Scam and scandal in the Course Choice fraud

A motivational speaker without education credentials is paid $145,000 per year to coordinate a "Course Choice" program that will drain millions of dollars from public schools in Louisiana.

He only works four days a week at the State Department of Education because he commutes to Louisiana from his home in Los Angeles.

And the program he runs is already mired in scandal.

This is the state of public education in the age of Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White.

EdLog has already introduced readers to Dave "Lefty" Lefkowith, the erstwhile motivational speaker, associate of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and purveyor schemes to deregulate energy and manipulate water rights in Florida.

Lefty is the star of this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, who writes that Lefkowith leapfrogged from a $35,000 contract to the $145,000 position as Assistant Superintendent of Portfolio (whatever that means).

All without having to move from sunny California to muggy Louisiana.

Now we're starting to learn more about the course choices that seem to beg for a criminal investigation.
As Gannett journalists Mary Nash-Wood and Vickie Welborn report here, students in Northwest Louisiana are being registered for the courses without their knowledge.

The company that seems to be improperly registering students without permission is called FastPath, and it stands to make between $700 and $1,275 for each student enrolled in a course. Company officials declined to be interviewed for the article.

We know that FastPath recruiters cut a swath through low-income areas of Caddo and Webster Parishes, promising tablet devices to prospective students, including profoundly disabled children who may not have the ability to use the devices.

"Neither students nor their parents are responsible for the tablet devices if they are lost or stolen," according to the Gannett article. "And they can keep them even if they don’t pass the course."

And who are the education experts trolling for Course Choice students?

FastPath's want ad on Craig's List for "student enrollment specialists" says they have to be 18 years or older, have no criminal record, and have automobile insurance.

"By conducting community outreach through program marketing," the ad says, "this position will promote parental choice in education and the FastPath Learning program. The duties of this position are primarily focused on marketing the program and enrolling students in the program using a mobile device, such as a netbook, notepad, or internet enabled smart phone."

The pay is $16 per hour.

Thanks to indispensable journalist Tom Aswell, we know a lot more about FastPath.

The chairman of the FastPath board is former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who served under President George W. Bush.

Paige was appointed secretary largely because of the"Houston Miracle," his vaunted success as superintendent of the Houston Independent School District. Which turned out to be a fraud, because HSID  falsified its dropout statistics during Paige's tenure.

Jindal. White. Lefkowith. Paige. These are just a few of the names that will go down in infamy for the scam they are perpetrating on the taxpayers and school children of Louisiana.

The State Supreme Court has ruled that Jindal,White et al cannot use Minimum Foundation Program funds to pay for the Course Choice scam. The legislature now has an opportunity to cancel Course Choice before even more damage can be done.

Question is, will lawmakers have the courage to do the right thing?

voucher ruling throws budget into disarray

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Gov. Jindal's voucher scheme can't be funded by public education's Minimum Foundation Program, where will the money come from to make this year's final payment to the private and religious schools that have accepted some 5,00 students across the state? And what will happen to the program next year?

Neither the Department of Education nor Gov. Bobby Jindal have provided answers. WBRZ-TV reporter Rob Krieger tried to get some information in this report.

Testimony claims fraud in school performance scores

The debate in the Senate Education Committee Wednesday was supposed to be about amending the constitution in order to elect the state superintendent of education. That became a side issue as witnesses described allegations of fraud in the State Department of Education and laid bare Superintendent of Education John White’s sparse credentials to hold the office.

When the dust settled, the committee rejected SB 41 by Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe), but only time will tell how much damage was inflicted on Superintendent White and his department by supporters of the bill.

The first blood was drawn by Sen. Kostelka, who said the superintendent of education is in charge of the biggest single state budget item, totaling $5.35 billion per year. He said the state “should have a superintendent who is accountable to the people and not a rubber stamp for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.”

Under White’s regime, Kostelka said, the public has been denied access to information about the department. Numerous lawsuits have been filed under the freedom of information act in order to view what should be public records.

Noting that most of the education overhauls pushed by White and the Jindal administration last year have been ruled unconstitutional by district courts, Sen. Kostelka said a new direction is needed, and “a clean break is the best way.”

