In a VAN down by the RIVER

In a classic Saturday Night Live sketch, comic Chris Farley portrayed a failed motivational speaker who now plies his trade from a van down by the river.

Superintendent of Education John White may have found Farley’s equal in a motivational speaker hired by the department to shill for the Course Choice Program.

“Lefty” Lefkowith is paid $145,000 a year to promote the governor’s “course choice” program, as seen in this YouTube video. Thanks to a public records request by blogger Tom Aswell, we know that Lefkowith’s title at the department is “Director of the Office of Portfolio,” although he claims to be Deputy Superintendent.

Since last July, Lefkowith has been, in the words of a Department of Education spokesperson, “effectively implementing a number of large, complex programs and activities aimed at benefiting Louisiana school children.”
In plain English, he was hired to make it easier for corporations and entrepreneurs to raid the public education budget and siphon funds away from our schools. He apparently has no education credentials, but “has worked with private sector companies and government agencies across the nation to harness the talent of professionals in diverse industries and develop creative solutions to improve results.”

In Superintendent White’s world, an academic background, appropriate credentials and experience as an educator are all disqualifying criteria for high-salary positions. Just ask the 27-year old director of teacher evaluation, who does not have a teaching certificate.

The Department of Education’s swank Claiborne Building is definitely not a van, but it is down by the river. That’s good enough for the superintendent.

UPDATE: Tom Aswell, Louisiana’s indispensable investigative journalist, lifted up a rock and found the creepy-crawly essence of “Lefty” Lefkowith in this blog entry. Not just a carnival barker for privatization, it seems that Lefty has an unsavory past “with strong connections to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the infamous Enron Corp.” and schemes to deregulate energy and manipulate water rights in the Sunshine State.

 

John White's sense of irony

Irony, noun: Expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of their usual sense.


Has Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White developed a sense of irony? Judging from news and editorial reports of the last few days, the imposing stone Claiborne Building, which houses White’s department, has become a Temple of the Ironic.

On one hand, White explained to Shreveport Times reporter Mary Nash-Wood that his department requires the services of a new public relations person because “The No. 1 thing people ask for is more communication. We’re not about just hoping information gets to parents and teachers. We’re trying to be proactive in working to meet those parents, teachers and students wherever they are.”

So desperate is the need that White reached all the way to Tallahassee, Florida to hire one Deirdre Finn at the sum of $12,000 per month for four months (with a three-year option) to manage communications for his office.

The need is not so critical that Ms. Finn’s presence is required in Baton Rouge full-time, however: “she divides her duties between Baton Rouge and Tallahassee.”

Here’s where the ironic part comes in. At the same time that White so desperately needs a Floridian to manage communications in Louisiana, his department is being sued for its refusal to communicate important information to the news media.

On several occasions, White promised to give up records involving the way private and religious schools were chosen to participate in the new state voucher program. He has reneged on that promise, and now refuses to explain the voucher process to the news media and the tax-paying public.

White’s refusal raised the ire of the Baton Rouge Advocate, which opined in an editorial, “If the Department of Education is acting in the best interest of the public in implementing the voucher program, then why does White feel the need to hide documents relating to the program from public view?”

The Lake Charles American Press is also incensed: “But because taxpayers are footing the bill for this program — the state is paying up to almost $9,000 per student — the public has a right to know the details of how this program has evolved and is evolving.”

It’s not that White is unable to communicate the information because he lacks a staff member. He just doesn’t want to.

Which raises the question: Is Deidre Finn being paid $12,000 per month to really give out information, or is it to put an attractive spin on White’s refusal to communicate?

Maybe irony is not the right word to use here.

Cynical, adjective: Denying the sincerity of people’s motives and actions.

Flawed system shouldn’t dictate teacher salaries

Dependant on Value Added Model, even 1% is too much, LFT says

(Baton Rouge – October 8, 2010) With a growing number of reports illustrating the chaos fomented by a new teacher evaluation system, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan asks school boards to limit the damage by minimizing the effect that the system has on teacher compensation.


Under Act 1 of 2012, school boards must design new teacher salary schedules by January 1, and have them in place by the 2013-14 school year. The law requires teacher effectiveness as measured by these evaluations to determine up to 50% of teacher compensation. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers has challenged the constitutionality of the new law.

“This is insane,” said Monaghan. “A broken system, a flawed model, will be used to determine the intrinsic value of teachers and their economic worth.

