Advocate calls 'baloney' on higher education budget

Today's editorial in The Advocate calls 'baloney' Gov. Bobby Jindal's claim that his proposed budget spares higher education from further budget cuts.

Baton Rouge's own Gray Lady gets it right: "Behind a bureaucratic façade, the reality is that Gov. Bobby Jindal has again proposed cutting state government’s support for higher education, forcing colleges to make up reduced state aid with increased tuition and fees."

Advocate editorialists point out that the governor's budget, which they call "Category 5 political spin," includes a $50 million mid-year reduction from this year, and relies on tuition increases to avoid going into negative territory.

"Louisiana’s future is the poorer for this," the editorial concludes. "But it will provide endless material for college courses of the future, in which the political abuse of language is discussed."

Layoffs, privatization and increased employee costs in state budget

For the fourth year in a row, Gov. Bobby Jindal proposes a state budget that freezes public education’s Minimum Foundation Program funding at the 2008-09 level.

In an effort to close a looming $895 million budget gap, the governor also plans to privatize and consolidate prisons, eliminate more than 6,000 state jobs, cut funding for health care and raise retirement costs for state employees.

While the governor says that his $25.5 billion state budget will not cut funding for higher education, that pledge depends on higher tuition for students and increased retirement costs for college and university employees.

In a memo to LSU system higher-ups, system President John Lombardi explained what he termed the Jindal administration’s “good treatment” of higher education, which has suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts in recent years.

In exchange for that good treatment, Lombardi wrote, the governor expects higher education officials to “avoid negative messages about higher ed funding” and to recognize that the additional $100 million that employees will have to pay into their retirement plans is good for colleges and universities.

Areas outside of education will be hit hard to absorb the proposed cuts.

If the governor’s budget is approved, employee contributions to the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System will increase by three percentage points, which will equate to a cut in take-home pay.

Division of Administration Commissioner Paul Rainwater said that no changes are proposed for the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana this year because the Jindal administration plans so many other public education “reforms.”

Some of the most governor’s controversial plans that failed last year are back in this year’s budget proposal. Once again, Jindal has plans to sell the Avoyelles Correctional Center to a private company. He also wants to fire state employees from the Office of Group Benefits and hire a private management company to manage the public employee health plan.

Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Michelle Millhollon has more on the proposed budget in this story.

One of the least educated, unhealthiest, and poorest states in the nation

The legislature did its work and went home. Louisiana has a budget - that was the main goal of this year's fiscal legislative session - but it ain't pretty.

The political posturing and crowing aside, Louisiana's $25 billion state budget leaves us "as one of the unhealthiest, least educated, and poorest states in the nation," according to this new report from the Louisiana Budget Project.

Chief among the victims of this year's budget are those least able to fend for themselves. The LA Budget Project reports that "funding for families and children that suffer from incapacitating poverty, abuse, and homelessness " was cut by some $53 million for the coming fiscal year. That means Governor Jindal has sliced the Department of Children and Family Services by 40 percent since coming into office.

Higher education has borne the brunt of Louisiana's budget problems for the pat few years, having been cut by $491 million during Jindal's term. This year, in order to claim that funding for higher education has been protected, lawmakers and the governor raised tuition and fees for students. This, they claim, does not amount to a tax increase.

Then there's K-12 education. The governor and his allies like to claim that they did not cut funding for public schools, but that is a prevarication at best.

Public education's Minimum Foundation Program base per-pupil amount has been frozen for three years, while costs have risen dramatically. That amounts to a cut all by itself.

But cuts outside the MFP have strained some local school board budgets close to the breaking point. The governor cut $5.5 million for nationally certified teacher stipends, and $7.2 million more for the transportation of private and religious school students. The governor also cut nearly $70 million in state funding for classroom technology, student remediation, and reading and math initiatives - programs that local school systems will either have to eliminate or fund themselves.

LBP's report further slams state leaders for reductions in health care and youth services.

But the worst news in the report is that lawmakers and Jindal once again cobbled together a budget that depends on one-time money and millions "swept" from existing funds. So without facing the real issue and identifying revenues that can fill the recurring budget gap, we will all be in the same leaky boat when the legislature convenes again next spring.

Misplaced optimism

While Gov. Jindal maintains that coming cuts to higher education will be lower than expected - in the 10% range, according to this article by Gannett reporter Mike Hasten - the effects of budget cuts on colleges and universities cannot be trivialized.

LSU Provost Jack Hamilton made that clear in a theatrical gesture at Monday's meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club, standing next to 140 empty chairs. That's the number of faculty positions lost at the state's flagship university over the past two years.

