Post-vacation catch-up edition

The world kept turning while EdLog was on brief hiatus. Here are some of the nuggets we missed:

Jindal's response to the Red Tape Act being declared unconstitutional: While educators celebrated Judge Mike Caldwell's decision ruling the "Red Tape Reduction and Local Waiver Empowerment Act" unconstitutional, Gov. Jindal's PR team went into spin mode.

A spokesman told AP reporter Melinda Deslatte for this article that it is "ironic that the unions would obstruct the very reforms that will help teachers."

The reforms he is talking about would allow school boards to ignore laws concerning tenure, class size, curriculum, discipline, certification, special education and a host of others.

What is really ironic is that the governor's office needs a lesson in civics from the union.

BESE candidate wants to abolish teacher tenure: It is a shame that any serious candidate for the state education board would campaign on a platform of abolishing teacher tenure. When that candidate used to be a teacher herself, it verges on the bizarre.

Yet that is what former Teacher of the Year Holly Boffy told the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, reported here by Will Sentell of The Advocate.

Boffy is running the District 7 BESE seat currently held by Dale Bayard of Sulphur. She is currently working as a functionary for the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana , also known as A+PEL.

Higher education faculty layoffs: If education is the engine that will drive our economy out of the dumpster, why are we firing so many higher education faculty? Is this what politicians mean when they say we can do more with less? Advocate reporter Jordan Blum spoke with some very upset professors.

Charter school scandals erupt (part 1): Teachers at Baton Rouge's Capitol High Academy charter school were nonplussed when they found out that they won't be paid on schedule, as reported here by Charles Lussiere of The Advocate.

The charter is held by a non-profit organization, 100 Black Men. However, the organization outsourced the operation of the school to a for-profit education corporation called EdisonLearning. Last February, 100 Black Men severed their connection with EdisonLearning, citing the company's failure to provide an appropriate audit.

Charter school scandals erupt (part 2): This one is complicated, and includes hints of charter school connections to an Islamic movement, rape, bribery and the firing of two education department officials, one of whom tried to warn about the problems a year ago.

Start your journey into this twisted tale here, with Times-Picayune reporter Andrew Vanacore's story about the firing of Folwell Dunbar, who reported to his superiors a year ago that there were problems at Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in New Orleans.

According to Vanacore, "Dunbar concluded last year that Abramson, which has connections to Turkish-run businesses and charter schools in other states, was at the very least 'terribly mismanaged' and recommended that the state board of education take away its charter."

Vanacore reported that Dunbar was offered a bribe to ignore problems at the school. According to this Associated Press report, those problems included inappropriate sexual contact between kindergarten students, a potential rape, unstaffed classrooms and "potential cheating in science fair competitions."

Abramson has been closed while the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education conducts a thorough investigation, and Dunbar's boss, Jacob Landry, has also been fired.

But the story doesn't end yet. The Pelican Education Foundation, which operates Abramson, also runs the Kenilworth Science and Technology charter school in Baton Rouge. That school is now also being investigated, according to Advocate reporter Will Sentell.

And what of the Islamic angle? Vanacore followed his Abramson story with this report about the Pelican Education Foundation's connection to the Gulen movement, a Turkish group that takes its inspiration from Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen.

While spokesmen for Pelican deny any connection with Gulen, Vanacore's article is loaded with subtle hints connecting the school to the Turkish movement. Hints like one school board member saying, "I'm on the advisory board of the schools -- the Gulen schools in Louisiana."

By coincidence, this article, originally posted in the Church of England newspaper, provides some background into the Gulen movement, whose founder has variously been described as the "world’s top public intellectual" and as the "world’s most dangerous Islamist."

All things considered, it's fair to say that July has not been an auspicious month for Louisiana's charter schools.

Jindal touting education in reelection bid: In this column, Advocate bureau chief Mark Ballard explored Gov. Bobby Jindal's claim that he is "strengthening schools" in the state.

The governor's volunteers are handing out door hangers touting the governor's accomplishments, but ignoring the cuts to education that have left the Minimum Foundation Program frozen for three years, decimated higher education and required local school boards to pick up some $83 million worth of programs formerly funded by the state.

As LFT President Steve Monaghan told Ballard, the governor's "reality hasn't kept pace with the rhetoric."

Jindal protects his secrecy and punishes his enemies: Veteran Lake Charles journalist Jim Beam watched as Gov. Jindal "used his veto pen to protect the secrecy of his administration’s operations and to punish his enemies."

In this column, Beam took the governor to task for vetoing a bill by Sen. Butch Gautreaux that would have helped put the state teacher retirement system on a sounder financial footing, calling it "a perfect example of how the governor punishes his enemies even when others get hurt in the process."

The governor also vetoed a good bill by Sen. Robert Adley, a lawmaker who has tried to push for more transparency in Jindal's official records, according to Beam.

"Jindal should be above this kind of petty politics, but it has become a characteristic of his administration," wrote Beam. "You would think a public official with the popular support the governor enjoys would be more open in his operations and more magnanimous toward his critics. "

LFT wins: "Red Tape Act" declared unconstitutional

Score one for the rule of law! Today Baton Rouge Judge R. Michael Caldwell declared Gov. Bobby Jindal's so-called "Red Tape Reduction Act" unconstitutional.

The law was the governor's signature education legislation in 2010, and it would have allowed the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to waive virtually any state law upon request by a local school board.

LFT opposed the law when it was in the legislature, on the grounds that the legislature does not have authority to cede its lawmaking authority to any other body.

"Insofar as the act grants this right, it is unconstitutional in my opinion,” the judge said. “Allowing BESE to waive or suspend law is a violation of Article 3, Section 12(b) of the constitution.”

There really is something about Mary...

Is Sen. Mary Landrieu hearing Bobby Jindal's footsteps sneaking up on her upcoming 2014 election, or does she really believe the nonsense she spouted at the center for American Progress recently?

As quoted in this American Independent article, Landrieu sounds as reflexively opposed to public schools as any of the governor's pro-charter minions.

The senator has long supported charter schools, but her rhetoric has never risen to the obnoxiously anti-public level revealed in this statement: "If traditional teachers and principals can rally themselves and admit that they failed … they can be part of turnaround. If not, they can leave.”

Not that there is really all that much to brag about in the charter schools that Landrieu champions. In fact, according to an April 2011 report from Research on Reforms.org, improvement "for the vast majority of the (Recovery School District) schools is at best pathetic."

