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.

MFP: Pain in classrooms and communities

The House Education Committee met in a rare evening session Thursday to approve a zero-growth Minimum Foundation Program formula that LFT President Steve Monaghan said is likely to cause “pain in the classroom and pain in the communities.”

Without a dissenting vote, the committee sent HCR 243 by Rep. Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), public education’s $3.4 billion budget, to the full House. Missing from the formula for the second year in a row is the traditional 2.75% “growth factor” that local school systems rely on to meet rising costs. The MFP will increase by about $44 million, but that is only to meet the per-pupil cost of about 6,000 new students in public schools.

Earlier in the week, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed to scale back its budget request because of the state’s yawning gap between expenses and anticipated revenues. The state constitution forbids adoption of a budget with a deficit.

Monaghan was the only representative of an education organization to address the committee. He told members that failure to include the $65 million growth factor will be felt throughout the state. K-12 schools have already lost about $85 million in state funding this year, he said.

“If one appreciates the ‘bounce’ that school expenditures bring to local communities,” Monaghan said, “then one understands how the loss of revenues will impact the economy of whole communities.”

Monaghan cautioned that next year’s budget will pose an even greater threat of cuts.
While the recent recession is responsible for some of Louisiana’s budget woes, Monaghan said, the state would be in much better shape had governors and lawmakers not pushed for so many tax breaks during years when the economy was bright.

A report from the Louisiana Budget Project notes that Louisiana grants more than 400 tax expenditures in the form of deductions, exemptions and credits, Monaghan said. That amounts to more than $7 billion and is nearly as much as the state takes in as revenues.

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

A state crisis of unprecedented severity

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has issued a sobering report entitled "Recession Continues to Batter State Budgets; State Responses Could Slow Recovery." The gist of the story is that the recession "has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record...a state fiscal crisis of unprecedented severity"

There are charts and graphs that display what we in Louisiana already know: there's not enough money in state coffers to provide the services our people need.

The solution, according to the report is a mix of spending cuts and revenue measures: "At the state level, a balanced approach to closing deficits — raising taxes along with enacting budget cuts — is needed to close state budget gaps in order to maintain important services while minimizing harmful effects on the economy."

Thus far in Louisiana, all the emphasis has been on spending cuts. Governor (and wannabe President) Bobby Jindal is focused on cuts and phobic on revenues to the point of obsession.

Which brings us to today's editorial in The Advocate. In this case, the Gray Lady of Baton Rouge seems to be a lone voice of reason, with most newspapers in the state parroting the governor's anti-tax blather.

The editorial points once again to the Louisiana Budget Project's contention that many of the Louisiana's 440-some odd tax exemptions are not just unnecessary, but are harmful to development in the state.

"Repealing or suspending some of the worst offenders is the easiest way to raise revenue, and utterly defensible even to anti-tax Republicans," says the editorial. "After all, it's not 'new taxes'."

It's a good argument, but will it wash in the coming legislative fiscal session, which just happens to precede state elections? Lawmakers will be in a tough spot, faced on one hand by the decimation of services our people need, and on the other by opponents champing at the bit to paint them as "tax and spenders."

Which will prevail? Doing what's right for the people of Louisiana, or doing what seems necessary to be reelected?

Coalition fights to save state pensions

Rep. James Armes (D-Leesville) says Gov. Jindal's retirement system changes threaten the state's middle class.

At a capitol press conference Monday, a coalition of firefighters, teachers, law enforcement personnel, AARP retirees, local leaders, state budget experts, and others exposed and rejected Governor Jindal’s pension-slashing scheme on middle class Louisiana workers.

Governor Jindal is trying to force through the legislature one of the most extreme overhauls of a state-run pension system anywhere in the nation, without the benefit of a transparent and open debate.

Shrouded in secrecy, Jindal’s pension slashing scheme, includes a so-called “cash balance plan” that turns pensions over to Wall Street. According to an actuarial note prepared by the Actuarial Services Department of the Office of the Legislative Auditor, the proposed cash balance plan would likely cost more than the current defined benefit plan. The report goes on to note, “Because there is no Social Security coverage [for state workers], such a member may very well become a ward of the state because he or she has no other available resources.”

