When the apple falls far, far from the tree

Former U.S. Congressman and Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer recently dropped his long-shot presidential aspiration to tackle an even more daunting goal: reforming our corrupt campaign finance practices.

Gov. Roemer even appeared before Congress last month to testify about the malign effects of unfettered campaign contributions on our political system. At a hearing entitled “Taking Back Our Democracy: Responding to Citizens United and the Rise of Super PACs,” Roemer complained that “Our institutional corruption places our elections in the hands of the mega contributors.”

Taking his argument just a bit further, the former governor said “The system is not broke … It’s bought.”

The theme of Roemer’s testimony, according to this article by Advocate Washington Bureau Chief Jordan Blum, was “the need to enact campaign finance reform and rein in runaway corporate spending in elections.”

It is a message apparently lost on his politically ambitious son, Chas, and other members of the state board of education who have thrown in with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s radical education agenda.

According to campaign finance reports, Chas Roemer was the beneficiary of $597,142.15 during last fall’s campaign for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The bulk of Chas’ contributions, more than $248,000, came from the Republican Party of Louisiana.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, through its network of PACS, put $87,500 into the Roemer campaign.

The ABC Pelican PAC, the political arm of the Associated Builders and Contractors, contributed $20,000 to Chas’ campaign.

Gov. Jindal himself donated $15,000 to Roemer’s campaign.

The Standard Companies of New Orleans, a beverage company subsidiary of DS Waters of America, put up $14,000.

Publishing magnate Rolf McCollister gave Roemer $6,000, on top of invaluable column inches in his newspaper.

From its offices in Virginia, the pro-voucher Louisiana Federation of Children’s PAC sent another $6,000.

Roemer’s closest competitor, former Ascension Parish Superintendent of Schools Superintendent Donald Songy, raised a total of $56,660 for the race (full disclosure: the Louisiana Federation of Teachers contributed less than $6,000 Songy’s campaign).

Given that disparity in resources – nearly $600,000 versus less than $57,000 – Roemer was able to mount a very effective, and very negative, multi-media campaign that overwhelmed Songy.

Roemer was not the only candidate blessed by Jindal and his big business friends. Candidates allied with the governor amassed contributions of more than $2.8 million. Even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg got into the act, donating $55,000 to Jindal’s candidates. The closest competitors to the Jindal ticket raised a combined total of less than $348,000.

The money fueled a tsunami of advertising that had never been seen in BESE races, guaranteeing a victory for Gov. Jindal’s forces.

The immediate result of the election was the anointing of John White as superintendent, followed by a BESE kowtow to whatever privatization scheme the governor proposes. Which, as blogger Mike Deshotels writes here, means that hundreds of millions of dollars will soon be siphoned away from public schools into the pockets of “course choice providers” linked to big business.

Buddy Roemer is right. Big money donors and their unlimited contributions are the major corrupting factors in American politics. When will he tell Chas?

In defense of public sector salaries and benefits

In some political circles, it's popular to attack teachers and other public employees. We saw it in the last legislative session, when lawmakers sought ways to reduce retirement benefits that seem overly generous in comparison to the desultory performance of private sector workers' 401(k) plans.

It's part of a larger, nationwide assault on public service. To some politicians, the current recession is seen as permission to denigrate the decent salaries and benefits earned by those who made the career decision to serve the public.

As writer Daniel Morris puts it in this New York Daily News article, "Now pundits and politicians across the country are getting in on the action by claiming that public-sector employees must sacrifice more and act like private sector employees who supposedly feel blessed and thankful to get a paycheck, any paycheck."

In what he calls a "new race to the bottom," Morris says that the woes of private sector employees are being used to "stir up rage" at public sector employees and, more specifically, at the unions that have worked to win those salaries and benefits.

The better solution is to ensure private sector employees' rights to the same decent salaries and benefits as those in the public sector. That didn't seem like such a strange concept a generation or two ago. But in an age that offers golden parachutes to top executives and the shaft to everyone else, the idea of basic fairness is sloughed off as quaint or, even worse, socialist.

Louisiana gets share of assesssment instrument grant

Louisiana is one of 26 states that will share a federal grant aimed at creating common assessment instruments for the recently adopted Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. Ours is one of 35 states and the District of Columbia to adopt the new Common Core standards.