If we really want to go there and talk about pathetic performance, the U.S. Senate might be a place to start. Imagine the senator's consternation if a potential rival would say, "If senators and congressmen can rally themselves and admit that they failed … they can be part of turnaround. If not, they can leave.”

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.

It's important: Urge Gov. Jindal to sign Senate Bill 6!

Please click here and ask Gov. Jindal to sign SB 6 into law!

SB 6 by Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) deserves to be signed into law on its own merits. But its passage became even more urgent when three bills allowing retirees to return to work without losing their whole retirement benefit were tied to SB 6 in the waning days of the legislative session.

Those three were amended by House/Senate conference committees, and cannot go into effect unless the governor signs SB 6, which would require employers which withdraw from the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana to pay their proportionate share of TRSL’s unfunded accrued liability.

These are the bills that depend on adoption of SB 6 before they can go into effect:

• HB 417 by Rep. Page Cortez (R-Lafayette) is the most comprehensive of the bills. It would allow retired teachers to substitute without penalty as long as they do not earn more than 25% of their retirement benefit. The reason for the 25% limit? Rep. Cortez told reporters “We didn’t want to give an incentive for a teacher to retire so they could go back and double dip.”


• 
  HB 369 by Rep. Gary Smith (D-Norco) says that teachers who were enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan on June 30, 2010, may work in an adult education or literacy program administered through a K-12 school as long as they do not earn more than 25% of their retirement benefit.


• 
  HB 150 by Rep. Hollis Downs (R-Ruston) says that retired higher education professors may return to work as adjunct professors, as long as they do not earn more than 25% of their retirement benefit.

Please click here and ask Gov. Jindal to sign SB 6 into law!

Teabaggers march on St. Tammany

Conservative activists proudly allied with wingnut Glenn Beck are attacking the St. Tammany Parish collective bargaining agreement, as reported here by Jim Derry of The Times Picayune.

Since 1993, teachers and school employee in St. Tammany Parish have had a harmonious and productive partnership with their school board. It's the only school district in the state in which every non-administrative teacher and school employee has a binding contractual agreement with the school board (several other systems negotiate with some categories of employees; St. Tammany has the only "wall-to-wall" contract in the state).

St. Tammany is also one of the highest-achieving school systems in Louisiana, so you'd think that people would be loathe to interfere with a process that is working to the benefit of all involved.

But this is a strange political season, and ultraconservative teabaggers are on the march.

Using the same arguments that State Rep. Anthony Ligi recently made in an unsuccessful bid to change state collective bargaining law, the activists are demanding to be included when the board and the St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees negotiate their contract.

For the record, the contract between the school board and the union cannot be adopted until it has been ratified by the employees and adopted in a public session by the school board.

But the negotiations that lead to the contract are never done in public. And that is for the very same reason that presidents, governors and mayors negotiate all their administrative contracts privately before bringing them to the full body for a public vote.

A lot of ideas are discussed in negotiations. Many of them never get into the contract. Some very good ideas are discarded because the sides cannot come to agreement on them. The same is true of some very bad ideas. And sometimes the discussions get pretty heated before everybody comes together with a contract that they can all agree upon.

As Gov. Jindal likes to say about negotiations to bring new industries into the state, the discussions are just too sensitive to be public until an agreement is ready for unveiling.

But that logic won't cut any ice with the group in St. Tammany. They are not really interested in the collective bargaining agreement anyway. As their leader told the Times-Picayune, the union should be "abolished.

Frustrated educators to march on Washington

The upcoming "Save our Schools March and National Call to Action" has caught the attention of Education Week. The newspaper sent reporter Erik Robelen to write this article about the growing frustration teachers feel because of the mandates of the federal No Child Left behind Act.

At the heart of the protest is discontent over the test-driven accountability standards imposed by NCLB. As one teacher quoted by Robelen puts it, "Teachers lose the opportunity to teach anything beyond how to fill in the bubbles.”

The Washington protest is slated for July 28-31, and the American Federation of Teachers is one of the march's sponsors.

Organizers of the march state their mission thusly:

We stand united by one belief – it’s time for teachers and parents to
organize and reclaim control of our schools.

As concerned citizens, we demand an end to the destructive policies and
rhetoric that have eroded confidence in our public schools, demoralized
teachers, and reduced the education of too many of our children to nothing more
than test preparation.

A well-educated society is essential to the future of the United States
of America. Our students must have access to a fully funded, world-class public
education system, and it is our responsibility to hold our government
accountable for providing the means to achieve it.

The actual rally will be held at noon on July 30, starting at the capitol park ellipse. Other events are listed here.

For those unable to attend the Washington event, a list of local actions are posted here.

Advocate calls flip-flop "a new low in subservience."

This editorial in The Advocate calls out the 11 lawmakers who would rather switch than fight, correctly saying that they "utterly caved to pressure."

Speaker of the House Jim Tucker deserves kudos for standing up to the governor. His passionate speech in favor of overriding the veto was what John F. Kennedy called a profile in courage - especially since Tucker owes his position to Gov. Jindal.

As for the obsequious eleven, The Advocate gets it right:

Members who switched set a new low in subservience. They abased themselves
before Jindal despite the manifest unreasonableness of his position on the merits of the issue. They showed themselves to be more concerned with the governor’s power than with the state’s interest.

Flip-floppers in House doom tobacco tax veto override

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36, King James Version).

Eleven members of the House of Representatives who once voted to extend a four-cent tax on cigarettes flipped under heavy pressure from Gov. Bobby Jindal, and voted Thursday to sustain his veto of HB 591.

The tax, which brings in $12 million a year for health care needs, is matched by federal health care funds, bringing the total benefit of the tax up to $48 million.

Members who changed their votes after hearing from the governor were Robert Billiot, D-Westwego; Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge; Bubba Chaney, R-Rayville; Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro; Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge; Frank Hoffman, R-West Monroe; Kay Katz, R-Monroe; Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette; Tom McVea, R-Jackson; Joel Robideaux, Independent-Lafayette; and Tom Wilmott, R-Kenner.

Times-Picayune reporter Bill Barrow's coverage of the vote is here.

Shameful vote in House of Representatives!

(Baton Rouge – June 16, 2011) In refusing to override Gov. Bobby Jindal’s veto of a cigarette tax extension, the House of Representatives did a disservice to the people of Louisiana, according to the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition.