Rep. James K. Armes (District 30) said: “The public deserves openness and transparency from their government especially when it comes to their retirement security. Unfortunately, Governor Jindal insists on secrecy. Even worse, his plan punishes Louisiana’s middle class workers by handing over their pensions to greedy Wall Street insiders who crashed our economy in the first place.”

Kerri Everitt, Advocacy Director for AARP said: “The Governor’s ‘cash balance plan,’ is particularly bad for retirees because state employees do not get Social Security. The plan will cost the state money and leave retirees in poverty. Instead of punishing working people and our seniors we should be making big corporations and Wall Street pay their fair share.”

Jan Moller, Director for Louisiana Budget Project said: “The cash balance plan is a lose-lose for Louisiana. It’s bad for taxpayers and bad for state employees. It’s especially risky for state employees, who do not receive Social Security and whose families would be vulnerable if they die or become disabled before they retire.”

Stacy Birdwell, Professional Fire fighters Association of Louisiana: “Firefighters don’t become firefighters to get rich. But we at least expect there to be a decent and guaranteed retirement at the end of a lifetime of hard work. We stand with our fellow state workers and demand politicians stop trying to turn our retirement security over to Wall Street.

Brenda G Matthews, qualified teacher aide, East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers: “It’s shameful when politicians show such disrespect to the people who work every day to make the next generation of this state better and smarter. This plan is immoral and does not represent Louisiana values it represents Wall Street values. We must stop trying to sell the state and its people off to Wall Street and start making Wall Street and the richest one percent pay their fair share.

According to a new study from the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System, based on the decisions they make, a worker who has already worked 10 years and plans to retire at age 55 with 28 years of service would have their pension slashed by $18,500 per year. Alternatively, someone currently with 20 years under their belt and plans to retire at age 55 with 25 years of service would see their pension chopped by $6000 per year.

Advocate, LFT agree on "Haynesville Bust"

In a recent editorial, The Advocate in Baton Rouge pointed out that the state is losing hundreds of millions of dollars because a loophole in our tax law gives petroleum producers a tax break on the boom in natural gas drilling.

The newspaper called it"the great Haynesville bust" because most of the action is in North Louisiana's Haynesville play, where landowners have become millionaires and oil companies are reaping vast profits.

Left our of the bonanza is the State of Louisiana: "In the 1990s," said the editorial, "when horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing were new methods, the state passed at the behest of the powerful oil industry a 100 percent tax exemption for the cost of drilling wells."

In this letter to the editor, LFT President Steve Monaghan wrote of the practical impact of the loophole. "While education, health care, the transportation infrastructure and other vital public services starve," Monaghan wrote, "vast fortunes are being made by the energy corporations."

It was not unexpected, said Monaghan:

Nearly two years ago, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the
Louisiana Budget Project were partners in creating the Better Choices for a
Better Louisiana coalition. The coalition’s main goal was a balanced approach to
our budget crisis and to ensure that Louisiana had the resources required to
provide the services our people need and deserve.
Early on, Better Choices was critical of the state tax loophole granted for horizontal drilling. As new discoveries in the Tuscaloosa Trend come into play, Louisiana stands to lose even more millions.

The LFT President ended his letter by urging Gov. Jindal and the legislature "to examine and reconsider the tax breaks for horizontal drilling and each of the more than 400 tax breaks on the books."

Haynesville shale: Louisiana can make better choices!

It's a story that was predicted by the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana Coalition: our state is missing out on many millions of dollars because of ill-conceived tax breaks granted to drillers profiting from the Haynesville shale bonanza.

In today's Advocate, reporter Ted Griggs exposes the near-scandalous fact that one of the richest gas finds in history will contribute almost nothing to a state that is facing a $1.6 billion shortfall in the coming legislative session.