According to this press release from the State Department of Education, the new assessments will eventually replace the iLEAP and LEAP tests, which will be phased out after the 2013-14 school year.

An important goal of the new assessment will be to have scores that can be compared among states that subscribe to the common standards.

The State Department says the new assessments will be administered by computer at key times during the year.

In a related Education Week story, reporter Erik W. Robelen writes that there are actually two sets of grants aimed at designing new assessment systems. Both are part of the Race to the Top program.

Louisiana frozen out of Race to the Top funds

Doing a passable impression of the Soup Nazi on the old Seinfeld show, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today said "No money for you" to Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek.

For the second time, our state was frozen out of the education fund known as Race to the Top. In the first round, only Tennessee and Delaware won money; this time, nine states and the District of Columbia will get a share of $3.4 billion from the competition.

Asked for a comment, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said the loss changes nothing about the Federation's commitment to student achievement.

“The Louisiana Federation of Teachers remains committed to including educator voice and involvement in any initiatives that affect our profession,” said Monaghan. “Despite this development, we will continue to partner with the state and local school districts in achieving our goal of a quality education for all children."

It did not go unnoticed that Louisiana lost its bid for funding even though Pastorek made the competition a top priority of his department, ramming through numerous controversial policies in an effort to demonstrate his passion for reform.

Associated Press writer Dorie Turner put it this way in her report: "But some education groups said 'Race to the Top' rewarded states that have weak reform efforts while leaving out those like Colorado and Louisiana that have made strides to overhaul their schools."

Could loss of the federal funds have anything to do with a governor who's spent the last few months on a beach loudly criticizing the federal government? Or who bemoaned federal spending even as he handed out oversized cardboard checks written on accounts funded by that same government?

Louisiana is R2T finalist in second round

Louisiana is one of 18 states chosen as finalists in the second round of federal Race to the Top funding, reported in this press release from the Department of Education.

The press release says the state could get as much as $175 million from the competitive grant. But as this Christian Science Monitor article points out, the total amount requested by finalists is about $6.2 billion, while the total amount available in R2T funds is $3.4 billion.

Will value-added evaluations help Race to the Top?

Louisiana's education leaders are hopeful that passage of Act 54, the state's new value-added model of teacher evaluation, will help the state's application for federal Race to the Top funds.

As Advocate reporter Will Sentell writes here, enactment of the new model is the only big change in the state's application. Whether it will be enough to earn the state $175 million remains to be seen.

New R2T proposal is a rehash

The state's proposal to win funding in the next round of federal Race to the Top applications will be a virtual mirror of the application that failed to make the grade in March, according to State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek.

One main difference will be that, instead of the $30 million the state hoped to win earlier, the most Louisiana can hope to get in the second round will be $175 million, according to this story by Advocate reporter Will Sentell.

Didn't see that coming...

News that Louisiana's bid for federal Race to the Top funding has been denied (reported here by Leslie Turk of The Independent) startled Baton Rouge today, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already chaotic legislative session.

It was shortly before Gov. Bobby Jindal gave his opening address of the 2010 session, during which he described the budget woes facing the state, that education officials learned Louisiana will not be getting money from the federal program. Supporters were hoping to get as much as $300 million.

Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek put on a brave face and congratulated Tennessee and Delaware, the two states selected to get R2T funds. They will get at total of $600 million, leaving the bulk of the $4.35 billion program up for grabs in the next round of announcements, which comes in June.

In a press release, Pastorek said that Louisiana will be a competitor in June: "We believe our success and commitment to these reforms will help us secure funding in the next round of grants. In the meantime, we will take this opportunity to consider feedback from the reviewers, and we will work to amend our application so that we more clearly articulate Louisiana’s progress, promise and plan. "

LFT on Race to the Top: Now the work begins

Louisiana made the first cut in the competition for nearly $4.4 billion in new federal education funds. Now, as LFT President Steve Monaghan says in this press release, the real work will begin.

That's because the work done thus far has largely been theoretical or, as Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek likes to put it, "at the 10,000 foot level."

