Louisiana Voice

My buddy Billy Wayne Shakespeare wrote in his classic play Hamlet Bob that there was “something rotten in Denmark.”

The same can pretty much be said of the awarding of an $11 million, three-year CONTRACT  to a relatively new firm called Primary Class, Inc., dba Odyssey, to administer the state’s fledgling “education savings account” program.

The ink wasn’t dry on a similar $50 million no-bid contract with the state of Idaho before auditors were called in to investigate reports of $180,000 in IMPROPER OR DUBIOUS PURCHASES.

Primary Class also was said to have IMPROPERLY HELD Idaho taxpayer funds in an interest-bearing account and retaining those interest earnings.

Primary Class (or Odyssey) also bid unsuccessfully on a similar contract for the State of Arkansas and then cried foul when another vendor, Student First, won the bid over Odyssey and one other company, ClassWallet. Arkansas State Procurement Director Jessica Patterson, in a five-page LETTER on May 3, 2024, denied Odyssey’s protest.

All this is to suggest that Louisiana might have been more prudent to have vetted Odyssey a little more closely before throwing $11 million at the company.

But then, the State of Louisiana, aka the Louisiana Legislature, has historically managed to fritter away revenue recklessly while staking the state’s financial fortunes on the volatile oil and gas industry. Remember the bust of the 1980s?

And while Louisiana consistently lags behind other Southern states in teacher pay, legislators always manage to find the money for pet projects.

Like, for example, the approval of that ridiculous $14,000 stipend for each and every judge in the state while only grudgingly approving a paltry $2,000 stipend for teachers even as it cut early childhood programs by $9 million, or 37.5 percent.

Without being too specific, I’ve observed some judges in this state that should be paid minimum wage – and that’s only because of legal restrictions on lower salaries. Try, for instance, to even find a judge on a Friday afternoon. Not gonna happen.

I know, I know, they’re going to try and tell us how dedicated they are, how much reading they have to do, ya-da, ya-da. They’re going to campaign for office by telling us how tough they are on crime, how they support the Second Amendment, etc. But first of all, being tough on crime is for police and prosecutors. The judge’s job is supposed to be apolitical. They are there only to weigh the evidence in a case, not to take a position. And Second Amendment? What’s that got to with being a judge anyway?

But to give these guys a $14,000 bonus while only approving $2,000 for teachers – and doing that at the last minute as if throwing a dog a bone – is a damned insult. Do these legislators (and our guvner) have any idea how much extra duty teachers perform? They grade papers at night, they pull bus line and parent line duty, recess duty, lunchroom duty, break up fights, wipe snotty noses and listen to guff from derelict parents who have no idea what homework their kids bring home and then bitch when the grades come out. On top of all this, they have to put up with local school board members, many of whom never set foot in a classroom after graduation. And do you have any idea how many times teachers must reach into their personal finances to purchase supplies for their classrooms? No, of course you don’t.

And they get a $2,000 stipend and then only because lawmakers are able to cut $9 million from early childhood programs. The devil giveth and the devil taketh away.

But not from the judges. Supreme Court Justice James Genovese got his $14k as he was on his way out the door to assume duties as president of NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY in Natchitoches (at a salary of $350,000 – fully $61,000 more than outgoing President Marcus Jones). “I have served 29 years as a judge,” he sniffed. “I’ve earned it.”

No, Judge, you were paid a salary that you may or may not have earned. Teachers, on the other hand, earn their pay – and much more – every single day of the year. And that $61,000 increase salary over that of your predecessor is more than some teachers make for an entire year, so shut your pie hole about “earning” that $14,000 bonus unless you spend that $14,000 on supplies for your courtroom, and I seriously doubt that.

And don’t give me any crap about teachers getting a three-month vacation each year. They’re lucky if they can catch their breaths in the summer months, what with the conferences, planning for the next school year, paperwork and in some cases, continuing their own educations. They can only hope for a stress-free weekend.

Judge Genovese, your arrogance is exceeded only by your lack of qualifications to lead a state university.