Health care is going to suffer. Higher education will continue to lose professors, degree programs and research facilities. Roads and bridges will keep on crumbling. K-12 funding will suffer, and teachers will be fired (St. Martin Parish just announced that it is losing one teacher in each of its schools).

As Griggs reports, there are more than 800 wells in production in North Louisiana's Haynesville find, and most of them will contribute not one penny of severance taxes to the state.

Why? Because they are subject to a tax exemption for two years, and most of these short-lived wells play out within 18 months. There are huge profits for energy companies, but nothing for the state which is surrendering its mineral wealth.

Haynesville is just one example of hundreds of tax loopholes that cost the state more than $7 billion a year - almost as much as is collected for the state's general fund. While some tax breaks may benefit the people of Louisiana, others, like Haynesville, cost us dearly.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers has been involved in this issue for months. In November, we participated with other Better Choices Coalition members in a press conference on the steps of the capitol, asking lawmakers to take a hard look at tax exemptions.

Later that month, at a convention themed Better Choices for a Better Louisiana, experts from the Louisiana Budget Project and LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication explained how Louisiana got into this mess, and what can be done about it.

We know we can do better. We know we can make better choices. Please visit the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana Coalition Web site to learn more.

Jindal gets it wrong on revenues

Give Gov. Jindal's speech writers credit - they came up with great sounding phrases for his address to the legislature on Monday. The promise of his rhetoric is surpassed by the emptiness of his ideas, however.

Often derided for his staccato speech delivery, Jindal's style was a good fit for the machine-gun diatribe produced for the opening session: “Tax increases kill jobs,” he said. “Tax increases kill opportunities. Tax increases hurt economic development. Tax increases hurt our ability to attract new businesses into Louisiana.”

The problem is that it's just not true. If cutting taxes and slashing services was the right strategy for success, we would have high employment, low poverty, a healthy population and a robust, growing, well educated state.

We know better. In fact, since the massive tax cuts approved by the legislatrue in 2007 and 2008, our unemployment rate has gone from 4% to 8.1%. Our population is not growing, as evidenced by our loss of a congressional seat.

As Louisiana Budget Project Director Eddie Ashworth said in this paper, "The state has lost over 16,000 manufacturing jobs. Louisianans continue to be among the least healthy (ranking 49th) and poorest educated (ranking 49th) in the country."

The truth is that Louisiana needs a balanced approach to the budget, one that includes new revenues along with reasonable budget cuts. We need to take a look at the $7.1 billion in tax exemptions offered by the state, and make sure that all of them either serve a purpose for the people of the state, or else are repealed so that funds are available to create the quiality of life our citizens deserve.

Stretching the numbers and the truth

Across the political spectrum, Gov. Bobby Jindal's agenda is being exposed as an exercise in spin aimed more at political gain than the good of the state.

As Mark Ballard, The Advocate's capitol bureau chief, lays out in this column, Jindal's claims of fiscal success ring very hollow.

First, C.B. Forgotston, a right-leaning economic analyst, lays bare the deception in the governor's claims that he has “reduced the state budget by a stunning total of $9 billion..."

In fact, the reduction claimed by Jindal is the result of comparing estimates, according to Forgotston, and not because of any real reduction in the budget.

As the Louisiana Budget Project has demonstrated, when federal funds are subtracted, Louisiana's general fund budget has remained virtually flat since 2005.

Then there is the administration's claim to have actually increased education funding through the Minimum Foundation Program, a claim debunked by the LFT in Ballard's column.

The governor did not increase education funding. Per-pupil funding for the MFP has been frozen for three years, thanks to the governor, the legislature and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

While the total amount of money in the MFP has gone up, that is because of increases in student enrolment and other automatic triggers that the governor does not control. He is taking credit for something he did not do.

Top Republican talks about tax expenditures

"Spending programs disguised as tax breaks." That's how columnist Ruth Marcus defines tax expenditures. It lines up nicely with LFT's contention, based on research by the Louisiana Budget Project, that the $7 billion worth of deductions and credits that Louisiana spends every year ought to be reconsidered in light of our budgetary mess.

