Here’s a press release we got a big kick out of this afternoon…

The Louisiana Federation for Children today celebrated the results of the 2013 Louisiana Scholarship Program Parental Satisfaction Survey. The direct mail survey, conducted in partnership with the Black Alliance for Educational Options, measured parental satisfaction with the Louisiana Scholarship Program, which allows eligible students to receive state scholarships to attend the participating private school of their choice.

According to the survey conducted in February 2013, an overwhelming majority—92.5 percent—of parents are either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their child’s scholarship school.

The survey also found that 93.6 percent of parents are happy with their child’s academic progress; 99.3 percent of parents indicated their child feels safe at their scholarship school; and 98.1 percent of respondents feel welcome at their child’s scholarship school.

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, these results illustrate that educational choice is working for the families of Louisiana,” said Kevin P. Chavous, executive counsel for the American Federation for Children. “Students are learning and parents are happy—this is why it is so critical that we protect and expand the scholarship program. Every student in Louisiana deserves access to a quality education.”

Currently, the scholarship program serves nearly 4,700 students at 118 participating schools. First enacted in 2008 to serve students in Orleans Parish, the Louisiana Scholarship Program was expanded statewide in the spring of 2012 as a result of a bipartisan legislative effort. The program has grown more than 625 percent since it first started serving students in Orleans Parish during the 2008-2009 school year.

This isn’t much of a surprise, of course. When you have a market rather than a governmental system, the only way to survive is to SATISFY THE CUSTOMER. Because if you don’t, the customer will find someone else to satisfy him or her.

And unlike what the union bosses and petty tyrants at the school boards would have you believe, those unsatisfied poor parents with kids in failing schools aren’t stupid people. The vast majority of them are more than capable of finding a school which can fit their needs.

Rather than accept this reality or embrace the fact that competition and choice in education is the future and seek ways to deal with the new reality, the union bosses chose to sue – and fire off thuggish threat letters – to encase the status quo in cement.

Which took them from being wrong to being evil. And today’s study shows that it’s not Bobby Jindal they’re fighting, it’s those parents whose kids they’d continue trapping in failing schools.