“We urge school boards to protect their teachers from unnecessary damage by minimizing the effect that the flawed system will have on teacher compensation,” Monaghan said. “We understand that the law requires a percentage; we’re saying make it one percent or less, until this is fixed.”

Recently, a major newspaper called Governor Jindal’s evaluation scheme unfair and concluded that it “borders on immoral.” Just last week, one of the governor’s chief allies and a strong supporter of Act 1 called the evaluation scheme “ridiculous.”

“We are learning that many of the state’s finest teachers will be labeled ‘ineffective’ because of a flawed rating system which squeezes teachers into predetermined results or outcomes,” Monaghan said.

“Evidence from around Louisiana demonstrates that the new evaluation program does not accurately reflect teacher effectiveness,” Monaghan said. “It is an inappropriate instrument on which to base any significant portion of a teacher’s salary.”

To read more of this article, please click here.

Evaluation raises GOP lawmaker's ire

They say that it took arch-conservative communist baiter Richard Nixon to finally breech the wall that had separated the United States from China since Mao Zedong’s revolution. Will it now require one of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s most loyal allies to bring down the travesty that is the governor’s teacher evaluation scheme?

That conclusion can be drawn from this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, in which Shreveport Republican Representative Alan Seabaugh calls the new teacher evaluation program “nothing short of ridiculous.”

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers has been calling the governor’s plan ridiculous, and worse, since it was first enacted two years ago. But the stakes climbed exponentially this year, when Jindal’s Act 1 tied employment decisions ranging from salary to tenure to termination to the evaluation scheme.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers vigorously opposed Act 1 when it was rammed through the legislature. Lawmakers like Seabaugh scoffed at our concerns. The governor and his amen chorus called us “agents of the status quo” and worse.

When LFT stood alone and filed a lawsuit to halt the evaluation system, we were called goons. The once-respected Council for a Better Louisiana called our lawsuit “unfortunate” and said that we are “more interested in taking care of adult issues at the educational expense of students.”

Superintendent of Education John White whined that “the LFT keeps dragging us back to politics and courtrooms.”

But with the law going into effect and its noxious results blooming, the worm is turning.

Around the state, educators are learning that Jindal’s scheme is aimed not at improving education, but at shoehorning teachers into arbitrary categories. His ultimate goal seems to be destroying trust in public education so that the billions spent on our schools can be diverted into the pockets of education entrepreneurs.

In a recent editorial, the Lake Charles American Press termed Jindal’s evaluation scheme unfair and immoral after learning that some of the best teachers in some of the state’s best schools have been labeled “ineffective.”

And now the scales have fallen from Rep. Seabaugh’s eyes. It seems that the top-rated elementary school in the state is in his district, and teachers in that school have been victimized by Jindal’s agenda.

As reporter Sentell writes, “the jobs of some teachers could be in jeopardy because even high-scoring students who show drops from the previous year can result in the teachers being rated as ineffective.”

As Rep. Seabaugh told the reporter, “You literally have the most successful teachers in the state being told that they are highly ineffective.”

Rep. Seabaugh has now written a letter of complaint to education officials around the state. Like Nixon’s visit to China, this could be the start of something big.

A caution to moviegoers: Don’t get trigger happy!

A new motion picture that has been described as an inept, bizarre and deceptive attack on public education, teachers and their unions proposes that parent trigger laws are the cure for what ails our schools.


“Won’t Back Down” has been almost universally panned by critics, but a good movie was never the intent of the right-wing billionaire who financed it – the point is to promote the idea, now codified in Louisiana law, that parents should have the right to take over schools they perceive as failing.

But as this article by Molly Redden in The New Republic reveals, there are a number of problems with parent trigger laws that were not discussed when Gov. Jindal rammed his bogus education “reforms” through the legislature last spring.

Louisiana’s trigger provision, like those in six other states, calls for replacing traditional public schools. Under Act 2 of 2012, the law applies to schools rated “D” or “F” on state report cards. If parents representing a majority of the students attending the school sign a petition, the school will be transferred to the State Recovery School District, which presumably will charter the school.

But as The New Republic’s article point out, a Stanford University/Credo study shows that a vast majority of charter schools “fared worse or no better than their public school counterparts in producing academic gains.”

That same study said that Louisiana’s charter schools performed slightly better than the national average. But – and this is a really, really big but – the study clearly says that Louisiana’s advantage, when the study was conducted, was that our state had few charter schools and the requirements to be chartered were very strict.