The governor’s decision to veto HB 591 elevated political ideology above the health of the people and the fiscal stability of the state, spokesmen said. By sustaining that veto, representatives shirked their responsibility.

The House of Representatives voted 58 to 44 to override the veto, short of the two-thirds vote required.

The four-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes had been on the books since 2000. The $12 million in proceeds, dedicated to health care, is matched by even more federal funds.

“This simply begs the question: WHY, “said LFT President Steve Monaghan, a founding Coalition member. “On this issue, it should have been easy to do the right thing and override the governor’s veto.”

“The bill originally passed the House by 70 votes,” Monaghan said. “Obviously, some members changed their mind about the value of the cigarette tax between May 24 and today. Those who changed their votes should be asked, ‘Why?’”

“Did they change their minds about the addictive nature of cigarettes, the cost to all taxpayers associated with the usage of the product, or the danger that cancer poses because of this product? Why is it all right to surrender over $40 million in federal matching funds just to give the governor a victory on this issue? This is a strange, dubious victory for the governor, and a sad defeat for Louisiana."

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

JFT says school board broke the law with furloughs

In a lawsuit filed on June 13, the Jefferson Federation of Teachers charges that the parish school board violated state law with plans to furlough school employees for one day next school year.

JFT President Meladie Munch said that the board's decision to furlough paraprofessionals, secretaries and clerical employees, custodial and maintenance employees, and crossing guards is an example of "top down decisions that create an adversarial atmosphere (and) will ultimately hurt our students and the citizens of Jefferson Parish."

Munch said that the union is urging the school board to work with teachers and school employees on a resolution to the district's financial problems.

“The JFT recognizes that the district faces budget challenges, but the necessary sacrifices must be shared," she said. "It is unfair to balance budgets solely on the backs of the hard working dedicated employees that serve our children and their families.”

Defending the important role that school support staff play in education, Munch said “Research shows that to be successful, children need clean, safe and orderly schools that are properly and adequately staffed. Paraprofessionals and other support staff play such a vital role in the lives of children and parents. Reducing their salaries and eliminating the services parents expect their children to receive in Jefferson Parish’s public schools is not in the best interest of children—or the community."

The state law governing salaries for teachers and school employees states, “the amount of the hourly wage or annual salary paid to any school employee shall not be reduced for any school year below the amount paid to the school employee in hourly wage or annual salary during the previous school year, nor shall the amount of the hourly wage or annual salary paid to any school employee be reduced at any time during an academic year.”

JFT's lawsuit was filed in the 24th Judicial District Court. A hearing has been scheduled for Monday, June 27.

Gov. Jindal's irresponsible, indefensible cigarette tax veto

Tell your senator and representative to override Gov. Jindal's veto of the tobacco tax - please click here.

(Baton Rouge – June 13, 2011) Calling Governor Bobby Jindal’s veto of a tobacco tax renewal irresponsible and indefensible, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana Coalition today urged lawmakers to stand up to the governor and override the veto.

Saying that the governor’s decision places political ideology above the health of the people and the fiscal stability of the state, the coalition stressed reasons why House Bill 591 by Rep. Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) should stand.

The four-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes has been on the books since 2000, and generates about $12 million a year, dedicated to providing health care services. The revenue is used to trigger even more money as matches for federal funds.

At just 36 cents per pack, Louisiana already has one of the lowest tobacco taxes in the nation; reducing it by four cents has economists and health care experts scratching their heads about the wisdom of Gov. Jindal’s veto.

To read more of this article, please click here.

Coalition aims to be a voice for public education

A sustained attack on public education in Louisiana has brought together a new coalition of organizations that have not always seen eye-to-eye, but are united in their commitment to our schools.

It may seem like a jumble of initials, but when LFT, LAE, LSBA, LRTA, LASS and others are combined, it spells out a united front on crucial issues. The coalition means that unions, school boards, school administrators, retired teachers and assorted allies are working together at a critical time in our state’s history.

The coalition had a media coming-out party when WWL-TV in New Orleans dedicated air time to the issues that the coalition sees as starving all public schools while showering largesse on a select few private, religious and state-run Recovery District schools.

LFT President Steve Monaghan questioned the wisdom of dedicating millions of dollars to vouchers that benefit a relative few children in private and religious schools at the same time that the state is reducing funds for important pre-kindergarten programs around the state.

The coalition chairman, St. Tammany Parish School Board member Jack Loup, said that fairness is the issue. “We just want to make sure public education is on equal footing with the other programs that the state is pushing through,” he said.

Members of the coalition include the LFT, the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, the Louisiana Association of Educators, the Louisiana School Boards Association, the Louisiana Association of School Executives, the Louisiana Association of Principals, the Louisiana Association of Chief Technology Officers, the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association, the National Board Certified Teachers of Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators, the Louisiana Association of Child Welfare and Attendance Personnel and the National School Board Association.

Click here to see the WWL-TV news report on the coalition effort.

Are "vulture philanthropists" taking charge?

The new superintendent of the State Recovery school District, and Gov. Jindal's pick to be the next state superintendent, is 35-year old John White.

We know a bit about White's background, detailed in this EdLog post, including the fact that he is certified by the Broad Superintendents Academy (it's pronounced "Brode").

But most people know very little about the academy, which has churned out superintendents with business backgrounds for 21 of the nation's 75 largest school systems, according to this Education Week article by reporter Christina A. Samuels.

The scrutiny provided by Education Week and in The Broad Report by blogger Sharon Higgins is disturbing. The blog includes this motto: "Make no mistake, What is happening in large urban districts today has been carefully orchestrated by vulture philanthropists."

The EdWeek article has a comment from one expert who says that the Broad Academy is designed to provide "superintendents who are trained how to use their power to hand over their systems to the Business Roundtable."

The academy is part of a worrisome movement that education policy professor James Horn calls "venture philanthropy," and includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Milken Family Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and others

Worrisome, Horn says, because "What venture philanthropy is doing seems to me to be wielding influence not to help public institutions, but to destroy public institutions, or take control of them. This is a dangerous place, where corporations and government get mixed up.”

The academy certifies superintendents after a 10-month fellowship season, during which they spend six extended weekends at seminars, with expenses paid by the academy.

Education writer Diane Ravitch has issues with the academy, saying that graduates "have a preference towards privatization."

Our biggest companies, awash in profits, paid negative taxes

Courtesy of Forbes magazine (which can't be accused of having anything close to a liberal bias) comes this report by Rick Ungar.