It's to be expected that a writer for the Washington Post would take a progressive position on tax expenditures. What's surprising is that the source of her column is Congressman John Boehner of Ohio, Minority Leader of the House and one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.

While tax expenditures cost Louisiana $7 billion per year, they cost the federal government $1.2 trillion per year.

And like in Louisiana, once these expenditures become enshrined in law, they are seldom reconsidered. Even if their original purpose has been satisfied, and even if they have become a net drain on the economy.

In this excerpt from Marcus' column, the voice of reason is loud and clear, and could have come straight from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers' position on tax expenditures:

“We need to take a long and hard look at the undergrowth of deductions,
credits, and special carve-outs that our tax code has become,” Boehner said in his speech
to the City Club of Cleveland. “And, yes, we need to acknowledge that what
Washington sometimes calls ‘tax cuts’ are really just poorly disguised spending
programs that expand the role of government in the lives of individuals and
employers.”

Boehner cited the “tax extenders” bill now
making its way through Congress. “There’s everything in this bill: the research
and development tax credit, special expensing rules for the film industry, an
extension and modification of a tax credit for steel industry fuel, the mine
rescue team training tax credit, and tax incentives for investment in the
District of Columbia,” he said. “Are they worth it? Many are. But we just go
ahead and extend all of them temporarily -- and usually right at the last minute
-- so Washington can continue pandering to the loudest voices instead of
implementing the best ideas.”

Radio show to feature Better Choices for a Better Louisiana

LFT President Steve Monaghan and Louisiana Budget Project Director Eddie Ashworth will be guests on the Jim Engster Show on WRKF-FM, 89.3 on the dial, on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 9:00 A.M. Steve and Eddie will be talking about the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana Coalition, and Louisiana’s need for a fairer, more transparent fiscal base.

If you’re not in WRKF’s range, you can listen online at http://wrkf.org and click on “Listen Live.” If you’re busy in the classroom at 9:00 A.M., you can listen whenever you wish to a WRKF podcast. On their Web site, scroll down to “programs” and click on “podcasts.”

While you’re on the WRKF Web site, please click on “Save Your Station” and send a message to Congress, asking members to fund public radio – the new Republican majority has plans to defund public radio, and we could lose valuable news sources like the Jim Engster show.

LFT president:”There will be pain” because of MFP

(Baton Rouge – June 10, 2010) When LFT President Steve Monaghan testifies before the House Education Committee on BESE's resubmitted Zero Growth MFP formula, he will do so with a full appreciation of the action most likely to be taken by the committee.

“I am under no illusion regarding the likely outcome tonight,” Monaghan said. The committee no doubt finds itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place, but this Federation sees this as just another chapter in a long struggle to raise legislative and community consciousness regarding school funding.”

It appears very likely that the MFP will advance, for the second year in a row, without the 2.75% “growth factor” that school districts have relied upon to meet the growing cost of educating children and keeping teacher compensation competitive. On Tuesday, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education stripped the $65 million growth factor from its funding request.

Some lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office had sent strong signals to BESE that an enhanced MFP would be rejected, triggering a brief impasse between the legislature and the state’s school board.

On Tuesday, BESE acquiesced.

Later today, Monaghan will repeat in part his testimony before BESE by sharing three observations.

• There will be additional pain in our classrooms and our communities because of the MFP. In sampling of districts, $85 million has already been cut from school budgets across the state.

“If one appreciates the ‘bounce’ that school expenditures bring to local communities,” he will say, “then one understands how the loss of revenues will impact the economy of whole communities.”

• Five years ago, an ad-hoc committee called the MFP Task Force discussed creating an “adequacy study.” Its goal would have been to determine how much it would cost to provide a truly appropriate education for all Louisiana children.

That idea was tabled on February 23, 2006, and the task force has failed to reconvene since then.

• A report from the Louisiana Budget Project has reported that Louisiana grants more than 400 tax expenditures in the form of deductions, exemptions and credits, which amounts to more than $7 billion and is nearly as much as the state takes in as revenues.”

