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Archive for July, 2011

Jindal, like Diogenes, needs lamp to find common sense in his absurd decision to sign bill into law at Baptist church

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Economy, Education, Governor's Office, Higher Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency on July 11, 2011| 1 Comment »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—A few random notes worth sharing in the wake of the most recent legislative session and Gov. Jindal’s ongoing love affair with north Louisiana:

Because Jindal and the legislature have seen fit to play fiscal shell games with education in Louisiana, considerable but unnecessary—and certainly unfair—financial strain has been placed on local school boards around the state.

Even as Jindal, when he was not drumming up campaign contributions in other states by telling Republican supporters in Wisconsin, Illinois and elsewhere what a fine job he has done in Louisiana, was telling actual constituents and state workers they would have to “do more with less.”

Except when it came to golf courses.

Ah, yes, the golf courses, that old bugaboo we talked about last year.

And let’s not forget the other sports venues and pet projects that took priority over education in Priority 1 capital outlay appropriations this year:

• City Park Golf Complex improvements in New Orleans—$6.6 million;

• Junior Golf training facilities for Jerry Tim Brooks Lakeside Golf Course in Caddo Parish—$200,000;

• Golf course development in Calcasieu Parish—$6.1 million;

• Zephyrs baseball facilities in Jefferson Parish—$1.2 million;

• Professional sports facilities and lease hold improvements in Jefferson Parish (provided that $8.5 million is used to improve the New Orleans Hornets’ training center—$17.5 million;

• Recreational complex in Iberia Parish—$1 million;

• Baseball stadium Improvements in Baton Rouge (which has no baseball team)—$1.4 million;

• Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame/Natchitoches State Museum—$7.7 million;

• Bayou Segnette sports complex improvements in Jefferson Parish—$9.2 million;

• West Ouachita Youth Sports Association site renovations—$25,000;

• Poverty Point Reservoir State Park conference center in Richland Parish—$250,000;

• Poverty Point Reservoir (real estate acquisition)—$1.7 million;

• Washington Parish reservoir feasibility study—$2.6 million.

Meanwhile, in Livingston Parish, the local school board has found it necessary to freeze all salaries and to eliminate three work days from the 2011-12 school year in an effort to cut costs.

Three days may not seem like much but why would we want to cheat our kids out of even 10 minutes?

Union Parish schools operated on a four-day week last year and at least one school district, Caldwell Parish, will follow suit this year.

But the state somehow found the money for $50 million in projects for golf courses, reservoirs and recreational facilities.

And we barely scratched the surface. Local projects were down from last year, but they still could be found crammed into this year’s budget.

Jindal, meanwhile, makes use of the tax-supported state web page to post what comes dangerously close to being a political ad for his re-election.

Go to http://www.louisiana.gov and then move your cursor to “Government,” click first on “Executive Branch,” and then on “Governor,” and voila! Up pops a series of photos of Jindal shaking hands with truck drivers, construction workers, National Guardsmen, etc. The accompanying text to the side reads:

“More than 39,500 new direct and indirect jobs will be created from the economic development wins we have announced since taking office in 2008, along with more than $8.5 billion in capital investment in our state. These figures represent thousands of opportunities for generations of Louisianians—Louisianians who will not have to leave our state to secure a great education or find a rewarding career.”

Like plucking chickens in Farmerville, perhaps?

Not that we have anything against chicken pluckers but it seems the really good jobs were handed out by Jindal to folks from out of state—including his Deputy Commissioner of Administration (New Hampshire), his press secretary (New Jersey), the Secretary of Health and Hospitals (Washington State).

Well, you get the picture.

Of course, it’s going to be rather difficult to remain in the state when programs of study at colleges and universities have been cut to the bone, college tuition increased, teacher pay cut, and state agencies privatized, forcing state workers into a virtually non-existent job market.

Our friend Don Whittinghill observed recently that Jindal convinced local school boards that the 2.75 percent growth factor of the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP—the formula used to fund public education in Louisiana)—would not be funded for the third straight year; that the state passed to the local school boards the cost of transporting private and church school students; that the state-promised $5,000 stipend for teachers who achieve the rigorous National Board Certification would have to be absorbed by the already-shrunken MFP, and that local school boards’ state retirement system contributions would jump to 22 percent.

But, hey! We got our golf courses and Baton Rouge has its baseball park improvements, just no team to play on it.