Short version: During the recent, worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, our largest corporations made $170 billion in profits, but paid no taxes.

Twelve of the Fortune 500 companies, he writes, actually paid negative 1.5% in taxes.

Please don't say the country is broke. Don't say we can't afford Social Security, Medicare or public education. It's just not true.

Join the Save Our Schools March on July 30

Please join people from all across America as they gather to participate in the Save Our Schools March on Saturday, July 30 in Washington, D.C.

The Save Our Schools March is being held in response to recent destructive “reform” efforts which have undermined our public educational system, demoralized teachers, and reduced the education of too many of our children to nothing more than test preparation.

Something must be done – and it must be done now!

The Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action is calling on Americans everywhere to demand:

• Equitable funding for all public school communities



• An end to high stakes testing for student, teacher, and school evaluation



• Curriculum developed for and by local school communities



• Teacher and community leadership in forming public education policies

Click here to visit the Save Our Schools March home page!

Jindal called on fake "efficiencies"

When Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his budget plans last March, lawmakers immediately noticed what one senator called the "imaginary dollars" that plugged holes in the spending plan.

They were less skeptical at the time about the proposed savings, or "funding efficiencies" that Jindal's advisers said would reduce the anticipated shortfall by some $225 million. After all, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater and his assistant, Ray Stockstill, told the joint legislative budget committee that the savings were indeed available, and that they would provide a list.

But as Advocate Capitol Bureau Chief Mark Ballard reports here, after all these weeks, and after numerous requests, the list has yet to appear. Writes Ballard:

It’s gone on so long that Jindal’s inability to deliver The List has become a
punch line among legislators, roughly synonymous with “when pigs fly.” It’s
always good for a chuckle, when delivered while waiting in line for lunch or
talking about Baton Rouge traffic.

Lawmakers might joke about the missing list, but it's a nervous laugh. It will take real money, and a real willingness to face the state's fiscal crisis, to write a budget that will provide state services as well as meet the constitutional standard of balance. In the waning weeks of this fiscal session, both are in very short supply.

If "reform" seems so good to be true, it probably is!

Thank God for Diane Ravitch! In this op-ed for the New York Times, the prickly professor punctures the bubble of so-called "reform," convincingly demonstrating that many success stories "are the result of statistical legerdemain. "

Ravitch takes aim at the No Child Left behind mandate that all children must be proficient in either reading or math by 2014. Teachers understand that to be an impossible goal, she writes, because of the "enormous variation among students and the impact of family income on academic performance."

Even so, she writes, many politicians and the snake-oil salesmen who've hijacked the education agenda claim "that the right combination of incentives and punishments will produce dramatic improvement. Anyone who objects to this utopian mandate, they maintain, is just making an excuse for low expectations and bad teachers."

With assistance from former LSU professor and Baton Rouge School Board member Noel Hammatt, Ravitch proceeds to demolish extravagant claims for success in some reconstituted schools.

Taking particular aim at two schools mentioned by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address, Ravitch says "the only miracle at these schools was a triumph of public relations."

One of those claimed a high graduation rate, but its published ACT scores were far below the state average. Another, which Obama said had "skyrocketed" since firing the principal and half the faculty, actually ranks 430th out of 469 high schools in math.

In conclusion, Ravitch urges the public to meet inflated claims of educational improvement with skepticism - a lesson yet to be learned in Louisiana, where credulous news media uncritically report bogus gains in the State Recovery School District.

The answer simply is not as easy as firing teachers or reconstituting schools because, as Ravitch puts it,

If every child arrived in school well-nourished, healthy and ready to
learn, from a family with a stable home and a steady income, many of our
educational problems would be solved. And that would be a miracle.

New study explains international achievement gap

A major study that will be published by Harvard University Press in September asks the question: What are the countries which outpace the United States in educational achievement doing differently?

Results of the study, from the National Center on Education and the Economy, are previewed in this paper by Marc S. Tucker. The study is focused on educational systems in Ontario, Canada, Shanghai China, Finland, Japan and Singapore.

Tucker writes, "We conclude that the strategies driving the best performing systems are rarely found in the United States, and, conversely, that the education strategies now most popular in the United States are conspicuous by their absence in the countries with the most successful education systems."

Among those differences:

• The most successful countries don't rely on standardized tests the way that we do in the U.S.


• Successful countries have funding formulas that put emphasis on the students most in need, instead of local distribution of resources.


• Others put greater priority on the profession of teaching, emphasizing training, professional development and compensation.

In the United States, teacher unions have been cast as villains, but Tucker points out that the other countries that outperform us are heavily unionized, but along models that have progressed from an industrial to a more professional standing.

The nuggets revealed in this paper create make waiting for publication of the whole book an exercise in anticipation and patience.

Anti-public school bluster in Baton Rouge

A pro-charter school organization allowed a critic of public schools to make unfounded, inflammatory accusations against teachers and their unions, as reported here by Koran Addo of The Advocate.

Kevin Chavous, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, regurgitated the now-familiar claims that teacher unions are one of the reasons for an "across the board" failure of public education in the United States.

Seeing as how his speech was given to Advance Baton Rouge's Charter School Association and the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, it is not surprising that Chavous' concluded that semi-public charter schools are the right prescription for education's ills.

He left out some important details, which reporter Addo picked up from an LFT spokesman.

For example, one of the highest performing school systems in Louisiana is in St. Tammany Parish, where every teacher and school employee is represented by a union contract.

The problem, as LFT points out, is not in middle and upper-class school systems which have broad community support and adequate resources. Students in those schools do well whether or not educators are unionized, and there is little groundswell of support for questionable fixes like charter schools.

Our educational challenge is in "underfunded urban and rural school districts plagued by poverty and crime."


Solutions to those problems go much deeper than state seizures of schools and wholesale charterization, as revealed by the failure of Advance Baton Rouge to make much headway in improving some of the schools over which it has control.

Coalition calls legislature on bad choices

The state is facing a $1.6 billion shortfall (raise that to $1.8 billion after lawmakers subtracted Gov. Jindal's imaginary dollars from the budget). Lawmakers are turning down every effort to raise new revenues at the same time that they advance new tax cuts.

What could make things worse in Baton Rouge? Slashing over $3 billion a year from the state's general fund, for starters.

That would be the ultimate impact of three bills making their way through the process. HB 633 and HB 634 by Rep. Hunter Greene, and SB 259 by Sen. Rob Marionneaux, would abolish all personal and corporate income taxes in the state.