Sen. Kostelka ticked off a laundry list of abuses by the department, including a plan to divulge personal student data to a company that would share it with for-profit organizations, the “utter failure” of the Recovery School District to turn around failing schools, and reports of overpayments and lack of supervision involving millions of dollars spent by the RSD.

The senator said that White’s credentials to head the department are sketchy at best: “We have a 30-something superintendent with a degree in English who spent six weekends at the Broad Academy,” a business-oriented organization that issued White the only certification that qualifies him for the job.

Devastating testimony was presented by Herb Bassett of Grayson, a highly qualified math teacher and band director. Bassett said that he has sent evidence to lawmakers revealing “deceit, distortion manipulation of scores and data suppression.”

Bassett documents what he called “the gross inflation of the high school performance scores. The Department covered up the inflation by intentionally mislabeling an important column of data in the initial public release of the scores.”

“The Transition Baselines,” he said, “showed that the GEE (Graduation Exit Exam)—which was being phased out—and the new EOC (End of Course) tests were mis-calibrated by 7.5 points. That’s half a letter grade. Had it been correctly labeled, the inflation would have been obvious.”

Bassett said that BESE was given a different set of scores than was shown to the public. Because the scores given to BESE were the correct ones, he said, “This shows intent to deceive.”

Bassett was interrupted by Sen. Jack Donohue (R-Mandeville), who said that these allegations are very serious, and that he would expect someone from the department or BESE to answer the charges.

Later, BESE President Chas Roemer (R-Baton Rouge) appeared in opposition to the bill. When asked about the allegations of fraud, he said that he had no knowledge about them, but that he would “look into it.”

Committee Chairman Conrad Appel (R-Metairie) asked Roemer to investigate the charges and report back to the committee.

Louisiana's indispensable investigative journalist, Tom Aswell, has much more on the story in this blog post.

LEAP sample questions blind side teachers, raise questions

Teachers are starting to get a glimpse of what awaits when the state transitions to common core standardized tests, and they don't like what they see.

 Educators felt blind sided when LEAP tests administered last week included essay questions being piloted for new exams, according to this story by WBRZ-TV reporter Chris Nakamoto.

As LFT President Steve Monaghan told the reporter (see video below) something is horribly wrong with a system that imposes these high-stakes tests on public school students, but pays for vouchers in schools that don't evaluate teachers based on test scores or grade the schools according to the test results.

Bigger shocks are in store. Most students will be required to take PARCC exams on computers. That will raise several problems.

Part of the state has no access to broad-band Internet, thanks to Gov. Jindal's refusal to accept federal funding to expand braodband service in Northeast Louisiana.That will make it difficult for students to log on to the test.

What's more, most schools rely on laptops for students, but those do not hold a charge long enough for the estimated three hours it will take to complete the test. Will extension cords and power strips be adequate?

Then there is the issue of preparing students to take a complete test - including all of their computations, because scratch paper won't be allowed - on the computer. Will the newness of the process alone result in a decline in scores?

Florida teachers file suit against flawed evaluation system

Louisiana is not the only state dealing with a governor determined to bring down public education. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has implemented an education "reform" plan very similar to Louisiana's. And like here, there is now a lawsuit underway to undo the damage.

Unlike Louisiana, Florida's two largest teacher unions, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, have merged into one powerful organization.

Seven accomplished Florida teachers have joined with their unions in a federal lawsuit charging that the state's new evaluation system—which is based on the standardized test scores of students or subjects they do not teach—violates their due process and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

The teachers, who work in Alachua, Hernando and Escambia counties' public schools, brought suit in federal court against the Florida commissioner of education, the State Board of Education and the school boards of those three counties. The school systems have implemented high-stakes evaluations tied to the state's standardized student assessment, known as FCAT, in order to comply with SB 736.

 Under the law, teachers who are rated unsatisfactory for two consecutive years (or two out of three years in a row) are subject to termination or nonrenewal. Transfers, promotions and layoffs are based on the assigned performance rating. And, as of July 1, 2014, salaries will be based on the assigned performance rating as well.

"This lawsuit highlights the absurdity of the evaluation system that has come about as a result of SB 736," says Andy Ford, an AFT vice president and president of the Florida Education Association, an affiliate of the AFT and the NEA. The FEA and the NEA jointly filed the federal lawsuit this month. "Teachers in Florida are being evaluated using a formula designed to measure learning gains in the FCAT math and reading tests. But most teachers, including the seven in this lawsuit, don't teach those subjects in the grades the test is administered. One of the teachers bringing this suit is getting evaluated on the test scores of students who aren't even in her school."

