Success of VAM focuses attention on “Red Tape” bill

The apparent success of the value-added evaluation bill makes it essential that lawmakers oppose another of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education initiatives. HB 1368 by Rep. Jane Smith, known as the “Red Tape Reduction and Local Empowerment Waiver Program,” would conflict with the new evaluation system and result in very bad public policy.

While the value added plan attempts to impose a standard, unified evaluation in all school districts, HB 1368 would allow school systems to opt out of virtually all the laws and policies that govern our schools. The teachers in those systems would have no voice at all in determining how those waivers would affect teaching and learning.

If HB 1368 passes, teaching and learning conditions would vary greatly from district to district. But all teachers would be held to a single evaluation standard under HB 1033.

LFT President Steve Monaghan told the Senate Education Committee that it would be impossible to test the value added model if the state abandons consistency in other areas of public education. That collision course of conflicting laws adds up to very bad public policy, Monaghan said.

To learn more about HB 1368 and send to the Senate Education Committee a message opposing it, please click here.