Under the Jindal regime, however, limitations on charter schools have been obliterated in the rush to abandon public schools. Expect that small advantage to disappear in the next round of charter school studies.

“Won’t Back Down” was produced by Walden Media, a right-wing propaganda firm funded by the very people who want to privatize and profit from our schools. The movie was described by Variety critic Peter DeBruge as “grossly oversimplifying” education reform. He called it a “disingenuous pot-stirrer (that )plays to audiences’ emotions rather than their intelligence.”

A range of critics describe the “Won’t Back Down” as “divisive,” “manipulative,” “heavy-handed,” “noxious” and “muckraking.” But the most damning verdict against the movie was pronounced by audiences, who have stayed away in droves. It reported the worst box office ever for a movie opening on over 2,500 screens.

Parents should also be very wary of the parent trigger laws lauded by the movie. The New Republic’s Redden ends her article by reporting that California parents who once took advantage of a trigger law “now testify to feeling like they were duped into signing over their children’s school to a charter school corporation, without understanding that there was no alternative option. And that, of course, is the worry attached to Won’t Back Down—more duping, set to the rousing strains of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Stronger.’”

Don't let Gov. Jindal sell the Office of Group Benefits!

Don't let Gov. Jindal sell the Office of Group Benefits!

 

Click here to sign the petition!

 

Despite an outcry from thousands of public servants, Governor Bobby Jindal seems determined to sell the State Office of Group Benefits to a private company.

 

OGB manages the health insurance of some 60,000 current and retired public employees, including teachers and school employees in a number of school systems. It is one of the best-run and scandal-free operations in state government. In fact, it has built up a surplus of some $500 million over the past few years.

Selling OGB could mean:

• Higher premiums
• Slower response when Louisiana’s teachers, school employees and public servants need health care.
• Outsourcing 177 state jobs, perhaps to foreign countries

The Attorney General says that Gov. Jindal cannot privatize OGB without approval from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which will meet in October. 

 

Please click this link to learn more and tell members of the Joint Budget Committee to vote NO when they are asked to approve privatizing the Office of Group Benefits.

Uncertified, inexperienced teacher is state director of teacher evaluations

Hot on the heels of the revelation that the State Department of Education has employed a $12,000 per month spin doctor, another report has surfaced about a questionable hire by Superintendent of Education John White.


This time, focus has landed on the department’s 27-year old director of the new state teacher evaluation program.

According to Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Will Sentell, Molly Horstman spent two years in a New Orleans classroom as a Teach for America volunteer before being drafted into the State Recovery School District in New Orleans as an administrator.

She’s following in the footsteps of several other TFT alums, including the former and current executive director of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It appears that replacing seasoned DOE veterans with young TFAers has become a hallmark of the Jindal and White administration.

According to some reports, Horstman – who did not teach in Louisiana ling enough to even earn tenure – did not pass the PRAXIS exam, which is required for teachers to earn certification in Louisiana. Her ACT scores were accepted instead.

In Sentell’s article, Horstman admits that she allowed her Louisiana teaching certificate to lapse, saying “My job does not require that I go into the classroom to teach right now.”

In short: the person in charge of the state teacher evaluation program is a 27-year old, non-certified, two-year veteran teacher who did not pass PRAXIS and will earn $77,000 per year.

Romney tells teachers: Just shut up

So now Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney believes that teacher unions should not have a political voice. In an interview with NBC host Brian Williams, Romney said, “I believe that we simply can’t have a setting where the teachers unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians…”


Romney apparently believes it is wrong for unions to donate to politicians if there is a chance that the union will ever negotiate with officials they have supported. He called it “an extraordinary conflict of interest.”

The republican nominee has no such qualms about taking donations from the likes of billionaire casino czar Sheldon Adelson, who pledged $100 million to Romney’s cause. In an interview with a reporter, Adelson called his campaign contribution “self defense.”

Adelson is currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation into the activities of his gambling empire.

As Huffington Post contributor Ryan Grimm wrote this week:

The top reason Adelson gave for backing Romney and opposing President Barack Obama is "self defense," as Allen put it, referencing the probe into Las Vegas Sands Corp… Adelson's casino empire, the bulk of which is based in Asia, is being investigated for bribery and money laundering. …In other words, Adelson is spending millions of dollars to curry political favor in the United States, hoping to fend off charges that he spent millions of dollars to curry political favor in Asia.

In candidate Romney’s world, it is perfectly acceptable for his side in an election to take millions from those under criminal investigation. Teachers and school employees who want to have a say in an election, however, must keep their mouths and their wallets shut.