That, of course, would make it impossible to provide even the most basic services to the people of the state.

Then there's House Resolution 27 by Rep. Brett Geymann, which would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature before any non-recurring funds could be used to plug budget holes.

Taken together, these pieces of legislation reveal a dangerous game of chicken underway at the capitol.

The Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition has called out lawmakers on what it calls "political theater" in this news release:

According to the Better Choices coalition, this radical and ill-timed
political maneuvering risks driving Louisiana’s budget over the cliff. At
a time of unprecedented state deficits, Louisiana needs a balanced approach to
resolving its fiscal problems. That includes additional sources of revenues as
well as prudent cuts in spending, spokespersons said.

Shoe on other foot: cuts pinch RSD, vouchers

The biggest story so far in this legislative session has been the disastrous budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jindal, reductions that affect health care, education, recreation, public safety and other important quality-of-life issues.

At the same time, legislators are proposing more and more expensive tax cuts, without asking for any new revenues to fill the budget gaps.

A sideshow in this disastrous legislative session has emerged. There is a budgetary tug-of-war underway between the governor's office and the legislature. In the process, some sacred cows are getting bled.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee slashed the Department of Education's budget, taking aim at programs favored by Governor Bobby Jindal.

In response, yesterday Gov. Jindal sent a couple of his minions out to defend his personal favorites.

Acting Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler made an impassioned plea to restore funding for nearly $10 million in public funds that are funneled to religious and private schools in New Orleans.

Tyler said that defunding the voucher scheme would force 1,600 New Orleans students "to return to failing schools."

That statement required an amazing reversal of logic. Only moments before, Tyler had told reporters that the state Recovery School District - which would presumably absorb the displaced voucher students - has made "remarkable" progress, and that "gains in the RSD are significantly higher than the state average."

Tyler also complained about a planned $11 million reduction in the RSD budget. The money would be used to pay for mandatory building insurance in the district. She said, "it's unreasonable and unfair to shift this burden to schools and students who are already struggling to overcome very difficult circumstances."

It seems that if there is one thing the governor and legislature agree upon, there will be no new revenues adopted during this session. The unfairness that Superintendent Tyler perceives is a direct product of that agreement.

Gannett reporter Mike Hasten covered the press conference for this story.

Business bigshot targets teacher tenure

Ultra-right wing businessman Lane Grigsby is pulling out all the stops in an effort to abolish due process rights for Louisiana's public school teachers.

Grigsby, one of the state's highest rollers when it comes to bankrolling conservative causes, says he will make repeal of teacher tenure a litmus test for candidates he backs in next fall's elections for state offices.

The chairman of Cajun Industries is quoted in the Baton Rouge Business Report's Daily Report as saying "During this next election cycle, every candidate that comes before every organization that I sit on is going to have to tell that organization how they feel about teachers’ tenure."

Fired Orleans educators get their day in court

Thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina are finally getting their day in court. Virtually all of New Orleans' teachers and school employees were summarily fired after the storm, leaving the way open for the state seizure of schools and the wholesale chartering of public education.

But was the firing of those educators legal? That will be determined in a trial that begins today, according to this article by Times-Picayune reporter John Simeran. The trial could last a month.

The lead attorney in the case, Willie Zanders. Sr., will argue that the terminations violated state law because there was no due process afforded the nearly 7,000 teachers and school employees.

Zanders is asking or lost wages and benefits as well as damages for emotional distress. Defendants include the State of Louisiana, the State Department of Education, the Orleans Parish School Board and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

U.S. education secretary interfering in LA superintendent selection

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has apparently lent his weight to the cause of John White for State Superintendent of Education.

As Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte writes here, Duncan has approached at least two members of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on White's behalf.

As reported previously in EdLog, White, a 35-year old Teach for America product with limited educational experience, was selected to run the State Recovery School District, even though he has never been a school district superintendent.

He is Governor Bobby Jindal's choice to replace Paul Pastorek as state superintendent of education, but apparently does not have enough support on BESE to be confirmed. White would need the votes of eight of the 11 board members, but reportedly has solid opposition from four of them.

The two BESE members who report being contacted by Duncan are Linda Johnson from Plaquemine and Louella Givens from New Orleans; both of them have said they oppose White's appointment.

TP wet kisses Pastorek; researcher debunks claims

As Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek rides off into the sunset, opinionistas like the Times-Picayune's editorial writers are trying to beatify him on a faster track than Pope John Paul II.

Friday's editorial gushed that Pastorek's "legacy will reverberate for years to come."

That may be so, but in ways unintended by the Picayune's uptown Brahmans.

Pastorek was not only divisive and unwilling to compromise, which the Picayune counts as good things, but he presided over a department that acquiesced in an ongoing plot to privatize, charterize and voucherize public education in Louisiana to a unprecedented extent.

Again, there are some who count those as good things. Good for the big buck administrators making six-figure salaries, and good for the consultants who now suckle at the public breast, and good for the right-wing politicians planning political futures built on the wreckage of public education in our state.

For the children, parents, teachers and school employees who want a decent public education system, not so much.

To find out why, check out researcher Charles Hatfield's response to the Picayune editorial here.

Hatfield and the organization he represents, Research on Reforms, has consistently debunked claims by Pastorek and the Jindal administration touting the alleged success of the State Recovery School District in New Orleans.

Peruse the Research on Reforms Web site, and you'll find convincing evidence that the Jindal/Pastorek agenda was "to deceive the public in order to promote the market‐driven goals of the new public education entrepreneurs and to increase the number of failing schools turned over to privately run 'public schools' in Louisiana. This is really what the state is doing."

As Hatfield concludes, "it is unfortunate that The Times‐Picayune continues to be extremely myopic and biased with respect to its one‐sided reporting on the success of the current reform initiatives of the former state superintendent, Paul Pastorek. Instead, it continues its simplistic reporting of this extremely complex issue and continues to pander to the misinformation and propaganda generated by the proponents of this market driven approach to public education, even though no quantitative or qualitative evaluations exist after five years to justify the continued existence of the RSD."

Whither White?

Everybody now knows that newly minted Recovery School District head John White is Gov. Bobby Jindal's pick to replace Paul Pastorek as the state superintendent of education. But who is he, and does he have a realistic chance of becoming superintendent?

White is just 35 years old, and fresh from his last job as deputy chancellor for the New York City school system. His main duty there, according to blogger Mike Deshotels, was "to close down low performing schools and to convert as many schools as possible into charter schools. He was also working on a system to evaluate teachers using student test scores."

