They're catching on...

Gov. Jindal may have just won a re-election landslide, but that does not mean his programs and goals are all popular.

In fact, if this column by the publisher of the Livingston News is any indication, people are starting to catch on to the governor's real agenda for public schools, and they don't like it one bit (free registration is required to see the full article).

Jeff David starts his column in terms as stark as any you're likely to see: "Let's be very clear about it. The primary stated goal of the Bobby Jindal administration during its second four years will be the elimination of the public school systems in the state of Louisiana, including the public school system in Livingston Parish."

These are fighting words in Livingston Parish, a reliably Republican, middle-class community that is very proud of its excellent public school system.

"The Governor of the state of Louisiana," David writes, "the one you voted for three times in droves, is about to drive a knife into your back and twist the handle for good measure."

Like Paul on the road to Damascus, the scales have fallen from Jeff David's eyes. He understands what the governor is up to, and he's appalled.

"Why would Jindal turn his back on the very people who elected him?" asks David. "So that he can run for President, that's why."

And he seems to understand that Jindal's road to the White House will be paved with contributions from very big businesses - ones that expect to profit from the privatization of Louisiana's schools.

In order to carry through with his commitments, however," David writes, "Jindal needs both the Legislature and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to go along with the plan. Both have a shared constitutional say in where state funds for education are spent.

"That is why you have seen funded PACs, many with outside Louisiana money in them, come into the state this year and get involved in legislative races as well as BESE races."

As the people catch on to the governor's agenda, and as newspapers like the Livingston News start reporting what's really happening to our state, Jindal might have tougher sledding in his second term than he did in the first.