t exist in public education.

If Landry received the extra $44.2 million for LA GATOR that he has requested, it would allow another 4,000 to 5,000 students to receive vouchers next school year, coming close to doubling voucher enrollment.

Henry has said the state needs to slow down and be more deliberate about a voucher expansion. 

“If you look at previous programs, wherever they may be, in the state, whatever department, very rarely do you double something after the first year,” Henry said during Tuesday’s news conference alongside Landry.

“You want to look at it and see if it is effective,” Henry said. “Can anybody tell us where the kids are doing better now than they were previously? We don’t have those answers.” 

Alabama’s school voucher program might go universal despite budget concerns

Landry and Henry both spoke at an announcement of an ambitious economic development initiative to spend $140 million in state funds to ready construction sites for business investment. 

Henry drew a comparison between the construction site spending and the LA GATOR program, saying the more money the state spends on private education vouchers, the less it will have for other priorities such as economic development.

Landry said he thought Henry essentially had bad memories from his time as a state lawmaker during the tenure of former Govs. Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards, when the state experienced a years-long financial crisis.

While Jindal was in office, he and lawmakers cut taxes, which resulted in a drastic drop in state revenue that resulted in major cuts in public higher education and health care. State lawmakers then spent several years trying to dig themselves out of a financial hole and eventually voted to raise taxes again to avoid draconian cuts to services. 

“I think it’s fair to say that he probably has a little bit of PTSD from the Jindal years,” Landry said of Henry.