Not that the deliberations that went into the state's application were easy or uncomplicated, or without controversy. But that was the level at which philosophical differences were explored, and agreements reached that promise great flexibility to educators at the "ground level." The success of Race to the Top will now be determined by those local educators.

As Monaghan puts it, "The work to be done must occur in an arena of mutual respect and with a strong commitment to do what is good for children, is effective, and is fair to educators and staff.”

Gannett reporter Mike Hasten covered the story for this report.

Senator praises LFT efforts in Race to the Top

While acknowledging the Louisiana Federation of Teachers' concerns about the federal Race to the Top program, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu has praised the union for "supporting the state's efforts to secure as much of this grant money as possible."

In a letter to Federation President Steve Monaghan, the senator wrote "This historic $4.3 billion competitive grant program...represents an unprecedented investment in innovation and reform in education."

"An investment in reform that can transform our state's education system would be the greatest legacy we could leave our children," Senator Landrieu wrote. "Moreover, the economic viability of our state depends on training a well-educated workforce capable of excelling in 21st century jobs."

"I understand that LFT does not agree with all of the details of the state's plan," the senator continued. "However, it is admirable that your organization is supporting the state's efforts to secure as much of this grant money as possible despite your differences. I am confident that any concerns you may have with the plan can be ironed out as we move forward."

Click here to read the full letter.

Reporter explains Race to the Top

The federal Race to the Top program is a complex beast that defies simple "for it" or "against it" positions. In this article, reporter Sarah Carr provides a solid overview of the state's plan for snagging as much as $315 million from the $4 billion-plus federal grant.

Carr does a good job of explaining the reservations of organizations like LFT. In the final analysis, as LFT President Steve Monaghan puts it in the article, the union's plan is "to stay fully engaged in the application and shape it as much as we possibly could."

Can't we all just get along?

LFT President Steve Monaghan's letter to Governor Bobby Jindal is getting all kinds of media attention for pointing out the flaws in the governor's proposed education agenda. Headlines like "LFT chief decries Jindal’s plan to cut red tape" (Will Sentell in The Advocate), "Gov. Bobby Jindal's education proposal criticized by Louisiana Federation of Teachers" (Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte), "LFT president expresses concerns over Jindal school initiative" (Gannett reporter Mike Hasten) and others all lead by stressing Monaghan's criticism of Jindal's plan.

Journalism thrives on conflict, so it's fair that reporters concentrate on points of disagreement. But with the exception of Mike Hasten's, none of the reports delve into the most important issue raised by Monaghan - that the state would be better off if Governor Jindal would seek cooperation on areas of agreement.

It's a tack taken by LFT in negotiations with Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek over the state's Race to the Top application, and it works. Here's how LFT puts it in a press release:

Instead of pursuing an agenda that guarantees confrontation during the
upcoming session, Monaghan urged the governor to “embrace the philosophy that
marked our Race to the Top discussions.”

“Together, we can find ways to increase respect for and value in tenure
as the ‘meaningful and active process’ described in the application,” Monaghan
wrote. “We can have an honest discussion of R2T’s ‘learning environment index,’
and provide teachers with the power to identify impediments to achievement at
the site level and to trigger corrective action. We can debate ways to reward
teachers for excellence or for additional contributions without appearing to
attack teacher salary schedules.”

“Our recent experience with Superintendent Pastorek and his team in the
creation of the state’s R2T application demonstrated that engagement is far
better than disengagement,” Monaghan’s letter concluded. “We hope that we can
look forward to working with you in the interest of our children in the coming
legislative session.

Bobby Jindal's big school flip-fop

Just a year ago, Gov. Bobby Jindal and his minions seemed to believe that school boards were the root of all evil. So incompetent and intrusive were school boards that the governor and Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek prevailed upon freshman legislator Steve Carter to introduce a package of bills that would have stripped local school boards of most of their authority. Joining Jindal and Pastorek in their crusade against local school boards were the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Council for a Better Louisiana.

This year, Jindal and his cohorts are flipping like flapjacks. At a press conference attended by Pastorek, Carter LABI and CABL, the governor announced that there are too many restrictions on local school boards. His new legislative package seeks to empower school boards by allowing them to opt out of state laws and policies deemed "burdensome regulations ... that may hinder academic growth."