As The Advocate's editorialist wrote:

The 140 faculty positions lost to the cuts represent more than 10 percent
of the university’s 1,200-member faculty. LSU’s foreign languages programs have been dramatically scaled back, making the campus much less competitive with its peers in the region. The LSU School of Music’s ability to offer scholarships
is also greatly diminished, hampering the school’s ability to attract the best
and the brightest.

More bad news came on Wednesday, when the Board of Regents announced that almost 460 college degree programs across Louisiana are about to be axed because of the budget crunch. Advocate reporter Jordan Blum covered the Regents' meeting for this story.

Yet the governor still refuses to consider any new revenues, maintaining that he is "optimistic that we can keep higher ed cuts below 10%."

Jindal vows to protect TOPS

Gov. Jindal announced that he will seek a constitutional amendment to protect the very popular TOPS program, according to this article by Jordan Blum in The Advocate.

TOPS, the brainchild of the late oil magnate Patrick Taylor, is one of the most progressive education programs in the nation, promising free tuition at state colleges and universities to any student with slightly above average grades. The scholarship can also be applied at private schools, but is capped at the level of a state college.

Outrage as Jindal redirects school funds

A decision by the Jindal administration to redirect $147 million in federal education funds is the latest outrageous example of failure to make reasonable, responsible choices on behalf of the people of the state, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.


On Thursday, district school superintendents were notified that they will not receive money allocated by the U.S. Congress in order to preserve the jobs of teachers and school employees in elementary and secondary schools. Instead, according to Jindal’s commissioner of administration, some of the money will be used to shore up funding for state colleges and universities, and some saved to plug next year’s anticipated budget hole.


“School districts around the state have based their budgets on the promise of this funding,” Monaghan said. “This action will cause real pain and loss in every school district in Louisiana.”


When Congress passed the EduJobs act, guidelines required states to spend the funds on salaries and benefits for teachers, school administrators, and other essential staff. The money was to be distributed to school districts according to the Minimum Foundation Program formula, which allocates state education funds.


“It is already shameful that we were forced to rely on Congress to save the jobs of critical teachers and school employees,” said Monaghan. “But for the governor to pull the rug out from under our schools at this late date is unbelievable.


By diverting funds dedicated to elementary and secondary education to colleges and universities, Monaghan said, the governor is unfairly pitting education communities against each other.


“The governor should be making sure that there is enough money to fund education appropriately at all levels,” Monaghan said. “Instead, he is forcing us to fight over crumbs from an ever-shrinking pie.”


To read more, please click here.

Jindal to Louisiana: Stop whining!

On Friday morning, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater told the legislature's Joint Budget Committee that there was no decision yet on what must be cut to offset a $108 million budget shortfall that must be balanced by June 30.

Not long after, while the committee meeting was still in progress, Gov. Bobby Jindal called a press conference to lay out the cuts his administration expects from state agencies. Higher education and health care will bear the brunt of the new cuts.

Lawmakers were predictably upset over what they saw as the administration's calculated deception over the cuts, as Advocate reporter Michelle Millhollon wrote here.

Even worse was the governor's cavalier attitude about the state's budget crisis. "We don't need whining," he said, "we do need leadership." Then our leader flew off to yet another state to raise funds for yet another Republican candidate.

What effect will the cuts have? Reporter Jordan Blum documents the approximately $35 million to higher education in this story. More details about LSU's loss are reported by Blum here.

And in this press release from the Department of Education, some $6.3 million in cuts to K-12 are laid out.

Deficit announcement makes budget cuts inevitable

Last week’s bombshell announcement that the state ended the previous year with a $108 million deficit is about to bring more pain to suffering state agencies. This time, the victim list could include public education’s Minimum Foundation Program.

A requirement of state law makes further budget cuts this year inevitable, according to LFT Legislative Director Alison Ocmand. The law requires any deficit from last year to be balanced by the end of this fiscal year on June 30, 2011.

Soon, the deficit will be reported to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget. That meeting will trigger Governor Bobby Jindal’s authority to make one of those dreaded mid-year budget cuts.

In each of the past two years, the Jindal administration has cut the budget at mid-year. The brunt of those cuts has fallen on higher education and health care. To date, our colleges and universities have sacrificed some $270 million to the budget axe.

Higher education is already bracing for another cut. Officials say that as many as eight institutions could be closed if the direst of predictions prove true.