Prior to his New York experience, White taught for two years as a Teach for America recruit, and then went to work as the Teach for America executive director in Chicago, according to this New York Times article. Aside from his abbreviated teaching stint, White's academic credentials include certification from the Broad Superintendents Academy.

The Academy's Web site claims that it takes "executives who have experience successfully leading large organizations and a passion for public service" and, after 10 months of training on weekends, "places them in urban school districts to dramatically improve the quality of education for America’s students."

There is no indication that White ever led a large corporation. However, he does have a qualification that seems very important to the Jindal administration - he, along with the new executive director of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the governor's education advisor, emerged from Teach for America.

That distinction does not impress a new coalition of education organizations, which includes the LFT.

As Monroe News-Star reporter Barbara Leader writes here, the coalition wants Jindal and BESE to follow state law, which says that when the state superintendent leaves, he is to be replaced by the deputy superintendent for the remainder of the term, unless it is longer than a year.

There is a deputy superintendent already in place, and there is therefore no need to hurry up and find an interim to fill the job until next January.

And if that's not barrier enough to the governor's wishes, it appears that enough BESE members have problems with White's credentials to block his appointment. This article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell reveals that four of the 11 BESE members would vote against confirming White, and since a two-thirds majority is required, it looks like his outlook is dim.

Not that any of that makes much difference if the governor really has his heart set on White as the new superintendent. Our whole form of government is set up to make Louisiana's governor the most powerful in the nation. There are many levers of power that Jindal can tweak to get his way.

No need to rush Pastorek's replacement

Governor Bobby Jindal and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should be in no hurry to appoint an interim state superintendent of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

Monaghan spoke in the wake of Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek’s surprise announcement on Wednesday that he will leave the department of education to accept a post with an aerospace company in Washington, D.C.

The governor has announced that he favors replacing Pastorek with 35-year old John White, who just three days ago was named to lead the state Recovery School District.

“Careful deliberation and a logical, transparent process vetting process will help to build confidence in the successful candidate. There is no need for a rush to judgment,” Monaghan said. “There are competent people in the state department of education who are capable of managing affairs until such a process has been completed.

Read the rest of this article: please click here.

LFT statement on the resignation of Superintendent Paul Pastorek

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers wishes Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek well as he returns to the private sector. As the search begins for a new superintendent, we call upon Gov. Bobby Jindal to use carefully this opportunity for a fresh start.

It should not be difficult to find qualified individuals for the job. Our concern is with the policies that a new superintendent will champion. We are hopeful that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the governor will search for a superintendent with proven experience as a classroom leader, and who is willing to listen to the concerns of teachers.

While Mr. Pastorek’s personal style often brought him into conflict with some in the education community, we understand that it is policy, not personality, that counts in the long run.

Governor Jindal now has an opportunity to meet with the stakeholders in public education, including those who have had policy differences with Mr. Pastorek. BESE’s choice for a replacement will speak volumes about the direction they expect to take for public schools and the children whose future depends on the jobs done by the teachers and staff in those schools.

Pastorek to resign as superintendent

Advocate reporter Will Sentell has the story here.

The big question now is...who will replace Pastorek?

The prickly Pastorek has been a good foil for Governor Bobby Jindal's radical education agenda. Pastorek has fostered the demolition of public education in favor of charters and other quasi-private schemes. His in-your-face persona became the focal point for opposition to an agenda that is, at bottom, the governor's.

Citizen lobbyists say they want better choices

LFT President Steve Monaghan speaks to hundreds of citizen lobbyists at the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana day at the legislature on May 4.

Hundreds of citizen lobbyists, representing the diverse Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition, met at the capitol on May 4.The coalition is urging lawmakers and Gov. Jindal to pass a budget that does not rely solely on cuts to important services to achieve balance.

The coalition wants lawmakers to look at the state's $7.1 billion in various tax loopholes and incentives, as well as new revenues from "sin taxes" such as tobacco, alcohol and gaming.

Hammond Daily Star reporter Heidi Rogers Kinchen covered the lobby day for this story.

Please click here to view LFT's Facebook photo album of the rally; to read the BCBL legislative agenda, please click here.

New RSD chief to get $281K package

The new, 35-year old chief of the State Recovery School District will get a $281,000 pay package, according to this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, who brokered the deal with former New York City school system deputy superintendent John White, said the high salary is justified because of the "incredible amount of personal sacrifice" required by the job.

Although White will be making less than current RSD chief Paul Vallas, who makes about $377,000 per year, his salary will be higher than the state's new higher education commissioner.

Right on schedule, apologists for the state's big business lobby justified the pay package, trotting out the old bromide about having to pay high salaries to get highly qualified people. That formula doesn't seem to apply to classroom teachers, where the strategy has been to hire new college graduates, who will work for approximately two years at the low end of the salary schedule.

In any event, the old bromide doesn't seem to have worked in the Recovery School District. Despite Vallas' princely salary, student performance has not improved in schools seized by the state, according to this study by Dr. Charles Hatfield, co-founder of Research on Reforms.

As Dr. Hatfield writes in the study's summary, "Whether assessing the 2010-11 status of the RSD schools using the current achievement performance labels or applying the new letter grade system that will be implemented this fall, it is clear that the SPS achievement status for the vast majority of the RSD schools is at best pathetic."

LFT Weekly Legislative Digest - week 1

They’re off: session opens to grim fiscal news

Despite a looming $1.6 billion deficit, Governor Bobby Jindal opened the 2011 legislative session with a promise to allow no new revenues, saying that he would veto any bills that close any of the state’s 441 tax loopholes or call for new taxes.

Maintaining that curbing tax breaks would amount to a tax increase, the governor said “Tax increases kill jobs. 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.

To read more, please click here.

Better Choices coalition slates May 4 rally on capitol steps

In response to the governor’s speech, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state and announced a lobby day on the steps of the capitol at noon on Wednesday, May 4.

With Louisiana facing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, coalition spokespersons said that Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan for more cuts without any new revenue cannot solve the state’s problems.

“Doing more with less” is a hollow promise,” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said. “The state is not doing ‘more with less’; it’s doing less with less. The current budget proposal sacrifices education, health care and the quality of life issues that could provide a better future for the families of Louisiana.”

To read more, please click here.

Education coalition condemns Jindal’s education policies

Members of a public education coalition took issue with the Jindal administration's education policies at a press conference on Monday, April 25.