Judging from the governor's press release, it looks like one big target of the legislation is teacher tenure. That is another big flip-flop. The state's Jindal-approved application for federal Race to the Top funds aims to ensure that tenure “is a meaningful and active process” with “respect and value.”

The administration is no stranger to hypocritical flip-flops, though. This is the same bunch that touts education as the key to economic development while simultaneously stripping higher education budgets, eliminating programs and whole departments.

NYT: Education law will mirror Race to Top

For anyone who still believes they can ignore the federal race to the Top program and it will eventually go away, this New York Times article is a big wake up call.

Times reporter Sam Dillon gets the story straight from capitol insiders. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left behind) is reauthorized, it will closely follow the pattern set by R2T:

“They want to recast the law so that it is as close to Race to the Top as they can get it, making the money conditional on districts’ taking action to improve schools,” said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, who attended a recent meeting at which administration officials outlined their plans in broad strokes.

Like it or not, the new direction taken by the feds will include "value added data" - meaning that teachers and schools will be judged, at least in part, by the progress made by individual students during the school year.

Teachers and their unions have an opportunity to get involved and influence the directions taken by public education in the future. Ignoring this trend, however, is a one-way path to irrelevance.

Obama: budget freeze won't apply to schools

President Barack Obama's plan to freeze domestic spending won't apply to public education, according to this article by CNN reporter Ed Henry.

The president recently announced that he plans to freeze most non-security related spending in order to rein in the federal deficit, which is about $1.4 trillion this year. That left educators wondering about the future of Obama's education plans.

In tonight's State of the Union address, according to Henry, the president will announce that education spending by the federal government will increase by $4 billion in the coming year.

Included in that amount is an additional $1.34 billion for Obama's Race to the Top program, and another $1 billion to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act.

Weingarten shakes up the establishment

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten shook the education establishment last week when she announced to the national Press Club that AFT is launching its own massive school reform effort.

She laid out a new approach to teacher evaluation, saying that a strong teacher
development and evaluation system is crucial to improving teaching, and is
essential for a fair and efficient due process system. Weingarten said the union
is prepared to work with any district willing to take both steps: to create and
implement a real evaluation system, and to establish a due process system
aligned to it.

Critics immediately pounced on Weingarten's speech. From the right, union bashers decried her initiative as a fake reform aimed at appeasing reform advocates.

But even teachers reacted with concern when the news media portrayed her speech as an admission that teachers should be evaluated based on their students' test scores.

That was an oversimplification that undervalued Weingarten's effort. Leave it to an actual reformer, Diane Ravitch, to put Weingarten's speech in context and explain what it really means:

She laid out a far-ranging plan for evaluating teachers, which I suspect most
teachers would find fair and reasonable. Here is what she said:
First, states should set out clear professional standards that describe clearly what teachers should know and be able to do. Then, to determine whether teachers meet these standards, districts should use "multiple means of evaluation," including
classroom observations, self-evaluations, portfolio reviews, appraisal of lesson
plans," and a variety of other tools, including student test scores. But the
scores should be based on "valid and reliable assessments" and they should not
be derived "by comparing the scores of last year's students with the scores of
this year's students, but by assessing whether a teacher's students show real
growth while in his classroom."

In her speech, Weingarten gave a nod to the "value added" approach to evaluation that is favored by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, President Obama and Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek.

Thanks to efforts by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, our state's Race to the Top application describes multiple means of evaluation. Those include a value-added model as well as a Learning Environment Index that considers conditions outside a teacher's control, such as student poverty and school resources.

LFT President Steve Monaghan on Race to the Top

In a letter to members of the state's largest education organization, LFT President Steve Monaghan explains why the Federation has chosen to participate in applications for federal Race to the Top funds.

As with any big change, Race to the Top has opposition. In deciding to participate, Monaghan had to carefully balance concerns about the $4.4 billion program against the potential benefits.

In the end, LFT decided to participate in Race to the Top negotiations because, as Monaghan said, "engagement is far better than disengagement, and dialog is better than silence."

Is R2T the model for education's future?

