Voucher vote "the fruit of a poisoned tree"

(Baton Rouge - June 4, 2012) Calling today’s vote by the House of Representatives to fund Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education agenda “the fruit of a poisoned tree,” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said the next stage for this sad saga will be in Louisiana courtrooms.

“From the first day that this sorry scheme was introduced until today’s outrageous and tainted vote, the constitution and the rule of law have been recklessly disregarded,” Monaghan said.

By an extremely narrow 51-49 margin, the House voted to concur on a proposed $3.4 billion Minimum Foundation Program budget. In prior years, the MFP constitutionally and correctly funded public elementary and secondary schools.

But this year’s formula redefines public education to include private and religious schools, virtual online schools, corporate and industry providers, and even higher education institutions.

“Had the law been respected,” Monaghan said, “SCR 99 would have never contradicted the constitution or its stated purpose. And, having done just that, it should have failed today."

Before the vote was taken, Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles) announced that SCR 99 would prevail if it received the votes of a majority of those present, even though the constitution stipulates that 53 votes would be necessary.

To the consternation of most in the chamber, Speaker Kleckley dismissed complaints by saying that the House has “a long history” of violating the constitution.

“That is just one more outrage added to the list of reasons why these issues will head to court,” Monaghan said.

During debate on the House floor, no member took the stand to defend the resolution except for Rep. Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge), who chairs the House Education Committee. From the back of the room, however, Gov. Jindal’s lobbyists relentlessly twisted arms to eke out the narrow margin by which the resolution passed.

Representatives of both parties took the microphone to denounce the proposed MFP.

A defining issue in the debate was the plan to send as much as $8,500 per pupil to religious schools. Those included an Islamic school in Jefferson Parish and several religious schools around the state which have not been fully vetted, lack certified teachers and appropriate equipment, and have no track record of student achievement.

Rep. Sam Jones (D-Franklin) said that he supports religious freedom, but that giving taxpayer money to religious schools resembles a “European model” that led to generations of violent conflict over differences in beliefs.

The closeness of the final vote reflected a deep-seated unease in many members of the House, Monaghan said. In past years, opposition to the formula has been reflected in single-digit votes. For 49 members to stand against the governor’s wishes is unprecedented, he said.

Teacher tenure attack collapses

A state representative's effort to curb teacher tenure in Louisiana came to a screeching halt on Wednesday when the lawmaker realized that no one had his back.

Well, almost no one. But we'll get to that.

Rep. Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge) said that he introduced HB 1250 at the request of school principals. The administrators had told him horror stories about tenured teachers, Carter said, and he wanted to streamline the process of termination.

Among the canards foisted onto Carter was the false assertion that it takes three years to terminate an unsatisfactory teacher.

Carter's bill would have given principals the authority to recommend that school boards terminate teachers. Currently, only the superintendent can make that call, upon a principal's recommendation.

It also would have stripped a teacher's right to be paid for time lost if termination is reversed by a court of law.

The big surprise came when Carter took the witness table in front of the House Education Committee to introduce his bill. He simply asked the panel to shelve it.

Carter said that none of the principals who told him they really, really needed his bill showed up to support him before the committee.

“I told them that I would bring the bill if they would stand behind me,” Carter said. "When I called them they said they were busy and couldn't do it.”

As it turned out, the only support Carter had for his bill came from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Council for a Better Louisiana.

So the score in support of Carter's bill came out: educators, zero; shills for big business, two.

Advocate reporter Will Sentell covered the meeting for this story.

Learn moe about the LFT's position onteacher tenure - please click here.

Another explosive issue

Here's another bill to add to the list of incendiary devices being hurled at the capitol this spring. Rep. Steve Carter of Baton Rouge wants to take away the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's authority to approve charter schools and give it to a panel mostly appointed by the governor.

As Advocate reporter Will Sentell writes here, the governor's appointees will come from lists provided by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and the Council for a Better Louisiana.

A LABI spokesperson says, with what can only be assumed to be a straight face, “This is an effort to somewhat depoliticize the process.”

Explosive issues face legislature

The legislative session opens in less than a week, and from the looks of this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, things could get very hot very fast.

Here's the short list: Sen. Ben Nevers of Bogalusa, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, will ask his colleagues to demand that the state, not local school boards, pay stipends for educators with national certification. That puts him at loggerheads with the Jindal administration.

Now comes another poke at the governor's agenda, by a member of his own Republican party. A bill by Rep. Rogers Pope of Denham Springs would negate Gov. Jindal's proposal to force local school boards to pay for transporting private and religious school students.

Rep. Steve Carter of Baton Rouge wants to submit a term-limits bill for school board members. That's a declaration of war against the same group Carter fought last year, with bills that would have curbed most school board authority.