Following the governor's opening address to the legislature, members of the Coalition for Public Education said that Jindal and State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek are taking public education in the wrong direction, basing decisions on political ideology instead of good educational practices.

"After listening to the governor (in his address opening the legislative session) that the future is so bright, I had to put on my shades," LFT President Steve Monaghan said. "There's a different Louisiana out there. Class sizes are going up and salaries have been frozen."

To read more, please click here.

Jindal budget calls for selling the Office of Group Benefits

Lawmakers appear hesitant to endorse Governor Jindal’s plan to privatize the State Office of Group Benefits, one of the elements of his budget plan.

OGB, as it is known, handles health insurance coverage for about 250,000 current and retired state employees. That includes teachers and school employees in a number of school systems. The office, one of the best run and scandal-free operations in state government, has built up a $500 million surplus over the past few years. If the office is sold to a private company, insiders say the surplus could become available for appropriation into the state general fund.

Opponents say that privatizing OGB would hike insurance premiums for state employees and retirees. The office currently spends about three percent of its income on management costs. The same costs for a private company could be in the 10% to 15% range.

To read more, please click here.

Roemer calls for abolition of tenure

Chas Roemer, who represents the Baton Rouge area on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, sent lawmakers a letter requesting that they support the abolition of teacher tenure.

Roemer said that tenure “protects poorly performing teachers” in public schools.LFT President Steve Monaghan quickly responded, saying that Roemer’s statement shows an alarming ignorance of the facts on teacher tenure.

To read more, please click here.

Better Choices for a Better Louisiana lobby day

Listen to Steve Monaghan demolish Chas Roemer's tenure plan

LFT President Steve Monaghan was the guest on Spud McConnell's WWL-AM talk show this afternoon. Listen as Steve demolishes Chas Roemer's arguments against teacher tenure.

Watch this at WWL

Chas Roemer launches attack on teacher tenure

First things first. Tenure is not a guarantee of lifetime employment, nor is it designed to protect what BESE member Chas Roemer likes to call "poorly performing teachers."

Tenure is an acknowledgment that a teacher has met all of the requirements of the profession and is entitled to due process if challenged.

It is not easy to earn tenure. Tenure is not granted automatically.

In order to be tenured, a teacher must first earn a college degree, then pass a rigorous examination, and then spend three years on supervised probation with regular evaluations. During those three years, the teacher can be released for virtually any reason.

A teacher can only earn tenure in an area of expertise, and tenure is not transferable to another school system.

Obviously, if an unqualified person becomes tenured, that means there has been a serious administrative breakdown somewhere along the line.

Even so, there are ways to determine whether tenure was inappropriately issued. A tenured teacher must continue to earn satisfactory evaluations. A tenured teacher can be fired, but has a right to a hearing to determine whether or not the firing is justifiable.

Now that you know that, check out this story by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, in which BESE District 6 member Chas Roemer urges legislators to abolish the state's tenure law.

Roemer's plan, allowing school principals sole discretion to fire teachers for any reason, is a perfect recipe for favoritism and scandal.

And his logic is seriously flawed. Roemer says that we could theoretically get rid of 2,500 "poorly performing" teachers and use their salaries to give big raises to the top 25% of teachers.

But firing those 2,500 teachers would leave 40,000 students without classroom leadership. Where does Roemer think those kids would go?

Tenure is essential in order for teachers to do their jobs without fear of favoritism or reprisal. Talk of abolishing it is foolish and dangerous for teachers and the profession of education.

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.

Education coalition speaks truth to power

LFT President Steve Monaghan addresses the news media on Monday. Also shown are St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees President Elsie Burkhalter and St. John the Baptist School Board Member Russ Wise.

Members of a public education coalition took issue with the Jindal administration's education policies at a press conference on Monday.

Following the governor's opening address to the Louisiana Legislature, members of the the Coalition for Public Education said that Jindal and State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek are taking public education in the wrong direction, basing decisions on political ideology instead of good educational practices.

LFT President Steve Monaghan was one of the speakers at the press conference, reported in this article by Gannett's Mike Hasten.

"After listening to the governor (in his address opening the legislative session) that the future is so bright, I had to put on my shades," Monaghan said. "There's a different Louisiana out there. Class sizes are going up and salaries have been frozen.

"We're not going to cut our way to prosperity," he said. "Less has never been more. To Mr. Jindal, we have $7.1 billion in taxes not being collected now" because of tax exemptions granted to business. "They would provide for the public good. It's time to take the shades off and look at things as they are."

Members of the coalition include the LFT, the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, the Louisiana Association of Educators, the Louisiana School Boards Association, the Louisiana Association of School Executives, the Louisiana Association of Principals, the Louisiana Association of Chief Technology Officers, the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association, the National Board Certified Teachers of Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators, the Louisiana Association of Child Welfare and Attendance Personnel and the National School Board Association.

Better Choices coalition and LFT announce legislative agenda and lobby day

In a series of press conferences around the state, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state, and announced that the coalition will have a lobby day on Wednesday, May 4.

With Louisiana facing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, coalition spokespersons said that Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan for more cuts without any new revenue cannot solve the state’s problems.

“Doing more with less” is a hollow promise,” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan told reporters. “The state is not doing ‘more with less’; it’s doing less with less. The current budget proposal sacrifices education, health care and the quality of life issues that could provide a better future for the families of Louisiana.”

To read more, please click here.

Advocate reporter Will Sentell covered a Better Choices press conference for this article.

Public education coalition stings Pastorek and Jindal

The new education coalition mentioned in EdLog recently has come out swinging, holding its maiden press conference on the steps of the Claiborne Building, home of the Louisiana Department of Education.

As WVLA-TV reporter Kelsey Scram tells it in this article, "A group of school leaders say they've had enough with cuts to education. Now, they're banding together and speaking out."

Representing the Louisiana Federation of Teachers at the press conference was East Baton Rouge Federation President Carnell Washington, who told reporters, "We believe that this governor and this administration have made poor choices...We are coming together to try and stop the train from the direction in which it is going."

Education researcher Charles Hatfield revealed one of the dirty secrets of the Jindal administration's attack on public education, which has included the state takeover of some schools, flat-lining funding for education's Minimum Foundation Program and shifting millions of dollars in state costs onto financially strapped local school boards.