Thus far, K-12’s MFP has been spared from cuts. That doesn’t mean public education hasn’t been hurt, however. The failure of the legislature and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to increase the MFP by the traditional 2.75% in each of the past two years has brought pain to local school boards. While state funding stood still, retirement and insurance costs rose significantly, along with other costs of operating schools.

On top of that, Jindal vetoed funds to pay the supplements for nationally certified educators, and cut funding for transportation of private and religious school students. Those burdens must be picked up by local school boards.

But with other budgets cut to the bone and beyond, how safe is the $3.3 billion MFP? Public education’s main funding source does have constitutional protection, but it is not completely immune from cuts.

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

Help the Demons win the Hawaii Five-O band contest!

Which college band performs the best rendition of the Hawaii Five-O theme? If the answer is Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, the school will win $25,000 and have a video of the band performing the piece on the CBS network this fall.

All that NSU has to do to win is get more votes than the other 17 colleges in the competition. That's where you come in.

Click on this link, and vote for the Spirit of Northwestern band. You're allowed to vote once each day until the CBS Hawaii Five-O Marching Band Mania competition is settled on October 4. Go Demons!

LSU could lose thousands of students, hundreds of employees under Jindal plan

Last Sunday the Baton Rouge Advocate published a report about how school systems can go about firing teachers because the state is facing yet another budget crisis - a $2 billion shortfall is looming for the coming fiscal year.

Today, the state's newspaper of record has this frightening headline: "LSU predicts massive layoff, loss of students if budget cut."

Reporter Jordan Blum writes that the flagship university will lose about 700 employees and close to 8,000 students if LSU is forced to trim its budget by another $62 million.

That number wasn't just drawn from a hat. The Jindal administration is requiring the university to write a budget plan that includes the cut. All told, the state is asking Louisiana's colleges and universities to write budget estimates with cuts amounting to $437 million next year.

And that's on top of the $270 million cut from higher education by the legislature and the Jindal administration over the past two years.

As The Advocate report notes, the cuts are seriously eroding higher education in our state. LSU is planning to shutter the School of Library Information and Science, and eliminate degree programs in German and Latin. These are not steps that should be considered by a major university.

Do UNO students protest budget cuts in vain?

For a moment there, it looked like the 1960s all over again - protesting students disrupted a campus and fought with police. But it wasn't over a war or civil rights that University of New Orleans students took to the barricades last week. It was over budget cuts that threaten to decimate the university and devalue their educations.

As Times-Picayune reporter John Pope writes here, the students protested the fact that the school's budget has been cut by $14.5 million since 2009, and that more budget cuts are on the way - Governor Jindal's commissioner of administration has asked state agencies to prepare budgets with another 35% worth of cuts.

The students' concern about their educational future may be in vain, as Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte writes in this column.

"But those students probably need to brace for the reality that appears to be slowly sinking in with the higher education community," writes Deslatte. "Protests or not, the cuts are coming, and Jindal and Louisiana's legislators don't seem to have any plans to stop them."

Louisiana's Third World higher education system

This year, higher education suffered a $270 million budget cut at the hands of the Jindal administration and the legislature. Next year, we'll lose some $290 million in federal funding for colleges and universities.

On top of that, the state budget is expected to fall by more than a billion dollars next year. Heads of state departments have already been ordered to prepare budgets with 35% cuts.

No wonder the state's college leaders told the League of Women Voters that our Louisiana is well on the way to becoming more like a Third World country than a state in the most powerful, prosperous nation on earth.

Advocate reporter Jordan Blum covered the meeting for this story.

Higher education troubles: more than money

It's not just the money problems that plague higher education in Louisiana, although the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars can't be a good thing.

Lately, the higher education community has been riven with administrative conflicts, showdowns and SNAFUs.

Take the flap over the leadership of the new LSU teaching hospital scheduled to replace New Orleans' Charity Hospital. As reported here by Bill Barrow of The Times Picayune, LSU System President John Lombardi appointed Lafayette attorney Elaine Abell to chair the new hospital's board.

But under pressure from Gov. Bobby Jindal, the LSU board overturned Lombardi and named LSU board member Robert Yarbrough, a Baton Rouge businessman, to the post. Yarbrough had been appointed to the board by Jindal in June.

There is a long history of powerful Louisiana governors manipulating both higher education and medical services in the state. Earl Long famously reappointed an entire medical board to ensure that he would be judged sane. His brother, Huey, may have died because of inept medical care from a political appointee after he was shot in the hall of the Louisiana capitol.

But it's not just governors who meddle in the affairs of higher education. Advocate reporter Will Sentell has this report from the Press Club of Baton Rouge, in which the legislature is rapped for its micromanagement of the higher education commission.

Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin took lawmakers to task for overturning the appointment of Tom Layzell as interim commissioner, noting that they have set up a Byzantine process guaranteed to impede the search for Sally Clausen's replacement.

"Who in their right mind is going to look at Louisiana after what we've done?" asked Erwin. "We've really shot ourselves in the foot."

What legislators have done is set up a system that requires the legislature's joint budget committee to approve the pay package for potential commissioners, followed by a confirmation vote by the full Senate.

At least six other states are also seeking higher education commissioners right now, said Erwin, but Louisiana is the only state with such a convoluted hiring process. That puts us at a competitive disadvantage, making it "extremely difficult" to find a new commissioner.

Fiscal crisis: eight colleges may close

Louisiana Board of Regents officials warned the Senate Finance Committee today that eight higher education campuses may close as a result of planned cuts to the state budget.

LSU System President John Lombardi included in joint testimony the loss of entire campuses, along with reduced freshman and sophomore classes at 4-year colleges as necessary to replace $300 million that will not be available to higher education in FY2011. According to Lombardi, as much as one-third of the higher education system could be lost.

Even with efficiencies and tuition increases, warned Regents officials, deep and substantial cuts are inevitable with the budget reduction. They predicted a 15-year setback in state higher education.

"Sadly, this is not the first wake-up call we've had about a crisis in higher education," said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. "But it begs the question: When will we listen? Losing an entire generation of students is simply not an option."

To read the rest of this story, please click here.
Advocate reporter Jordan Blum covered the issue for this story.

Post-holiday catch up edition

Much has happened during the short Easter break. The legislature is back in session, but unlike previous years, the opening was marked by dissension.

Leadership issues: Because former Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson was elected to the Senate, the House had to choose a new pro tem. Normally, that's not a big deal. The guys gather in a back room, agree with the governor's pick for the post, and hold an election to make it official.

But as Times-Picayune reporter Ed Anderson writes here, this year there were actually two candidates: Independent Joel Robideaux of Lafayette, who had the nod from Speaker of the House Jim Tucker, and Democrat Noble Ellington of Winnsboro. Surprisingly, Ellington came within a handful of votes of beating Robideaux.

Retribution from Speaker Tucker was swift and harsh, as reported here by the Picayune's Jan Moller. Ellington and some of his supporters lost plum committee assignments, and Ellington was threatened with the loss of his digs at the prestigious Pentagon Barracks near the capitol.

Jindal losing his luster? A poll from LSU's Public Policy Research Lab revealed that Governor Jindal's direction for the state may no longer be supported by a majority of residents.

As reported here by Advocate bureau chief Mark Ballard, a solid majority oppose the governor's rigid opposition to taxes in the face of the state's economic crisis, and 51% say the repeal of the Stelly tax reforms was a mistake "because it cost state revenue and contributed to the current budget shortfall." Nearly 60% say the Stelly reforms should be reinstated.

College shake-up in the works? Higher education in Louisiana probably won't look the same after this legislative session. As Bill Barrow of The Advocate reports here, several plans are floating around the capitol that would restructure governance of colleges and universities. The most drastic would replace the state's four college boards with one 15-member board of trustees.








http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-7/127059361068810.xml&coll=1 college shakeup

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/89752752.html Jindal plan unpopular

Follow the logic

The Advocate has some really bad news for higher education. As reporter Jordan Blum writes, the Jindal administration has announced another $85 million in budget cuts that must be implemented this year.

And Jindal's commissioner of administration, Angelle Davis, predicts that there may be even more cuts coming because of declining tax revenues.

And why are tax revenues in decline?

One reason, of course, is the national economic crisis. The recession, which economists say is slowly ending, certainly dragged our economy down. But it's not the only reason.

Another reason for our situation is the orgy of tax breaks that two governors and successive legislatures indulged in over the past few years.

Not to sound like a broken record, but the unfortunate decision by lawmakers to curtail the Stelly plan's tax reforms have cost our state hundreds of millions of dollars that could be shoring up higher education right now.

The Stelly plan was done in by demagogues who falsely claimed that it broke a promise by raising taxes on higher income citizens. In actuality, Stelly worked exactly as it was supposed to. By cutting tax rates for the lowest income citizens, abolishing some regressive sales axes and increasing rates on higher-income earners, Stelly gave Louisiana a fairer, more progressive and more sustainable tax system. One, by the way, that significantly reduced our dependence on income from the volatile oil patch.

The best defense of the Stelly plan we've yet heard comes from the author himself, retired Republican Representative Vic Stelly of Lake Charles.