And Jindal continues to commandeer the state helicopter to fly to north Louisiana churches to give testimonials that are really little more than thinly-disguised efforts to raise still more campaign funds.

In something like five months, Whittinghill tells us, Jindal spent more than $45,000 flying to exotic places like Downsville, Dry Prong, and Shongaloo to give witness to adoring Protestant congregations.

As recently as Friday, July 8, he boarded that helicopter and flew north to the First Baptist Church of West Monroe. There, he took the occasion of signing into law HB-636 by Rep. Frank Hoffmann (R-West Monroe).

If something as blatantly political as that single action doesn’t cost the First Baptist Church of West Monroe its IRS tax-exempt status, nothing should.

How the governor could do something so ill-advised as to put the church’s tax-exempt status in jeopardy or why the church officials would allow it is a mystery.

Moreover, it’s another of those mindless laws that is almost certain to be contested in the courts at considerable cost to the taxpayers of Louisiana and it’s just as certain that the state ultimately will lose the case.

What is this bill? It’s a measure that would require women to be informed of their specific legal rights and options before they undergo an abortion procedure.

Whatever your position on this emotional issue, a church is no place to be holding a ceremony signing it—or any other bill, for that matter—into law.

Abortion providers will be required to post signs around their clinics stating that “it is illegal to coerce a woman into getting an abortion, that the child’s father must provide child support, that certain agencies can assist them during and after the pregnancy, and that adoptive parents can pay some of the medical costs.”

The law also creates a Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) website and a mobile platform to deliver information “about public and private pregnancy resources” for avoiding abortions.

The first question that comes to mind is how are fathers going to be forced into providing child support given the current deadbeat dad caseload backlog?

Second, just who is going to be around to enforce the child support laws after Jindal gets through gutting DHH as part of his far-reaching obsession with privatization of state agencies?

The most bizarre statement yet was uttered by Jindal while signing the bill into law when he compared women who receive abortions to criminals:

“Now if we’re giving criminals their basic rights and they have to be informed of those rights, it seems to me only common sense (that) we would have to do the same thing for women before they make the choice about whether to get an abortion,” he said.

Common sense?

Indeed.

That would seem to be the rarest of commodities with this governor.

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Ethics ruling on local school board could affect Chas Roemer’s participation in BESE charter school actions

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Ethics, Transparency, Vouchers on July 10, 2011| 2 Comments »

A ruling written specifically for the St. Landry School Board by the Louisiana Board of Ethics could have far-reaching repercussions for Chas Roemer should the ruling be applied to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

Board of Ethics staff member Tracy Barker directed the ruling to Josie Frank, hearing officer for the 27th Judicial District Court in Opelousas.

Frank, also a member of the St. Landry parish School Board, requested a ruling on whether or not it was permissible for her to participate in votes on approval or disapproval of charter school applications submitted to the school board on behalf of a nonprofit organization on which her son serves as a board member.

She said in her request that her son receives no monetary benefit for his service on the organization’s board.

Barker wrote that Frank was not prohibited of participation in votes on charter school matters since her son does not have a substantial economic interest. “Since your son does not appear to have a substantial economic interest in the nonprofit organization, your participation on its charter school application is not prohibited by Section 1112B(1) of the Code” of Governmental Ethics.

“However, the board concluded that Section 1113A of the code would prohibit your son from appearing before the St. Landry Parish School Board on behalf of the nonprofit organization while you serve as a member of the school board,” she said. “Section 1113A prohibits a public servant, a member of his immediate family or a legal entity in which either owns a controlling interest, from bidding on or entering into a contract, subcontract or transaction that is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the public servant’s agency.”

Roemer represents BESE from District 6, which includes all or parts of the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston, Tangipahoa, and Washington.

His sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and the ethics board previously ruled that she could not appear before BESE on behalf of charter school matters pending before the board. She also was prohibited from interacting with the staff and Department of Education on matters under BESE jurisdiction.

The State Ethics Board, however, has never addressed the legal ramifications of Chas Roemer’s participation in discussions and votes affecting charter schools under the jurisdiction of BESE.

Section 1112B(1) specifically addresses the participation of a public servant or elected official in a vote on any matter in which a member or his immediate family has a substantial economic interest. “Section 1120 of the code provides that an elected official shall recuse himself when the vote would be a violation of Section 1112 of the code.”

