A conservative group on Sunday launched a campaign urging Louisiana lawmakers to save funding for the state’s school choice program.

The Club for Growth rolled out a 30-second TV spot on Sunday political programs across Louisiana, pushing for lawmakers to save the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise program, which provides scholarships that students can use to attend private schools. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled State Senate are considering slashing up to $44 million from the program in order to help pay for stipends for teachers.

“Lawmakers have a choice,” the TV spot, which was first shared with The Daily Wire, says.

“Lift up our kids or gut their futures. Some state senators have grabbed their knives planning to slash $44 million in funding for Governor Landry’s LA GATOR program putting 6,000 life-changing scholarships on the chopping block, dashing the hopes of 6,000 low income kids. Those aren’t just numbers, they’re futures. Tell lawmakers, ‘Don’t cut their lifeline.'”

The ad features Senate President Cameron Henry, who has reportedly expressed support for cutting the program to fund $2,000 stipends for public school teachers.

The Club for Growth, which has backed school choice proposals across the country, launched a six-figure TV, digital, and phone campaign dissuading lawmakers from cutting the program in April. Their first ad featured Governor Landry discussing how his school choice program would give parents more control over the education of their children.

Last week, the Louisiana House passed a budget including over $90 million in funding for the scholarship program, the full amount requested by the governor.

The Louisiana Department of Education says it determined that 35,000 of the 40,000 applications for the 2025-2026 school year were eligible. The amount of scholarships that will be awarded depends on how much money is appropriated for the program by the legislature.

Priority is given to students who are already in the program, students with disabilities, or from families making less than 250% of the federal poverty level, and students with siblings in the program. Students with disabilities can be awarded up to $15,253, while impoverished students can get $7,626. All others are eligible for $5,243.

The Club for Growth has already backed several successful campaigns for school choice measures, including in Tennessee and Indiana. The Trump administration has made school choice a major component of its education policy, with President Donald Trump promising to dismantle the Department of Education and return control of education to the states.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received harsh backlash after posting about a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last week.

The New York Democrat condemned the attack and antisemitism, but her message was rejected by many who pointed to her past remarks on the war in Gaza. Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly made unsubstantiated accusations against Israel of committing genocide in its war against the terror group Hamas.

“Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of innocents. I am devastated by the killing of two people outside an @AJCGlobal event here in Washington. Our prayers are with the victims, families, and loved ones of all impacted,” Ocasio-Cortez post on X. “As we await more details, we must be clear that hatred has no home here. Antisemitism is a threat to all we hold dear as a society. It must be confronted and rooted out everywhere.”

Commenters ripped her for hypocrisy. One quipped on the congresswoman’s post: “Match-lighter Condemns Blaze.”

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of The International Legal Forum, responded to Ocasio-Cortez: “‘Two people’? They were two JEWS. And more specifically, worked at the Israeli Embassy. These are pertinent details. Maybe you ought to be more mindful of your relentless inflammatory rhetoric, that only emboldens the kinds of perpetrators from tonight’s heinous attack.”

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling called on Ocasio-Cortez to apologize for her past rhetoric against Israel. “You need to apologize for your complicity. Stochastic terrorism and all,” he said.

Stephen Miller, contributing editor at The Spectator, pointed out that, according to the FBI, the shooter yelled “Free Palestine” after killing Israeli Yaron Lischinsky and American Sarah Lynn Milgrim on Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez has often expressed sympathy and support for the “free Palestine” cause. In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez excused violence from Palestinians against Israel by accusing Israel of “occupation” in Judea and Samaria where terrorism is prevalent through Palestinian society.

“I believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all people, because once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and marginalized — once someone doesn’t have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right?” she said in an interview on “Ebro in the Morning.”

In more recent comments, Ocasio-Cortez has accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza after Hamas committed the single deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

“As we speak, in this moment, 1.1 million innocents in Gaza are at famine’s door,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a speech on the House floor in March 2024. “A famine that is being intentionally precipitated through the blocking of food and global humanitarian assistance by leaders in the Israeli government.”

“If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like,” she added, “open your eyes.”

Throughout the course of the war, Israel has allowed outside aid to flow into Gaza, often consisting of hundreds of aid trucks a day. The aid has often been stolen by terrorists once inside Gaza, however. Israel has blamed ineffective distribution systems run by the United Nations for aiding terrorists in Gaza.

Israel has recently relaxed a freeze on aid into the territory, however, trucks entering Gaza are still being attacked and looted by armed men once inside Gaza, risking the aid falling again into the hands of Hamas.