BATON ROUGE — Lawmakers passed a $53 billion budget Thursday, but one of the governor’s key agenda items for the session, the LA GATOR scholarship program, did not receive any new money.

The scholarship program, which would use public dollars to pay for private school tuition, was introduced during the last regular legislative session, but now the future of the program is uncertain. Lawmakers say their priority is “getting it right,” and that the funding plan for LA GATOR was not ready.

In Governor Jeff Landry’s budget, he allocated more than $90 million for the new school choice voucher program. However, lawmakers ended up approving $44 million for a voucher program that predates LA GATOR.

“I think there's a continued effort to just get the program started,” State Rep. Jack McFarland, R- Jonesboro. “Let's see where it goes.”

The voucher program, which received funding, was created a decade ago by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal pays for 5,600 students to attend Louisiana private schools.

McFarland says the LA GATOR budget item had some flaws, and the program could have cost the state more than expected.

“If we’re going to do it, we don’t need to end up like some of the other states where the financial cost of this outweighs the benefits of it,” he said.

It’s possible lawmakers could return for a special session, but McFarland says if that happens, LA GATOR likely won’t come up.