Louisiana’s Charter School Law was enacted as Act 192 of 1995 as a pilot program to allow up to eight school districts to participate on a voluntary basis. The law was expanded in 1997 by Act 477 to establish BESE and local school boards as charter authorizers.

Act 477 defined five types of charter schools: Type 1, a charter with local school boards (new start-up); Type 2, charter with BESE (new start-up or conversion; Type 3, charter with local school board (conversion), Type 4, school board charter with BESE (new start-up or conversion), and Type 5, charter with BESE (pre-existing public school under the jurisdiction of the Recovery School District (RSD).

In 2003, Act 9 of the legislature created a new type of charter for the operation of pre-existing schools that were transferred to the jurisdiction of RSD.

RSD was charged to take underperforming schools and transform them in to charter schools. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the number of public schools in New Orleans has dropped from 123 to four while the number of charter schools has ballooned from seven to 31.

Charter schools operate as independent public schools under five-year contracts granted by BESE or a local school board.

A review of minutes of BESE meetings for 2010 revealed that Chas Roemer often made motions on agenda items dealing with charter schools and then voted on those motions.

In December of 2010 alone, he made motions to approve charter school contracts of $50,000 and under, made motions to approve Crescent City School, the NET Charter High School, the Collegiate Academy Charter School, the Sarah T. Reed Charter Middle School, the ReNEW K-8 Charter School, The ReNEW Alternative High School, and in one case, made the motion to deny an application to commence operation of Joseph A. Craig Charter School in New Orleans.

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Jindal Orwell uses vetoes of legislative oversight to make strong case for his being more equal than 136 lawmakers

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Transparency, Veto on July 4, 2011| 7 Comments »

George Orwell, writing in Chapter 10 of his literary classic Animal Farm, said, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Never was that well-worn quote more obvious than when, on July 1, 2011, Gov. Bobby Jindal cast aside the civics class principal of the three equal branches of government by exercising his veto power over legislative oversight of one of his pet projects—privatization.

The vote was 36-0 in the Senate and 100-0 in the House but Jindal still pulled rank on the Louisiana Legislature and vetoed SB-207 by Sen. Willie Mount (D-Lake Charles), as well as three provisions of HB-1 that would have given the legislature some say into the governor’s privatization of the state’s Medicaid program.

The vetoes left no doubt as to the determination of the governor to move forward with his sweeping privatization of several state government programs even though one report said that the proposed privatization of the Office of Group Benefits it dead—at least for this year.

Jindal has already privatized one agency a year ago, the Office of Risk Management, but failed in his efforts to sell three state prisons earlier this year.

He was less than specific in giving his reasons for the vetoes, saying only that the three provisions that he stripped from HB-1would delay implementation of one program while eliminating the flexibility of the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) to initiate changes in two other.

In one case, he said that legislative involvement could delay implementation of a program that provides care for youth who have behavioral health problems that put them at risk of being institutionalized.

Language in HB-1 would have required DHH to submit a report providing details of the programs structure, service delivery provisions, population served, and estimated costs for budget committee review at least 30 days prior to awarding a contract.

The administration is presently evaluating a dozen private companies that have submitted proposals to establish networks of health-care providers, including physicians and hospitals with which Medicaid recipients would enroll in an effort to cut costs and better coordinate health care. Ten of those companies are insurance companies.

Jindal’s “coordinated care networks” would use state revenue to pay private insurance companies and other private entities to provide the medical needs for two-thirds of the state’s 1.2 million Medicaid recipients.

Mount, chairperson of the Senate Health Committee, said she was disappointed in the governor’s veto.

“This (Jindal’s privatization) is a significant change in the way we are offering health care,” she said, adding that the legislature should be an “active and engaged” partner to ensure that health care outcomes are both improved and cost-effective.

Jindal also cited “contingencies” in vetoing the proposals but legislators earlier this year complained that Jindal himself included “contingencies,” in his original budget proposal, including the proposed sale of three state prisons that would have required legislative approval before the funds could be appropriated.

Rep. Eddie Lambert (R-Prairieville) said Jindal apparently had a different perspective on contingencies when considering vetoes as opposed to drafting his budget.

“I’m somewhat surprised he would veto those things because the more oversight you have in government, the better taxpayer interests are going to be served,” said Lambert, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

“The governor is not too keen on legislative oversight,” said Sen. Lydia Jackson (D-Shreveport), who said she has long been a proponent of the idea that the Legislature should exercise more independence in budgeting. She is vice chairperson of the Senate Finance Committee. “Maybe these vetoes will be the kick in the pants for us to exert ourselves a little more,” she said.

