“You’re going to have to get even madder”

Now this is a story. The piece about Louisiana’s voucher program in today’s New Orleans Times-Picayune is paced with real parents, talking about the real needs of their kids – and how the voucher program, under legal assault, has helped them meet those needs. The lead alone should be enough to move even the most detached reader into understanding why there is real fear and rising anger about what the future may bring.

The story also contains moving words from Eric Lewis, director of Louisiana BAEO: “No one is talking about how I drive by boys every day who are headed to jail because they’ve given up on getting an education,” Lewis tells the parents, “but there are people who wake up every morning with the intent of killing this program.”

“How mad are you?” he asks at one point. “You’re going to have to get even madder.”