LOTTIE BEEBE
Don’t let the sweet Cajun accent fool you: District 3 BESE Representative Lottie Beebe is a feisty grandmother — and she’s no stranger to fighting the state education powers that be.
A former teacher and current supervisor for the St. Martin Parish School Board, Beebe has been referred to by The Times-Picayune as perhaps “the last voice of opposition” on a state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that’s widely known for marching lockstep behind the agendas of Gov. Bobby Jindal and state Superintendent of Education John White.
And when The Independent reached out to the freshman BESE rep last week for guidance on the newspaper’s two-week battle with the state Department of Education over sunshine laws the department willfully ignored until the afternoon of May 7, she immediately stepped up to help.
The Independent sent a public records request to LDOE’s public affairs office on April 24, asking for all correspondence the state agency has received from the U.S. Department of Education regarding Louisiana’s No Child Left Behind waiver application. The 26 states seeking relief from the onerous federal NCLB requirements received feedback on their applications from the U.S. Education Department April 17, critiques that came down in the form of a formal letter from the federal government.
This newspaper repeatedly asked for a copy of the feds’ critique letter, a crucial document that spells out both strengths and weaknesses in Louisiana’s alternative plan to improve public education at the state level without the cumbersome federal regulations. The week we sent our initial records request, the state education department did not respond to The Ind’s inquiry until hours after LDOE officials surpassed the 72-hour legal deadline for fulfilling our records request — and only after we threatened to file a formal complaint against LDOE spokeswoman Rene Greer. The response from LDOE was that “there is no final document to release.”
After further review of the state’s public record laws and discussing the issue with a media attorney, The Independent was correct in its conclusion that the document (and there is a document in the state’s possession) does not fall under any of our state’s public record exemptions. The paper also contends that DOE was in violation of state sunshine laws for more than a week; a state agency should have full understanding of its own law books and what the public is entitled to see.
We contacted Beebe the evening of May 3 after LDOE continued to ignore calls and emails from both The Independent and an attorney representing the Louisiana Press Association. Minutes after she received our email, she had this to say to White:
Superintendent White,
I am writing to make you aware of a public record’s request made by Heather Miller, Staff Writer, the Independent. She has indicated her request has not been acknowledged by your staff. This is unacceptable since there is legislation that addresses public records requests in Louisiana.
Ms. Miller has informed me of the following: The Independent has called and emailed both Rene Greer and John White several times over the past 48 hours to no avail. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time the department has demonstrated to The Independent a complete disregard for transparency and the public records statutes that all government agencies in Louisiana must abide by.
Consequently, I am making a formal request that you honor Ms. Miller’s request. In fact, I am formally requesting the document outlining the US Department of Education’s response to the [NCLB] Waiver and any deficiencies that were identified in the proposal. As a member of BESE District 3, I believe I am entitled to have my information request acknowledged and this information provided to me as soon as possible. I also believe Ms. Miller’s request should be fulfilled, and at the very least, an explanation offered as to why her request has not yet been addressed.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Lottie P. Beebe, BESE District 3
“It is disheartening to learn there is a lack of respect for the public records legislation which should be honored for those individuals making requests,” Beebe tells The Ind. “You are not the first to communicate the Louisiana Department of Education’s blatant disregard for public records requests. Mr. White and his staff need to be accountable to the public especially when the law dictates compliance.”
On May 7, four days after Beebe sent the message to White, LDOE posted the contents of the federal feedback letter to the state education department’s website. Visit The Independent’s website, www.theind.com, for more on what the feds had to say about Louisiana’s NCLB waiver application.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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