ICYMI: CfG Launches LA School Freedom Campaign
Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Club for Growth announced its latest school freedom advocacy campaign, urging lawmakers in Louisiana to support Governor Jeff Landry’s funding proposal for the LA GATOR Scholarship Program. The campaign features a new ad, Equation, which ran statewide on Sunday political shows Easter Morning, phone and digital advocacy campaigns supporting school freedom in Louisiana, and grassroots efforts encouraging school freedom supporters to contact their legislators. NOLA.com’s Patrick Wall covered the announcement in an exclusive report.
Click here to watch the full ad, Equation, from Club for Growth.
Click here to read the full coverage from NOLA.com.
STORY EXCERPTS:
As Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry seeks nearly $94 million for a program to subsidize students’ private education, a billionaire-backed advocacy group will run a television ad starting Sunday that targets state lawmakers who have challenged Landry’s plan.
Club for Growth, a national group that promotes school vouchers and other conservative priorities, is paying for the ad and a related outreach campaign. Both urge Louisiana voters to contact their state representatives and demand they “fully fund” the new LA GATOR Scholarship Program, which will give eligible families tax dollars to pay for private school tuition and home schooling expenses like laptops and tutoring.
“Tell them, ‘Don’t shortchange our kids,’” a voice-over says while the ad displays phone numbers for the Louisiana House and Senate.
The group says it has funded campaigns in 10 other states promoting programs similar to Louisiana’s. It spent millions in Texas to unseat Republican lawmakers who opposed school vouchers, helping clear the way for that state’s Legislature to pass a major voucher bill this week.
“Make no mistake — if you call yourself a Republican and oppose school freedom, you should expect to lose your next primary,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh in a statement last year.
Airing Sunday, the ad calls Louisiana’s new voucherlike program “Landry’s education freedom plan.”
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The ad, which should run Easter morning, says viewers should demand that lawmakers “fully fund Landry’s plan.”
Club for Growth bought airtime on television channels across the state, including those in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport and Lake Charles, according to filing with the Federal Communications Commission…
Club for Growth, which promotes free enterprise and limited government, describes itself and its political arms as “the largest and most successful conservative political giving group.”…
In 2023, the group endorsed Landry in his successful bid to become governor, citing his support for “school choice voucher programs.”
Club for Growth said it and one of its political arms, the School Freedom Fund, spent nearly $16 million during state elections in Texas and Tennessee last year to defeat Republicans it says opposed school vouchers.
“The school freedom revolution is just beginning,” McIntosh, the group president, said last year.