But what Romney considers a conflict of interest, the United States Supreme Court has ruled is freedom of speech. When educators form a union and pool their resources to endorse political candidates, they are simply doing what Americans have a right to do.

What Romney is attempting is to silence the voices of those who may disagree with him.

Teacher unions are not alone in contributing to political campaigns. The Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Business and Industry, the doctors, the lawyers, the drug companies all make contributions that vastly outweigh campaign spending by our teacher union.

Each of those donate in the hope that the candidates they support will win the election and then make decisions favorable to the contributor. It might not be pretty, but it is the way politics has always been conducted in the United States.

Here is a hard fact from last year’s election for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Our union, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, contributed a total of about $20,000 to all of the BESE candidates we endorsed. Contributions to those candidates from all sources amounted to less than $348,000.

Business and political interests aligned with Gov. Bobby Jindal poured over $2.8 million into the same races. The result is a BESE board solidly aligned with the governor. This BESE board overwhelmingly approves of Jindal’s agenda to privatize public education, to support vouchers for private and religious schools, and to expose teachers to a harsh and unfair new evaluation system.

The truth is that money speaks in American elections, and the loudest voice is often the one that is best funded. To deny that voice to unions is to tape the mouths of teachers and school employees and ensure that our concerns are never heard.

Would we all be better off if there were a fair way to limit the amount of money spent on political campaigns in our country? That is a legitimate discussion to have, but it is not at the heart of Romney’s complaint to Brian Williams.

In the Citizens United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot restrict independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. Candidate Romney is attempting to tilt the playing field by removing the “and unions” from that balance.

In short, Romney’s fear is that a political contribution by a teacher union will color a decision by an elected official.

His is the wrong prescription for what ails the American political system.

BESE member decries reform "trickery"

In a letter sent to newspapers across the state, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education District 8 Member Carolyn Hill writes about her disappointment in the "school reform" agenda being pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White.

After running an election campaign based on reform, Hill writes, she is disappointed in "the deceptive practices that are being used to disparage our traditional schools and educators."

"What is being offered up as reform," she writes, "is nothing more than trickery."

Here is the full text of her letter to the editor, which should be appearing around Louisiana soon:

Dear Editor:

As a member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), I am writing to express my disappointment in the deceptive practices that are being used to disparage our traditional schools and educators.  I ran for the BESE position because I wanted to be an integral part of reforming schools in Louisiana.  My campaign was based on reform.  Shortly after being elected to the state board of education, I realized what is being offered up as reform is nothing more than trickery.  

I am reminded of the biblical story relating to Adam and Eve.  God warned Adam not to eat of the forbidden fruit; yet, Eve manipulated Adam and evil arose from the eating of this fruit.  I use this example to inform my constituents and the public that everything that glistens isn’t gold.  Many so-called reformers are trashing traditional public schools while many parents are facing real discrimination.  

Choice is being sold to many parents as the silver bullet.  However, many parents have reported their concerns and confusion regarding the responses they have received.  Some students are being denied access to schools of their choice.  I want to appeal to parents to exercise caution with their choice options.  The virtual learning opportunities, if not monitored, may have far reaching implications regarding student success. Be wise and proactive in your choice decisions and don’t accept less than was promised.  

I recall growing up and revering the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.  However, as an African American, I am concerned that there is silence regarding the future of our children.  Where are our leaders? Why do we want out of state vendors to come to Louisiana to educate our children?  Where are the standards?  Why do we promote certification in traditional schools and don’t require the same standards for charter schools?   Why are we operating under different standards?  Why does a state board of education and legislature make a distinction between education providers?  Why would any board of education not require certification and testing when education is all about the attainment of standards?  

I did campaign on education reform--a responsible reform-- where there is an equitable playing field. The education reform that exists in Louisiana today consists of irresponsible education policies and laws. Again I am saddened that many have forgotten the struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King and others who have taken a stand for all people.  Are we going to abandon this legacy?  I am also reminded of all the elected officials who were in opposition to the education reform legislation during this past legislative session.  I want to say thank you.  I also say we must not abandon our responsibilities. We must rise to be the voices for our children, parents, and educators. If we don't stand openly and vocally for our children, then it may be said we are as guilty as if we had eaten of the forbidden fruit.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Hill

BESE District 8

The legislative branch should assert itself

(Baton Rouge – September 21, 2012) Concerned about the Jindal administration’s apparent "complete disregard" for the legislature and the separation of powers, Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) this week became the second legislator to ask his colleagues to convene in special session. Senator Karen Carter Petersen (D-New Orleans) had already called for a special session over the Jindal administration’s handling of health care issues in the state.


