Gov. Bobby Jindal got his way on education reform, but the debate is far from over.
By Jeremy Alford
It was a simple matter to label Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform package this session as a Republican effort, especially since it’s the party of the governor and the lawmakers who handled his legislation. However, some Republicans voted against Jindal’s education plan, and some Democrats stood with him.
The defecting Dems may stand out more than their counterparts, especially since teacher unions — long a force in Louisiana Democratic politics — worked hard against the bills. Jindal clearly had the upper hand, however, and he signed his plan into law two weeks ago.
The new laws make it more difficult for teachers to obtain and keep tenure; they increase the amount of taxpayer-funded vouchers that can be used to send public school students to private schools; they create new opportunities for charters schools to open; and they significantly expand the pool of “authorizers” that can approve charter school applications. Jindal’s bills also establish new evaluation criteria for teachers based on performance, direct more money to early childhood education and give superintendents more authority.
Some Democrats have spent the last few weeks reaching out to constituents to justify their votes in favor of the reform bills. Their votes could become a sticky issue come re-election time in 2015.
For example, freshman Sen. Troy Brown, D-Napoleonville, has been meeting with civic groups, making phone calls to constituents and taking his case to reporters in his district. “I don’t think the governor’s reform bills are going to outright fix education. I think we’re probably going to have to address some of these items again in a few years,” Brown says. “But this gets the discussion on education reform moving.”
Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, who previously served 11 years in the House, has taken more of a direct approach with a lengthy prepared statement that has been published on his Facebook account and elsewhere. “[The new laws] are not perfect, and we will have to go back and make adjustments,” Smith says. “I have not bought into the governor’s national agenda, but I do believe after hearing from many, many constituents and other citizens around the state that we have to make some aggressive changes in education.”
Both men — and they’re not alone — have taken care to add qualifiers to their votes on vouchers and tenure. Both also hold vice chairman posts, as do many of the other Democrats who found themselves siding with Jindal on education reform issues this session.
Other Democrats have more political freedom (read: they’re not committee chairs or vice chairs) and are offering up alternatives to Jindal’s plans. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee passed such a bill; it would give fractional rebates to taxpayers who donate to public schools.
House Bill 1106 by Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, comes with a $10 million statewide cap. It encourages residents to donate money to public schools for tutorials, curriculum, books, technology, Saturday school and other needs. As provisionally amended, the bill provides for a 25 percent tax rebate for donations to a “C-rated” school, a 50 percent tax rebate for donations to a “D” school, and a 75 percent tax rebate for donations to an “F” school.
Meanwhile, Jindal and his allies are pushing a bill to give 95 percent rebates to donors who give to private school scholarship funds. The private school funds have to benefit kids who transfer from poor-performing public schools. The Jindal rebate bill has no statewide cap.
While Jindal’s office says he is open to the “intent” of Jackson’s bill, budget leaders have been quick to note that its costs will have to be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. The Revenue Estimating Conference last week concluded that Jindal’s proposed budget has a new $303 million gap.
Despite Jindal’s consistently faulty math on budget matters, he remains in control of the legislative process. Meanwhile, his adversaries are planning court challenges. The education reform debate is far from over.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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