An urgent need for the state to investigate these tax expenditures now grows critical. Any that do not serve to create jobs, add to the quality of life of our citizens, and grow the state economy should be challenged so the state can fulfill its obligation to provide services for the people of Louisiana.

Advocate editorial hits Stelly repeal

The Advocate gets it exactly right in this editorial. When the legislature overturned the tax reforms in the Stelly plan, the stage was set for the fiscal crisis facing Louisiana today.

Problem is, that's pretty much water under the bridge. The Stelly reforms have been so thoroughly poisoned by political opportunists that bringing up the subject is close to pointless.

But there is a gold mine of information in the Budget Project report that can move the debate beyond Stelly. More than 440 tax expenditures - those are tax revenues that are spent on various rebates and tax incentives - cost the state some $7 billion a year.

No doubt, many of those breaks are valuable and necessary. But repealing just a fraction of them would solve our budget woes.

When shills for big business claim that Louisiana has the highest business taxes in the nation, they are right. But thanks to the myriad exemptions, most businesses don't pay those taxes.

Next year's legislative session will be fiscal. Now is the time to open the discussion on Louisiana's hidden budget, and to question the list of tax breaks offered up by the state.

Bad news trifecta for Jindal's voucher scheme

It hasn't been the best week for Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher scheme. His plan was blasted from several different directions because it lacks accountability.

On Monday, Advocate reporter Will Sentell posted this story, saying that school superintendents oppose the voucher plan because private and religious schools that accept vouchers will not be held to the same standards as public schools.

The president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents told Sentell that public schools are given letter grades based on their performance scores, and that all students in public schools must take standardized tests. Unless voucher schools are held to the same standards, he said, parents cannot make informed choices about where to send their children to school.

Also on Monday, the head of the Coalition for Louisiana Progress told the Press Club of Baton Rouge that the governor's voucher scheme is unworkable, according to this story by Advocate bureau chief Mark Ballard.

Melissa Flournoy, who once served as a state representative, told the press club that students "could actually end up in schools that are worse than what they had in the public sector system. At the end of the day vouchers, however appealing they might sound, they will not be a viable public sector response.”

Flournoy said that vouchers would divert money from public schools, and that it would not be possible to find private and religious school seats for the 380,000 students who could be eligible for vouchers under Jindal's plan.

The governor's scheme hit a trifecta of sorts when the Louisiana Budget Project released this study, headlined "Governor Jindal's Voucher Plan Gets an 'F' for Accountability."

The first paragraph of the report sums it all up:

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to dramatically increase the number of students who can attend private schools at public expense is missing a key safeguard: strong oversight and accountability to ensure kids are learning and that taxpayer money is being well-spent. Unfortunately, the governor has rejected all suggestions that private schools be held accountable for their performance in the same way as public schools. Instead, his plans would hand over public resources to private schools with no strings attached.

"Tax expenditures" are draining the state

This is an important concept: tax breaks are tax expenditures. Every tax exemption and every tax credit costs the state money. As this Advocate column by Lanny Keller points out, Louisiana spends some $7 billion a year on tax expenditures, while tax revenue - the amount actually collected by the state - is about $8 billion.

We give back in tax breaks almost as much as we collect in taxes. That has been well-documented by the Louisiana Budget Project.

Imagine the shape our state would be in if lawmakers would rein in those expenditures by just a few percentage points. One-seventh of the giveaway would pretty much solve our problems.

As Keller notes, some, perhaps even many, of the tax breaks are necessary to protect vulnerable citizens. Those would certainly include sales tax breaks on food, prescription drugs, home utilities, etc.

Others may be important incentives to bring jobs to the state.

Problem is, as the column says, none of these billions of dollars in tax expenditures is ever reconsidered. Some have long outlived their usefulness, and yet they continue to cost the state money.

That ought to be considered as we slash funding for education, health care, recreation and other quality-of-life issues that are also very important in attracting businesses and jobs to the state.