"For democracy to work, it cannot be a spectator sport," said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. "We have an obligation to express our understanding and support for a legislative intervention.
While Rep. Richard focused on the billion dollars of cuts ordered by the Jindal administration after the last legislative session ended, Federation President Steve Monaghan said he believes lawmakers should also revisit and address the so called bold education agenda which was steamrolled through the 2011 session.

“Representative Richard’s sentiments are shared by educators, but their concerns are not limited to fiscal matters only,” Monaghan said.

“At the governor’s urging, the legislature rushed through and rubber-stamped two poorly drafted, fatally flawed bills,” said Monaghan. “They have fueled confusion and spawned litigation that could drag on for years. The best course for lawmakers is to reconsider them before public education suffers irreparable harm in our state.”

According to the LFT president, the education agenda that Gov. Jindal pushed through in the first weeks of the session has led to mass confusion in the education community, and has made Louisiana a national laughingstock.

To read more of this article, please click here.

John White doubles down on vouchers

Evidence mounts that Superintendent of Education John White and his liege, Gov. Bobby Jindal, are bent on minimizing public education and advancing the cause of private, religious and for-profit schools.

Their preference is on display in this press release, which crows about how successfully the governor's voucher scheme has started down its path to supplant traditional public schools.

Along with its declaration of favor for privatized education, White's press release takes an eye-poke at St. Tammany, a parish still stinging from Gov. Jindal's decision to close Southeast Louisiana Hospital. What is it about the state's most reliably Republican district that urges the governor to treat it so shabbily?

And to those who say there is no slap at St. Tammany in the press release: Of course there is. In this case, the worst insult is in the praise withheld. They knew what they were doing.

Back to the press release. Perhaps the most interesting part is where White drags up a discredited piece of "research" which he uses to bolster a claim that "enrollment in college increased 24 percent for African-American students who received a scholarship to attend a private school."

Even the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, a strong editorial supporter of the Jindal agenda, calls bullhockey on that one. Reporter David Jacobs writes that the data cited by White "actually does not support the authors' conclusions."

Writes Jacobs: "The review by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison argues the evidence shows 'school vouchers did not improve college enrollment rates among all students or even among a selected subgroup.' In fact, the Brookings/Harvard report 'convincingly demonstrates that in New York City a private voucher program failed to increase the college enrollment rates of students from low-income families,' the critique says.

There's a reason for White's heavy lean on the bogus report. News about the voucher schools has been almost universally bad for White and Jindal. First came the report from New Orleans that public schools were outperforming voucher schools in Jindal's initial foray into privatization. Then came stories about the state's woefully inadequate vetting of proposed voucher schools. Not to mention the pro-KKK and creationism curricula favored by some of the voucher academies.

As White and Jindal double down on vouchers, they will have to deal with mounting evidence that their scheme is not only unconstitutional (court date rapidly approaching), but that it is educationally unsound and intellectually bankrupt. That means we can expect more glowing - and inaccurate - press releases in the future.

What's criminal in Florida is OK in Louisiana

The company that bills itself as the nation's largest provider of online education services is in trouble in Florida.

According to this article in the Orlando Sentinel, K12 Inc. "uses uncertified teachers in violation of state law and has asked employees to cover up the practice."

The story is of interest to us because K-12 Inc. is one of the course providers interested in siphoning Louisiana's public education funds, courtesy of Gov. Bobby Jindal's scheme to privatize our schools.

In Florida, reporters Trevor Aaronson and John O'Connor say, "K12 officials asked state-certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students they hadn't taught."

The allegations, if true, are very serious and ought to result in stiff fines and perhaps jail sentences for the perpetrators. The misdeeds alleged in the story go far beyond any simple mistake: "In one case, a K12 manager instructed a certified teacher to sign a class roster of more than 100 students...She only recognized seven names on that list."

The perps, in this case, might include K12 founder William Bennett, who served as President Ronald Reagan's education secretary. Since K12 was founded in 2000, the reporters say, K12 has grown into an $864 million company whose stock has doubled in the past year.

One reason for that spectacular growth just might be the violation of Florida's education laws. K12 "can pay uncertified teachers less than certified teachers while collecting the same amount per student from school districts," the reporters say.