Carter is also planning to introduce a bill that would "compress the time for teachers to undergo remediation before any hearings on their job security, which is called tenure."

Tenure is a third rail of education politics. Even though Carter has not said his that plan is to dilute tenure laws, the very mention of the word sends a potent signal. Tenure rights were hard to win. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and others will watch carefully, and won't tolerate efforts to water down teachers' due process rights.

Yet another incendiary bill, HB 489 by Rep. Joe Harrison, would abolish the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The proposed constitutional amendment would transfer BESE's authority to the Superintendent of Education, who would be appointed by the governor.



Trenches are being dug in Baton Rouge. This could be a long siege.

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.

Misnamed "reform" bill killed by House of Representatives

By a five vote margin, the House of Representatives on Tuesday turned down a bill that, while touted as school board reform, was widely opposed by educators because it would have eroded a system of checks-and-balances between school boards and school superintendents.

HB 851 by Rep. Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge) was heavily supported by State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, Governor Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Council for a Better Louisiana. Its main opposition came from a consortium that included the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Louisiana School Boards Association and Louisiana Association of Educators.

Despite a flurry of floor amendments aimed at making the bill more palatable, and an eleventh-hour intervention on its behalf by Senator Mary Landrieu, the bill failed by a vote of 46 “yeas” and 51 “nays.”

To read more, please click here.

Stop the erosion of teacher and school employee rights

A bill that could seriously threaten the rights of teachers and school employees - including making the contents of personnel files public -will be heard by the House of Representatives in the next few days.

In spite of thousands of messages sent to the House Education Committee opposing HB 851 by Rep. Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge), the committee approved the bill and sent it to the full House for a vote. Committee members were heavily pressured by Gov. Bobby Jindal to vote for this so-called "reform" bill.

If the bill passes, it will give local school superintendents total authority over the hiring and firing of teachers and school employees. Teachers and school employees will be deprived of specific rights to appeal their grievances to the school board.

The bill would allow "information on due process, grievance procedures, hearings and tenure" to be shared with the public, which could put personnel files into the public domain.

Under current law, superintendents make recommendations - including hiring, retirements and terminations - which are voted on by the board. They are listed under "personnel matters" on most school board agendas. This makes government more transparent and holds elected officials accountable to the public.

If HB 851 passes, those decisions would be made by the superintendent alone.
The current law is designed to provide necessary checks and balances against against favoritism and abuse, and to protect the rights of teachers and school employees.

Please click this link and ask your State Representative to vote against HB 851.

Advocate editors call bill bamboozlement "shameful"

The editors of The Advocate are apparently fed up with a governor who preaches transparency and ethics but practices politics about as Machiavellian as anything we've seen in our state's colorful past.

"Shameful episode" is the term the editors employ to describe the way Governor Jindal's office conspired to deny lawmakers a vote on a tax issue and simultaneously prohibit citizens from voicing their opinions on another, unconnected but still controversial issue.

It was unquestionably one of the more bizarre episodes of the current session. Action on one bill was delayed while the author hid out in the governor’s office to avoid taking a vote on yet another controversial issue. Here are the details:

HB 851 by Rep. Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge) is opposed by LFT. Under the guise of ending “micromanagement” by school board members, the bill would shift authority away from elected boards and give the local superintendent all power over hiring and firing of teachers and school employees.

Under current law, superintendents make recommendations - including hiring, retirements and terminations - which are voted on by the board. They are listed under "personnel matters" on most school board agendas. This makes government more transparent and holds elected officials accountable to the public.

Carter's bill takes one even worse turn, making it possible for the private personnel files of teachers and school employees to be made public.

Opponents and supporters of the bill packed the House Education Committee at 9:00 A.M. Tuesday, ready to voice their opinions. Eleven hours later, they were told the bill would not be heard that day. What happened?

First, action on the bill was postponed when the Education Committee hearing ran long, and members had to report to the House chamber for a full session. Committee Chair Austin Badon (D-New Orleans) said the committee would reconvene after the House adjourned.

But after adjournment, the House Ways and Means Committee was also slated to hear a cigarette tax bill, which is strongly opposed by Jindal. Two members of the Education Committee, including Carter, also serve on the money panel. They could have been compelled to leave the education hearing for a quorum call in the Ways and Means Committee.

In order to deny a quorum in that committee, Carter and his colleague were summoned to the fourth floor home of the governor’s office. There they sat, ensuring that the tax bill could not pass.

But that also meant that HB 851 could not be heard, either. So an apologetic Badon told weary, waiting citizens that the bill would be rescheduled for the next week.

On the plus side, that gives opponents more time to tell Education Committee members to vote against the bill. To register opposition, please click here and send a message to all 17 members, telling them that HB 851 is a very bad idea.