Louisiana officials to hire company to manage education savings accounts program

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- Louisiana education officials met on Tuesday to consider a revised one-year contract with a company that would manage the state's education savings accounts program.

Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill in May allowing the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to create an educational savings accounts program. Parents are allowed to use tax dollars to pay to send their children to private schools under the new law.

Landry has called the legislation "a major step towards ensuring school choice."

According to the Board of Administration and Education Finance Committee meeting agenda, the state Department of Education recommended the approval of a one-year contract with Odyssey.

A contract summary form shows that the dates of service would be from Oct. 28, 2024, to June 30, 2025, for a total contract amount of $910,000. The contract covers marketing, implementing a management system, training and financial management.

Odyssey is a New York-based company that works with state agencies and educational vendors to streamline processes for education savings accounts. The company has worked with clients in other states, including Nebraska, Idaho, Iowa and Missouri.

Officials at the Oct. 8 meeting said the Louisiana Senate Finance Committee didn't want to go through a multi-year contract and agreed to return to the drawing board for a one-year contract. The previous contract was for three years with a total cost of $11 million.

BESE approved the revised contract, which will go to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget in October for consideration.

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