The company won't have to worry about breaking certification laws here, because our governor made sure that companies like K12 Inc. don't have to hire certified teachers.

One of the many objectives of  Jindal's Act 2, known as the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program, was to remove any certification requirements for teachers in the for-profit schools favored by the governor.

So we know that if K12 Inc. is approved as a "course provider" in Louisiana there won't be any pesky  teacher certification issues to clog up the money funnel.

But will the Florida investigation prove to be a hindrance to K12 Inc.'s approval to provide courses in Louisiana? Thus far, whenever State Superintendent of Education John White is asked questions about that sort of thing, his answer is that such information is protected from a prying public by a "deliberative process exemption" to the state's sunshine laws.

We will certainly have an answer by January, at which time the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will release its list of approved course choice providers.

Irony note:
A favorite high school Latin teacher used to say that certain miscreants had "more Gaul than Caesar conquered." Check out the paid advertisements on this story's Orlando Sentinel Web page. Without a hint of shame, K12 has an ad posted: "Learn From Home At Your Pace With K12 Accredited Online High School."

Why are Chicago teachers on strike?

Today the 29,000 teachers and school employees in Chicago – the nation’s third largest school system – went on strike. It is the first time in 25 years that a job action like this has been called in the Windy City.

Their reasons for shutting down schools will sound disturbingly familiar to Louisiana educators.

No pay raises: The city school system, which is run by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, last year promised teachers a four percent pay raise. This year, the city cancelled the raise and refuses to discuss the broken promise in negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.

(In Louisiana, teachers haven’t received a state raise since 2008. Gov. Jindal, the legislature and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education have all agreed not to raise the Minimum Foundation Program by the traditional 2.75% per year. That starves local systems of money that could be used for local pay raises.)

Teacher evaluation: A new evaluation system is being imposed on Chicago teachers that relies heavily on how well students perform on standardized tests. The union says the new system ignores important  factors like poverty. Because Chicago has a collective bargaining agreement, the evaluation system should be determined collaboratively between teachers and the administration.

(In Louisiana, the  Louisiana Federation of Teachers has sued to halt a new law that bases virtually every aspect of a teacher's professional life, including pay raises, termination and tenure, on evaluations that rely too heavily on standardized testing.)

Longer school days: While gutting salaries, the city is demanding longer school days.

(In Louisiana, Gov. Jindal’s new law – which is under legal challenge from the LFT – gives superintendents the right to demand more work without remuneration.)

Overcrowded classrooms: Illinois does not have a law limiting class size. CTU wants to negotiate limits on class sizes in its contract, but the city is refusing to discuss it.

(In Louisiana, which does have laws limiting class size, testimony has been given at BESE meetings and in the legislature to the effect that class size does not affect student achievement.)

Radical expansion of charter schools: The mayor is laying the groundwork to create as many as 250 new charter schools, or about half of the school system, in five to 10 years, despite the fact that studies show charter schools delivering about the same results as traditional public schools.

Teachers in Chicago charter schools earn about eight percent less than public school teachers and have no union representation. They have fewer benefits than traditional public school teachers.

(In Louisiana, the expansion of charter schools is accompanied by a de-professionalization of the teaching corps. No certification is required, and benefits can be far smaller than those in traditional public schools.)

Chicago teachers have long been protected by one of the strongest collective bargaining agreements in the nation, while very few Louisiana school districts even have collective bargaining agreements with educators.

That Chicago’s teachers and school employees have been pushed into a strike shows just how strong the movement to destroy traditional public education has become.

Even without collective bargaining, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers has fought to protect the rights of teachers and school employees as well as for education reform that is research-based, transparent and effective.

We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Chicago. If they lose their fight for professional dignity, it will embolden anti-public forces in Louisiana and other states.

Biased teacher study does not stand up to scrutiny, LFT says

A study purporting to support a new teacher evaluation system is the product of a biased, pro-business think tank and should not be taken seriously by education reformers in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

“If this study were to be taken seriously, it would have been published by a peer-reviewed journal instead of by the Manhattan Institute, which prides itself on promoting ‘market-oriented policies’ aimed at privatizing public services,” said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan.

In a conference call to reporters, Manhattan Institute Fellow Marcus Winters said that his new report validates the use of the so-called Value Added Model to evaluate teacher performance. Winters said that his research is based on the results of value added data collected in Florida public schools.

The Baton Rouge Advocate quoted Winters’ report as saying that value added models “can be a useful piece of a comprehensive evaluation system” and that “claims that it is unreliable should be rejected.”