As Stelly wrote in this letter to The Advocate, his plan "provided a slowly growing revenue stream to cover inflation. That’s why the plan would be bringing in more today, eight years after passage, than it did in 2002."

So while Louisiana would certainly be feeling the pinch had we not so foolishly abandoned the most reasonable tax plan to come down the pike in many years, we might not be talking about such breathtaking cuts to our colleges and universities.

Which brings us to the final stop on this logic trail. Even in the face of massive cuts to education, Jindal is adamant about his "no taxes" pledge.

As this article in the Alexandria Town Talk confirms, Jindal will not seek more revenue, "No matter how much sacrifice is involved."

And it looks like higher education will be the sacrificial offering demanded by the gods of fiscal conservatism.

Stelly plan: told ya so

The chickens come home to roost. As has been pointed out umpteen times by EdLog, Governor Jindal and the legislature drove the ship of state into disastrous straits by undoing the Stelly tax reforms of 2002.

We now know that one victim of the tax cut fever that swept Baton Rouge in the past few years is our flagship university, which is about to be downsized to a dinghy.

As reported here by LSU Reveille reporter Xerxes A. Wilson, some 25,000 people have signed a petition "demanding state tax reform and constitutional change."

English instructor Tania Nyman told a rally over the weekend, “Gov. Jindal claims we must suffer this devastation as we tighten our belts in these tough economic times. But we know these cuts are not a result of the downturn in the economy. We know these cuts are a result of the governor and legislature’s decision to repeal tax reforms the people of Louisiana voted for almost 10 years ago.”

Some 400 non-tenured instructors at LSU have received termination letters, mirroring similar cuts at other state colleges and universities. Programs and even whole departments are on the line, at the same time that our so-called "leaders" hypocritically claim that education is Louisiana's hope for a better future.

Science fair and student teacher funds cut

Governor Bobby Jindal's plan to cut LSU's budget by some $12.6 million at mid-year will hurt K-12 schools as well as the state's flagship university.

Notice has gone out to principals that popular programs will be sacrificed to the governor's budget axe.

First to go is the stipend that LSU's School of Education pays to K-12 teachers who supervise student teachers. As Dean M. Jayne Fleener, Ph.D. put it in an e-mail to principals:

Because of the current 6% budget cut to the College of Education, we cannot
offer your teachers who are supervising student teachers in their schools
the $200 stipend we have in the past. We truly value our partnership with
your teachers and schools and regret we cannot honor your teachers in this
way. However, these budget cuts prevent our continuing to provide this token
of our appreciation at this time.

The bad news continues for employees of the college. Writes the dean, "in addition to other cuts, we will not be able to offer our own university supervisors travel money to defray their expenses for supervision. Given the wide range of placements across several school systems, this is a significant cost to each supervisor."

Students in middle and high schools will also feel the pinch from the governor's refusal to use Tax Amnesty Program funds to prop up higher education. Two popular events sponsored by LSU's Continuing Education department, the 2010 Region VII Science and Engineering Fair and the 2010 Louisiana Science and Engineering Fair, are being cancelled.

Writes program director Gail Hawkes in a memo to principals, "We know that these events are of great educational value to our community and to the state of Louisiana. LSU Continuing Education will explore alternative long-term funding mechanisms that might permit LSU to
resume hosting the fairs in the future."

Grim news for higher education

The state's colleges and universities are being asked to absorb yet another round of budget cuts, according to this article by Advocate reporter Jordan Blum.

Last month, state economists declared a shortfall of nearly $250 million this budget year, and Gov. Bobby Jindal is adamant that no new revenues will be dedicated to filling the hole. So even though the state is enjoying a $450 million windfall because of the Tax Amnesty Program, colleges and universities will lose almost $84 million before the fiscal year ends on June 30.

Classes will be cancelled across the state, and LSU's flagship status will be endangered, but Jindal will keep his national bragging rights as a strict fiscal conservative. That won't help Louisiana, but may boost the governor's presidential aspirations.

Despite windfall, Jindal wants to cut education and health care again

The state's hugely successful Tax Amnesty Program has raked in nearly $450 million thus far, and that's more than enough to forestall the $248 million worth of cuts Gov. Jindal is projecting, mainly for higher education and health care.

Clearly, the governor has chosen to follow a radical conservative ideology instead of working to bolster education and provide adequate health care for the people of the state.

Read more here at the LFT Web site. Click here for a preliminary list of budget cuts, provided by Advocate reporter Michelle Millhollon.