SB 736, the Tampa Bay Times recently observed, has succeeded only in undermining public confidence in public schools. "The law anticipated using student performance on end-of-course subject exams to inform 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation. Such exams don't yet exist for the vast majority of classes students take," the paper said. "But rather than delay implementation until such measurement tools could be designed, the Legislature said school districts could substitute results from the FCAT, even for the teachers—be it art, Spanish or kindergarten—whose classes are never part of FCAT testing."

Report shows need to move away from test fixation

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is yet another lesson from overseas demonstrating the need for a course correction in the United States—away from our obsession with a punitive accountability approach that uses high-stakes standardized tests as its centerpiece and towards a more supportive accountability approach that continuously improves teacher performance and student learning, AFT president Randi Weingarten says.

The report, Synergies for Better Learning: An International Perspective on Evaluation and Assessment, urges a balanced and holistic approach to evaluation, assessment and teacher improvement so that the overall emphasis is on efforts to help, not punish, teachers and to give students a great education. It recommends that teacher evaluations feed into professional development, ensure that underperformance is identified and adequately addressed, and ensure input from teachers and other stakeholders.

"It should give pause to those U.S. education leaders and so-called reformers who are fixated on high-stakes tests to the virtual exclusion of using multiple measures to inform instruction and improve teacher quality," Weingarten says.

"The report's recommendations echo what Vicki Phillips (of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and I said in a column in the April 11 New Republic. A high-quality teacher development and evaluation system requires elements that are designed to improve teacher practice and student learning, including matching high expectations with high levels of support, using evidence of teaching and student learning from multiple sources, providing constructive feedback to teachers, and aligning teacher development and evaluation to the Common Core State Standards."

Economists: Don't eliminate the state income tax

The Louisiana Budget Project - partner with LFT in Better Choices for a Better Louisiana - today cited a Nola.com editorial in which economists from three universities say it would be a mistake to eliminate Louisiana's income tax:

Economists from LSU, UNO and Tulane say eliminating the state's income tax "is simply not good public policy. It is irresponsible." Co-authoring a Nola.com editorial, Jim Richardson of LSU, Tim Ryan of UNO and Steven Sheffrin questioned the financial and economic wisdom of Gov. Jindal's claim that the state should eliminate the personal income tax irrespective of revenue offsets or expenditure cuts. The economists noted cutting the income tax likely won't create new jobs or improve Louisiana's business climate rankings in a meaningful way. They said the state's tax burden is already the second lowest in the nation, and any future attempts to raise revenues for public services would fall on businesses. The economists concluded by reminding readers Louisiana is currently in a structural deficit - where expenditures are greater than receipts - and eliminating income taxes, which supports almost 25 percent of the state budget, will make that deficit worse.

Louisiana's current budget deficit is $1.3 billion, and Jindal's attempt to close the gap by cutting budgets for public services drew a second day of public outcry during the House Appropriations Committee meeting on Wednesday. Among other concerns, lawmakers received warnings that budget cuts could cause rural hospitals, domestic violence shelters and food banks to close. Even the Louisiana Nursing Home Association criticized the governor's proposal, saying it would take $183 million out of a trust fund established to help pay nursing homes to care for Medicaid patients

Enough is Enough: Rally at the capitol on April 30!

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers is joining with a large coalition of organizations to rally at the state capitol on April 30 in opposition to the Jindal administration’s policies.

This true grass-roots movement began in central Louisiana last month, when more than 500 people held a candle light vigil to protest the closing of Huey P. Long Hospital in Pineville. Rallies have sprung up across the state since then.

As the movement grew, so did its objectives and interests. The movement now represents broad-based discontent with the direction the state has taken. It has become a coalition interested in preserving what our forefathers knew as the common good – a belief that a decent society educates its young, protects its weak, heals its sick and provides a dignified retirement for those who spent their lives in service to the people. In recent years, all these have become victims of the Jindal administration.