Sections of Winters’ report not quoted by The Advocate appear less confident: “VAM is not a perfect measure of teacher quality because, like any statistical test, it is subject to random measurement errors. So it should not be regarded as the ‘magic bullet’ solution to the problem of evaluating teacher performance.”

To read more, please click here.

Hogs at the trough, from Louisiana Voice

Blogger Tom Aswell at Louisiana Voice has been following Gov. Jindal's schemes, and has posted this article documenting the ways that "course providers" will raid the state treasury: 

Feeding time for Department of Education online courses for Jindal’s Student Scholarships for Educatonal Excellence Act

August 22, 2012 by tomaswell

And so it came to pass that LouisianaVoice’s June 20 story about course providers as allowed by HB 976 (Act 2) of this year’s regular legislative session is playing out precisely as we said it would: the hogs are already bellying up to the buffet.


Course providers, you may recall, are the new kids on the education block who are crowding in for their slice of education funds pie by teaching virtual classes online. They don’t have classrooms but at least there’s no bus for students to catch.

The early submission deadline for potential course providers was Aug. 17 and the early Department of Education (DOE) review to accept, defer or reject applicants is Sept. 14. The interview of applicants who have been tentatively approved will begin on Sept. 18 and DOE is scheduled to post the accepted applications online by Sept. 28.

There were 25 applicants as of Tuesday, Aug. 21, according to documents provided by DOE.

The Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Act, as HB 976 is officially known, directs the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to create a “reciprocal teacher certification process” for teachers who reside in other states by next January.

Under terms of the act, postsecondary education institutions may serve as quality course providers for students who seek advanced level course work or technical or vocational instruction. Because “technical” and “vocational” were included in the bill’s language, that could mean that “postsecondary education institutions” would include not only traditional universities and colleges, but individuals, vocational and technical schools and proprietary schools.

But the bill goes on to specify that business and industry may also serve as “quality course providers that offer course work in their particular field of expertise.”

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

Ideology and profit trump good policy in White’s press release

(Baton Rouge – August 24, 2010) In touting the product of a researcher nationally recognized for studies biased in favor of school vouchers, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White continues down the path of rhetoric and partisan politics at the expense of taxpayers and school children, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

“It is obvious that Superintendent White and Governor Jindal have made a conscious effort to elevate ideology over good education policy,” Monaghan said. “The infusion of large sums of money spawned this agenda, and the pursuit of large sums of money continues to fuel it."

The LFT president was responding to a press release from White’s office claiming that vouchers in New York City “significantly increase college enrollment of African-American students.”

The study by Paul Peterson, a professor of government at Harvard University and fellow at the right-wing Hoover Institution, is extremely limited in scope and ignores factors other than vouchers in reaching its conclusion, Monaghan said.

The study found that vouchers in New York City had “no overall impacts on college enrollment.” However, Peterson and his fellow researcher said they found “large, statistically significant positive impacts on the college going of African-American students who participated in the study.”

“Superintendent White makes a giant leap from that finding and concludes that Louisiana will see ‘rising student achievement and ultimately more college graduates’ because of vouchers in our state,” Monaghan said. “His logic has more holes than a screen door.”

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Bought and paid for

Just yesterday, an EdLog post explored the link between political action committees and members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education who are aligned with Gov. Jindal’s radical plan to privatize education in Louisiana.

Former Gov. Buddy Roemer was quoted in the post as saying “institutional corruption places our elections in the hands of the mega contributors.”

Today we started to learn what those mega contributors expect in return for their support. A press release from the Department of Education excitedly announced that applications are pouring in from would-be “course providers” who will be dipping their beaks in public education’s Minimum Foundation Program.

One of the first applicants, the press release announces, is Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc., an industry group associated with ABC Pelican Pac, one of the state’s major political action committees.

ABC Pelican PAC contributed $110,000 to candidates favored by Gov. Jindal and his allies in last fall’s BESE campaign.

The term “course providers” appears in Act 2 of the 2012 legislature. The program is outlined in pages 26 through 32 of the 47-page act, which is currently undergoing a constitutional challenge from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and others.

“Business and industry,” the law says, “can serve as quality course providers that offer course work in their particular field or expertise…”

A course provider is defined as “an entity that offers individual courses in person or online, including but not limited to online or virtual education providers, postsecondary education institutions, including any postsecondary institution under the management of the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges, and corporations that offer vocational or technical course work in their field, and have been authorized to provide such courses by the state board.”