Not only did SB-207 receive unanimous support in both the Senate and House, it also was endorsed by the Louisiana Hospital Association, the Louisiana State Medical society, and the New Orleans Metropolitan Hospital Council.

Jindal, in his veto message, said Mount’s bill “terminates Louisiana’s Medicaid reform initiative, Coordinated Care Networks, as well as the Community Care Program on Dec. 31, 2014.

“Coordinated Care Networks will provide a medical home for 800,000 Medicaid recipients, providing better access to primary and preventative care, improved health outcomes, with an anticipated savings of $24 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $135.9 million in state fiscal year 2013.

“Inserting a termination date for this important reform and preventing Louisiana from improving the performance of outcomes in our current Medicaid system sends the wrong message, that we are incapable of providing better care to our people, and we can do no better than our ranking of 49th in the nation for health outcomes. I am not content with the outcomes of our current Medicaid program and am committed to reforming our Louisiana health care system.”

Now that’s making a case for being more equal than others.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Charters, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables, Retirement on July 4, 2011| 2 Comments »

“Unabashed power trip without a road map. Where he’ll throw us off the bus, no one knows.”

—State Sen. D.A. “Butch” Gautreaux, on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s veto that protects charter schools that leave the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana from being required to repay the state for their pro rata shares.

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Jindal veto rescues charter schools that opt out of TRSL

Posted in Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators on July 4, 2011| 1 Comment »

It’s been a quarter-century and still lawmakers continue to tinker with the Support Education in Louisiana First (SELF) Fund, originally established ostensibly to bolster salary expenses for K-12 and higher education but realistically was only a political shell game.

The most recent attempt was by Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans) whose HB-516 would have diverted the first $1.8 million from the SELF Fund to a new Casino Support Services Fund.

Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed the bill, which was approved in its final form by the House on June 21 by a 78-3 margin with 24 absences. It passed the Senate by a margin of 25-11, with three absences.

Jindal also vetoed SB-6 by Sen. D.A. “Butch” Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) and in doing so, may have tipped his hand on his intentions to continue his push for more charter schools and continued contracting and outsourcing of jobs presently being performed by state employees.

SELF had its origins in September of 1986 with a proposed amendment that would dedicate about $540 million from oil and gas leasing production in the outer continental shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico.

Known as the 8(g) fund, it has pumped more than $500 million into the state’s general fund since 1986. The money was supposed to have been used to augment state education revenue. Instead, before money from 8(g), the State Lottery, or EduJobs , is added to the $3.1 billion Minimum Foundation Program (MFP), a formula used to determine the appropriation for education, it is first subtracted from the MFP, resulting in a zero net gain for education.

Leger’s bill would have taken an additional $1.8 million from SELF in order to fund the City of New Orleans’ casino support services contract, Jindal said in his veto message. The casino support services appropriation, Jindal said, “has already been achieved through HB-1,” the state’s general appropriation bill.

SB-6 by Gautreaux would have provided that any employing agency that terminates its participating in the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) be required to remit to the retirement system its share of any unfunded accrued liability (UAL) of the retirement system existing on the June 30 immediately prior to the date of the agency’s termination.

Gautreaux’s bill was apparently targeting charter schools that opt out of the teachers’ retirement system. “If a charter school participates for three years and opts out, I felt they should repay the three years for which they received funding for the retirement system,” he said. “With the veto, they get to participate for three years, pull out, and not have to pay anything back into the system.”

In his veto message, Jindal revealed that his agenda to create even more charter schools and to further privatize the state’s educational system remains unchanged.

He said Gautreaux’s bill “unnecessarily ties the payment of state retirement debt to much-needed reforms such as greater autonomy for public schools through charter conversions and better fiscal management through contracting and outsourcing. In doing so, this bill creates a significant deterrent to educational reform efforts.”

“Jindal wants to expand the charter school system to the benefit of those children who are going to perform well to the detriment of low-income children,” Gautreaux said. “I have no problem with good charter schools, but if a school decides to terminate its participation in the state teachers’ retirement system they should be required to repay the money they received from the state.”

The bill passed the House by a 57-28 margin with 20 members being absent. It passed in the Senate by a 38-0 vote.

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