Organizations that have committed to work on and participate in this event include the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Educators, the Louisiana Association of Retired State Employees, the East Baton Rouge NAACP, AFSCME, several Central Trades and Labor Councils, Earl K. Long Medical Center employees, Equality Louisiana, Louisiana Movement, the East Baton Rouge Democratic Executive Committee, and the list continues to grow every day.

A Web site for the event is under construction, and literature is being developed to promote the event.

LFT president rails against DOE’s $128 million administrative budget

As the House Appropriations Committee began its study of the state’s $24.7 billion general fund budget on Tuesday, LFT President Steve Monaghan asked members to closely monitor the Department of Educaiton’s $128 million administrative budget.

Monaghan, the only representative of a teacher organization to address the committee, said that many aspects of the department’s budget are problematic. As an example, he cited a “lack of transparency” in the way the department hires highly paid administrators.

“Once upon a time we at least know who was being hired to do what,” Monaghan said. “Now it seems that we discover those things without any rhyme or reason.”

Monaghan noted that funding for public schools through the Minimum Foundation Program has been frozen for the past five years, even as the department brought in minimally qualified administrators at high salaries.

“The department’s priorities seem to be more ideological than instructional,” he said.

Monaghan’s complaint echoed published reports that top hires at the department are being brought in to sell the administration’s privatization and voucher plans at the expense of traditional public schools.

“There was a time when research drove decisions,” Monaghan told the committee. “It doesn’t seem that research is driving decisions now.”

“I bring a message from the classroom that conditions are getting much worse,” Monaghan told lawmakers. “Please be watchdogs and help us with this fight.”

To view Monaghan's testimony, please click here. His testimony begins at about the 2:17:52 mark.

Making it up as they go along

Superintendent of Education John White is all a-twitter about the “Classroom Support Toolbox” touted in this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, but there is actually less here than meets the eye.

About all that is really new – aside from the public relations campaign designed to put a smiley face on the widely despised COMPASS evaluation system – is a series of videos intended to show best practices to teachers.

There is also the announcement that the State Department will train some 2,000 teachers to be experts in the details of the tool box, and to help their colleagues understand the new common core standards.

All of which just reinforces the impression that this department is making it up as they go along.

But while the department’s details are all squishy, tentative and subject to tweaking, the effects on teachers are concrete. New Web sites and self-help videos do nothing to help teachers who have already been observed and are well n the way to having their evaluations set in stone.

So here’s a suggestion for lawmakers preparing for the session that begins on April 8: Set all of this year’s evaluations aside. Use the experience as an example of what happens when radical changes are imposed without adequate forethought, preparation or transparency.

Go back to the drawing board. Work with real teachers to develop an evaluation system that is accurate and fair, and that truly reflects the value that teachers bring to their classrooms.

Field test it well, and work out the problems before it becomes the rule by which teachers live. That would go a long way toward rebuilding faith and trust in the legislature and in the Department of Education.

Panel rejects John White's special ed plan

Following what has become the standard playbook for the State Department of Education, Superintendent John White today surprised a committee with sweeping changes to the state’s special education program.

But the Special Education Advisory Panel refused to play patsy, and rejected White’s proposed special education funding formula on an 8-2 vote.

White told the panel that his plan for the $313 million spent each year on children with disabilities will not have a major impact on overall funding levels for school systems. It would, however, radically change the funding structure for special education programs.

Instead of allocating the same amount of money for all children identified for special services, White said, his plan would base funding on three categories into which children could be placed.

In addition, state funds to schools would be adjusted depending on the academic achievement of students, based on academic improvement targets.

A final adjustment of funding would be based on where a special needs child is educated, such as a residential facility, at home or in a hospital.

Panel members objected to the scope of the superintendent’s plan, saying that they did not receive proper notification of the changes and did not have time to study the proposal. Questions were raised about how White’s plan would be implemented, and whether or not it meets requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Members wanted to know why stakeholders were given no opportunity to play a role in developing White’s new policy.

Instead of approving White’s plan, the panel voted to create a task force to study the proposed changes and how they would affect school systems.

The vote may set up a conflict at the next meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state department expected BESE to approve his plan this spring and send it to the legislature for approval; but the panel recommended waiting at least until the 2014-15 before the changes go into effect.

The special education funding plan is also expected to be discussed at the next Parish Superintendents Advisory Council meeting on February 14.