As Louisiana rushes to get a piece of the big new federal education pie, the national perspective on the $4.4 billion Race to the Top program is becoming clearer. Education Week reports that the direction taken by R2T will soon be reflected in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

EdWeek reporter Alyson Klein says the Obama administration and Education Secretary Arne Duncan plan to make R2T "the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s plans for a new ESEA. "

Klein quotes administration spokesperson Carmel Martin as saying, “I think some of our big-picture goals are, first, to carry through the reform agenda that we see in Race to the Top and other [recovery act] programs, to carry that forward through ESEA.”

Educators - including the LFT - are dubious about sections of R2T that encourage expanding charter schools and basing teacher evaluations in part on student achievement.

But in Louisiana, Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek has been willing to listen to Federation concerns and modify the state's R2T application in response to them. Notably, Pastorek scaled back the percentage of evaluations that depends on test scores, and included a "learning environment index" that takes factors beyond a teacher's control - such as poverty and school resources - into account.

This press release from the State Department of Education recognizes LFT's role in shaping Louisiana's response.

As EdWeek points out, R2T's coming influence concerns some states because of its emphasis on common standards. That could work to Louisiana's benefit.

While our accountability standards have earned the state much praise from reformers because of their rigor, we've been at a competitive disadvantage with other states with lower academic standards. Our high standards make it look as though our children aren't performing at the same level as those in other states, when the reality is that we are simply demanding more of our students.
Common standards would level that playing field.

LFT to be “fully engaged” in Race to the Top

LFT President Steve Monaghan spoke to the news media at a press conference announcing the state's plans for Race to the Top.


The state’s largest teacher union intends to be fully engaged in how a new federal education program’s funds will be used in Louisiana’s classrooms, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

“Too many Louisiana children are too poor with needs too great to walk away from a share of the $4.4 billion Race to the Top funds,” Monaghan said.

“What brought LFT to the table is our belief that engagement is far better than disengagement and that dialogue is better than silence,” said Monaghan. “What kept us at the table and engaged in the discussions was willingness of all parties to entertain every part of the proposal as organic. That means we can try properly resourced reforms, and if they don’t work, we can modify them, and even change directions if necessary. Our conversations centered on the possibilities and not on any entrenched position.

“To be very frank, we do not necessarily agree with all the ideas and policies in the proposal,” Monaghan said. “But we do agree that all children and all teachers deserve much better and much more than they’re receiving now. We understand that there remain details to be resolved and unknowns to be discovered. The LFT intends to act as a partner as long as we are treated as such.”

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

EdWeek commentary: Is merit pay the answer?

Educator/author Kim Marshall has some food for thought about teacher merit pay in this Education Week commentary.

The piece offers good reasons to slow down on the lurch toward performance-based pay for teachers. It creates an understanding of why the organic approach favored by the Department of Education's Race to the Top application is better than Gov. Bobby Jindal's intent to pass laws mandating performance based pay (in this context, organic simply means that the concept should be allowed to grow and, if necessary, change and adapt if it does not work as planned).

One important argument offered by Marshall is that standardized tests can be "instructionally insensitive" or, as he puts it, "better at measuring students’ family advantages and disadvantages than the school’s or the teacher’s value-added effect."

The Department of Education's resident testing expert, George Noell, admitted as much when he told a joint Senate and House Education Committee last week that our current high-stakes tests are not well suited to a value-added evaluation system, but that they can be tweaked to suit the purpose.

To help resolve that issue, LFT insisted on including a "learning environment index" in the state's Race to the Top plans. That index takes factors outside of a teacher's control into account then measuring student achievement.

What is Marshall's alternative to test-based measures of value-added accountability?

In many of America’s most effective schools, principals make frequent
unannounced visits to classrooms and give informal feedback on what students
are learning and how instruction can be improved. Teacher teams in these
schools collaboratively design curriculum units, give common assessments to
their students every four to six weeks, immediately huddle to discuss what
worked and what didn’t, share best practices, reteach what wasn’t mastered, and help struggling students.

By frequently checking for understanding and fixing learning problems
before they snowball, these schools draw on teachers’ and administrators’
collective wisdom and keep everyone’s focus on the most important questions: Are
students learning, and, if not, what’s our next move?

In schools which operate on that model, Marshall says, "...students in these schools are making dramatic gains, and achievement gaps are being closed. Small wonder that teachers in these schools are continuously improving their craft."