Virtually any student in Louisiana, including those who are in public schools, private and religious schools, or are home schooled, is eligible to take courses offered by providers, with the state picking up the cost through public education’s MFP.

Course providers will be paid “the market rate…up to one-sixth of 90 percent of the per-pupil amount” for each course taken by students. The money will come from funds that would have gone to the local school system.

ABC’s looming raid on public education funds is just the tip of the iceberg. While much attention has been paid to the private and religious schools that will get vouchers, little light has been shed thus far on the river of money that will flow to similar business and industry providers, proprietary online schools, education entrepreneurs and others.

But if the ABC experience is any indicator, we will see many connections between political contributions to BESE members and the course providers they will be called upon to approve for state funding.

When the apple falls far, far from the tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supreme Court won’t enjoin Jindal’s voucher scheme

Echoing a district court ruling, the Louisiana Supreme Court today denied a request for an injunction to halt funding for Governor Bobby Jindal’s controversial school voucher plan. A trial to determine the constitutionality of the voucher scheme will proceed as scheduled on October 15, however.

The Supreme Court affirmed District Judge Tim Kelly’s decision that the judiciary cannot enjoin the voucher program because Superintendent of Education John White and Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater signed affidavits claiming that an injunction would create a deficit in the state budget.
“Even though we contend that their statements are demonstrably false – there is no way that not spending money can cause a deficit – the courts must accept the affidavits as factual and cannot challenge them in any way,” said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. “Judge Kelly was very clear when he told us the law does not allow him to question the truthfulness of the statements by White and Rainwater.”

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and others have sued the state on grounds that Act 2 of 2012, which established the voucher program, violates the state constitution for at least two reasons, and did not pass the legislature by the required number of votes.

Today’s ruling has no bearing on the legitimacy of the challenge or the ultimate outcome of the case. The LFT had sought the injunction to spare the confusion that will come if the law is declared unconstitutional while students are already attending voucher schools.

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John White takes a mulligan

As national attention focuses on the circus-clown collection of schools selected to receive state education funds through Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher scheme, Superintendent of Education John White has done what any duffer would. He’s asked for a do-over.

White can be excused for asking what your golfing buddy might request after shanking one deep into the weeds. He has made our state a national laughingstock by approving state dollars for schools that don’t have adequate teachers, facilities or curricula. With Loch Ness monsters for science and videos for literature, there’s little else to do but ask for a time out and a second chance.

So as Times-Picayune reporter Andrew Vanacore writes here, and Gannett reporter Mike Hasten writes here, White wants a chance to reflect and make changes in the risible procedure that Louisiana’s state education board uses to approve non-public schools.

Before Gov. Jindal launched his all-out effort to privatize our schools, the approval of non-publics was not that big a deal. They got the right to issue diplomas that would be recognized by the state, and they got textbooks, as well as some transportation and special education services.

The stakes rose dramatically with the advent of vouchers. Now approved schools are eligible to collect between $4,000 and $8,000 per student, courtesy of Louisiana’s taxpayers. Some of those lining up for state handouts make even the most challenged of our public schools look like paragons of academic excellence.

All the attention has White hanging like a millstone on Jindal’s national aspirations, and so the walkback began at BESE’s meetings this week. Before any more private or religious schools can be approved by the state, White wants to take a breather and rethink the two main criteria by which the state currently weighs their applications: they must not discriminate on the basis of race, and they must protect the "academic welfare, health (and) safety of children."

Those don’t constitute a heavy lift. As a result, some extremely questionable schools have passed the test.

"Conditions,” White told BESE with a straight face, “have changed such that this process now has greater importance. Thus the department has said we're going to take a look at this process."

That is a shame for the six schools that happened to be up for approval at this week’s BESE meeting. They will not be anointed by the same rubber stamp that has blessed some 385 private and religious schools in Louisiana. Even though this six have apparently met all the qualifications as the others, it is their misfortune to be applying in the August of White’s discontent.

And so on a motion by BESE President Penny Dastugue, the board obediently granted White’s Department of Education until October to devise some stricter criteria by which nonpublic schools may earn the privilege of nourishment from the public breast.

The change won’t make Jindal’s voucher scheme legal; it remains for the courts to make that determination. It certainly won’t turn the program into good public policy. It won’t improve education for the hundreds of thousands of Louisiana children who deserve better.

But hope abides that it might dampen criticism of the Jindal agenda long enough for the governor to make his leap to whatever post his ambitions direct him toward.