Reasons to oppose Amendment 1

The Louisiana Budget Project has published the best reasons to vote against Amendment 1 in this Saturday's election: it "would damage the ability of state and local governments to provide revenue needed to support health care, education, and other essential services."

Aside from the simple fact that a constitution should comprise the broad values that define a state, not a laundry list of issues that would be better addressed in law and policy, this amendment is a bad idea.

It would prohibit local governments from assessing a transfer fee when real estate is sold. But there is only one parish where such a fee now exists, and there are no plans elsewhere to establish a transfer fee.

The amendment's proponents want to make sure that there never will be, and are willing to clog up the constitution with more micromanagement to accomplish that end.

Its supporters tend to be the same people who say they want smaller government, yet they are willing to tie the hands of the smallest level of government. Limiting local authority to raise revenues makes local government more dependent on state and federal resources, which sort of defeats the purpose.

What economic crisis? Leges want more for vouchers

In spite of the fact that Louisiana faces billions of dollars in looming budget cuts, some lawmakers want to expand a New Orleans voucher scheme that didn't even spend all the money appropriated for this year.

As Associated Press reporter Kevin McGill writes here, Senator Ann Duplessis wants more money for Gov. Bobby Jindal's pet project. Voucher supporters say they want more "choices" for New Orleans parents, even though the state has already spent untold millions to provide a vast array of choices through charter schools, recovery district schools and traditional public schools in the city.

As the governor prepares his budget for the coming fiscal year, big cuts are expected in higher education, health care and myriad other public services. But we are expected to cough up even more to pay for tuition at private and religious schools.

Last year, lawmakers were arm-twisted into appropriating $10 million so that some 1,500 students could get up to $7,138 worth of tuition vouchers. Only about 640 of the 1,300 students who applied for the money wound up using the vouchers, and just a little over one-third of the money was spent.

And even though money was left on the voucher table this year, the appropriation wasn't touched when Jindal cut other state budgets by over $340 million at mid-year.

Needless to say, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers will fight the expenditure of scarce education funds on a program that benefits very few children just to satisfy an ideological bias against public education.

A tale of two commissions

Most people are probably not even aware that Louisiana has one commission called the Blue Ribbon Commission for Education Excellence, and another one called the Accountability Commission. They have no power to make law or set policy, but they are factories for ideas that can eventually become part of the state’s education laws and policies.

The two commissions don’t always know what the other is up to, and since the news media rarely cover meetings of either one, the public is usually unaware of their activities.

A lot of mischief can be achieved in the dark.

Recently, the Blue Ribbon Commission decided to apply for a $25,000 grant from the National Governor’s Association to fund the search for a “new model for teacher compensation.” The Department of Education will kick in another $25,000 to complete funding for a seven-member research team. Part of the charge to the team will be to develop "policies or identify laws that need to be added or changed and present them to the boards and/or governor."

By May of 2010, this new model will be presented at a joint meeting of the Blue Ribbon Commission and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Blue Ribbon Commission, by the way, no longer includes members from any of the state’s professional teacher organizations. We can expect little, if any, input from classroom professionals in the creation of this “new model for teacher compensation.”

And just what sort of new model might be envisioned by the project?

This is where one of the budget items in the Department of Education’s consultant wish list comes into play. Superintendent of Education Paul; Pastorek wants to spend $580,000 on exploring the frontier of “Value Added Assessments.”

That’s code for paying teachers based on how their students perform on standardized tests.

Which brings us to the other commission, the Accountability Commission. This one does include representatives of the teacher organizations. The Accountability Commission members have been asked to recommend “growth models” and “value added assessments.”

But the Accountability Commission was not aware of the Department of Education’s request for a $580,000 consultancy fee to find the same information.

And where to all these seemingly unconnected threads of story weave together? Check out the editorial in today’s Advocate. As far as the capital city’s newspaper of record is concerned, the fight over basing teacher pay on test scores is over, and test scores have won: “The reality,” says the editor, “is that an anti-testing agenda, from unions or others in education, is dead.”

Well, as Mark Twain once famously observed, “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”