Despite resources poured into schools seized by the state, Hatfield said, "With the few exceptions, which you can count on one hand, most of the schools are really not performing that well. In fact, many of them are atrocious."

Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek responded quickly with a rant in which he characterized the coalition as the "grumbling of those who are unwilling to be inspired" by his failed policies.

Pastorek's screed was trumped by this guest column in the Louisiana Voice blog, penned by Don Whittinghill of the Louisiana School Board's Association.

Whittinghill wrote, in part, "The Superintendent apparently believes that only he, and a small coterie of highly-paid associates, is motivated to 'continue doing the right thing for kids.' His vision of the right thing includes bringing in a host of private companies to manage schools and to provide a varied menu of professional services that have one thing in common: They pull money out of the classroom."

Privatization and imaginary dollars do not a budget make

Just the FAX is a newsletter sent to state legislators each Friday from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. Issues are available online at http://la.aft.org.

The holes in Governor Bobby Jindal’s proposed $24.9 billion budget are showing. We know that the budget depends too heavily on imaginary dollars and the sale of state assets—one-time cash infusions that will probably cost the state more in the long run than they gain right away.

The imaginary dollars pose a big problem for lawmakers who must adopt a balanced budget by June 23. Before that money comes available, the legislature will have to approve constitutional amendments, and voters will have to adopt them at the polls in October. Can the budget be considered “real” if its revenue sources are unclear from June to October?

The sale of state assets is also problematic. The sale of prisons, for example, might produce a temporary windfall. But history shows us that over the long haul, privatized services often cost much more than those provided by government.

Legislators should be very wary of the governor’s plan to privatize the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits. That is a well-run, scandal-free operation that provides insurance for a number of state and local public agencies, including many school systems.

The Office of Group Benefits has a $500 million accrued surplus, which makes it a tempting target for the Wall Street types who drove our economy off the cliff in 2008.

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

Letting off some steam...

This post on the Truthout blog is angry, passionate, truthful, and just what we need to hear. Some samples: "A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. " "Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King." "The No Child Left Behind program, modeled on the “Texas Miracle,” is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. " Check out the whole story!

St. Martin Federation to the rescue!

When the St. Martin Parish School Board proposed laying off more teachers and school employees, and reduce salaries and benefits for those who remain, it was up to the newly chartered St. Martin Federation of Teachers and School Personnel to come to the rescue.

St. MFT/SP President LaTonia Cretian addressed the board, asking members to come up with alternatives that would not hurt teachers and school employees. Her research showed that the board could use part of its "rainy day fund," as well as some money from the state's Education Excellence Fund, to avoid further cuts this year.

Within days, the board announced that it had decided against layoffs this year. KATC-TV reporter Carolyn Cerda covered the issue for this story.

View the video of the story here.

We are One: Public employees will display their value

Just the FAX is a newsletter sent to state legislators each Friday from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. Issues are available online at http://la.aft.org.

This weekend, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers will host its annual Paraprofessional and School Related Personnel Conference. It is the only statewide gathering dedicated to the concerns of school employees other than teachers. We’re meeting with classroom assistants, clerical staff, food service workers, maintenance and custodial employees and transportation workers.

A special guest at the conference will be Leonal Hardman, president of the Louisiana branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He and LFT President Steve Monaghan will jointly announce a new informational campaign to remind our fellow citizens about the necessary work done by public employees, and the important role that public employees play in our communities.

It should not be necessary to say that public servants are vital to our state and our nation, but that is an unfortunate sign of the times. Across the nation, public employees have become scapegoats in the struggle to balance budgets. Instead of blaming poor political choices or Wall Street malfeasance for our economic woes, some point to the salaries and benefits of the people who provide the basic government services we all depend on.

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

Can't we all just get along?

Our schools would be in much better shape if more people shared the attitudes of Memphis Education Association Executive Director Ken Foster and Memphis City Schools Deputy Superintendent Irving Hamer, Jr.

The two paired up for this article in the Christian Science Monitor, in which they agree that "the tone of the national (education) conversation is serving as a wedge, further widening the historical rift between labor and management. Such strife can only harm efforts at meaningful reform."

The pair write honestly about their goals for public schools, their points of agreement and disageement, and the need for open, honest collaboration to improve our schools.

New Public Education Coalition Working To Make Louisiana First in Education

The new state-wide Coalition for Louisiana Public Education, consisting of major education stake-holders, has united in working toward the goal that “Louisiana will be a national leader in traditional public education.”

The new think tank’s coalition members have begun working together with elected officials toward major legislative initiatives with a dual objective -- to propel Louisiana toward national pre-eminence in public education, which will subsequently boost Louisiana economically.

Contrary to adhering to “the status quo,” these Coalition members are committed to helping state legislators and education administrators make the hard decisions, guaranteeing equitable education opportunities for all children, to set Louisiana on a path to national excellence.

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

More proof of decline in Louisiana

A recent issue of the fax newsletter that LFT sends to members of the legislature posed the question, "Is Louisiana a state in decline?"

The article asked if the $24.9 billion budget proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal is causing long-term damage to the state's quality of life.

Students graduating from Louisiana's colleges and universities "face life in a state with closed parks, shuttered museums, rutted roads and rickety bridges," the article said. Some wondered if that was an exaggeration.

In answer to that question, Advocate reporter Michelle Millhollon has this article in Sunday's edition:

State government’s money problems are translating into fewer hours to tell the story of the pirates, idealists, rock legends and political powerhouses who once called Louisiana home. The cutbacks to some of the state’s museums began in January with slashed hours and terminated student workers. Now another round of reductions is threatened because of the $1.6 billion shortfall facing the state in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Officials are worried about the impact on communities and culture while visitors are concerned about the decreased access to buildings that tell Louisiana’s history.

April 1: No joke in Baton Rouge and Washington

Just the FAX is a newsletter sent to state legislators each Friday from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. Issues are available online at http://la.aft.org.

While the Louisiana Legislature prepares for a session that will consider devastating budget cuts, Washington is already well on the way to adopting a budget that promises major pain for our country’s working families.

The plan working its way through Congress will eliminate Head Start funding for 200,000 children, cut Pell Grants for 9.4 million college students, eliminate primary health care services for 11 million Americans and delay Social Security benefits for about 500,000 eligible citizens.

The national situation is disturbingly like our own. In Louisiana, big businesses avoid paying more than three-quarters of the taxes on the books. At the same time, our governor is cutting funding for services that the people of the state depend on.

To read the rest of this legislative fax, please click here.