Posted in BESE, Education, Notable Quotables on March 8, 2013| 1 Comment »
“No one is taking a look at this. That is what a leader does.”
—Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) member Lottie Beebe, commenting that no one in charge at the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE) has done anything to address complaints of stress on the part of public school teachers because of the new annual reviews.
Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, BESE, Education, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Revenue, Transparency on March 8, 2013| 7 Comments »
When the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) approved the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) for 2013-14, it sent a message across Louisiana that the board and the Department of Education (DOE) have little or no concern for the education of some 82,000 children with disabilities.
It’s not enough that state aid to local school districts is frozen for the fifth consecutive year, but the MFP as approved by BESE will actually cost the local districts every time a student transfers from a public school to a private school.
The action, passed by an 8-3 vote on Friday, appears on the surface to save local school districts money, but the reality is—as Gov. Bobby Jindal and Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols are fond of saying—every time a student leaves a public school to accept the still as yet unconstitutional voucher funding to enter a private school, it costs the local district nearly $1,450.
Funding under the MFP is extremely complex because of a number of factors that are taken into account in the process. There are different levels of funding under several criteria, including graduation rate, performance, placement and disability.
Theoretically, the state pays districts an average of $8,537 per enrolled student, though students rarely, if ever bring that precise amount because of the variables in the formula, including the type of disability a student may have. But when a student leaves, those characteristics are not taken into account and the student takes $6,311 in funding with him or her.
On the face of it, that would mean the local districts would keep the difference of $2,226—except it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the state keeps 65 percent of that savings, or $1,447.
If 10 students leave, for example, that would mean the local school board would lose $14,470 in state funding over and above the $63,110 in funding that each of the 10 students takes out of the local system. So the local school system, which had a set amount of money coming in based on the MFP formula, is now losing money.
The Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council (LDDC) said the use of a different funding formula for traditional public schools than for school choice programs would result in funding inequities for children with disabilities.
That’s putting it mildly.
It’s enough that Jindal and State Superintendent of Education John White would flaunt a court decision, to defy a judge’s ruling that using state money designated for local school systems to fund private vouchers. But to deliberately and with no show of compassion, jerk funding away from special education students is nothing short of unconscionable.
Students with disabilities make up 12.5 percent of traditional public schools but only 8 percent of charter schools and just 3 percent of private schools. Even more significant, in most cases students with disabilities who are enrolled in school choice programs are not those with the most severe, most costly disabilities.
Consequently, more funds leave the traditional public school systems than the MFP formula indicates the local systems should have based on student enrollment. Funds removed from public schools left serving students with disabilities are either provided to the school choice program or, in the case of the scholarship, the state claims an inflated savings.
The reality is (there’s that term again), when all transactions are complete, schools serving higher percentages of students with disabilities, particularly those with severe disabilities, tend to have less funding than expected, LDDC says.
Neither the Special Education Advisory Panel, nor the Louisiana Association of Special Education Administrators, nor the Superintendents’ Advisory Committee nor the Louisiana Together Educating All Children (LaTEACH) recommended or agreed with phasing in the proposed changes.
When member Lottie Beebe attempted to speak out against the proposal, BESE President Chas Roemer interrupted his daydream of running for the U.S. Senate against Mary Landrieu long enough to attempt to silence Beebe by saying, “I think you have made your point.”
“I’m not finished,” Beebe shot back, leveling a broadside at Roemer for his earlier claim that he wants to close the Department of Education.
But all that mattered little to White, eight of the 11 BESE members or to Jindal, who has closed mental hospitals in New Orleans and Mandeville, moved to privatize state hospitals in what he calls “partnerships” with private facilities, and attempted to terminate the state’s hospice program. Public backlash over the move to shut down funding for hospice caused Jindal to miraculously “find” a million dollars to continue the program.
And don’t forget his ongoing efforts to abolish the state income tax in favor of increasing sales taxes, a move that would help the wealthy while increasing the burden on the low- and middle-income residents of Louisiana.
Even though BESE approved the MFP, it must be accepted—or rejected—by the Louisiana Legislature which convenes on April 8.
Meanwhile, the administration is moving forward with its appeal of the ruling by District Judge Tim Kelley that the method of funding the state voucher program is unconstitutional. The Jindal administration has suffered four separate setbacks in the courts as it attempts to implement the far-ranging education “reform” package passed by the legislature last year.
Several legislators have expressed second thoughts at the speed with which those “reforms” were enacted, especially in light of the various court decisions.
Jindal, however, is following the game plan of the American Legislative Exchange Council to the letter and, through White, is attempting to funnel contracts to a company owned by Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox Television network and the Wall Street Journal—and probably to other political allies, though White thus far has not complied with LouisianaVoice’s request for a list of DOE contracts.
If anyone still wonders about Jindal’s motives, we would remind you of Murdoch’s brash observation: “When it comes to K-12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching.”
The question, of course, is just who defines great teaching?
As we have repeatedly said in past stories and will continue to remind our readers, it’s all about the money. Never forget that. Louisiana’s school children are merely pawns in a very expensive chess game. They are quite simply a means to an end—a very lucrative end.
If anyone still thinks Jindal and White are truly interested in the education of our children, one need only check the record and the myriad of state contracts awarded by DOE—if you can obtain the list.
The biggest mystery of all, however, is just how long are the citizens of Louisiana going to sit on the sideline and let this evil little man continue to exploit the low- and middle-income citizens of this state?
Forget about his running for president in three years; the here and now are far too important for us to remain passive while he continues to rape our state. His DNA is already smeared all over the state’s poor from his repeated past abuses.
Posted in BESE, Budget, Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Public Records, Taxes on March 5, 2013| 17 Comments »
Remember when teaching was about answering to a calling—before the Jindal administration came charging onto the scene with its half-baked ideas of education reform through sweeping legislation that promoted something called Teach for America?
As noble and magnanimous as Teach for America (TFA) would have you believe its motives to be, it would be wise to keep your eye on the dollar sign.
While Teach for America is going around asking for money from state legislators and local school districts, the organization has quietly been amassing a fortune even as TFA comes under fire from former TFA teachers and the media.
Like a snake trying to swallow its own tail, TFA has begun to devour itself, to feed off its own perceived success to the detriment of those it was formed to help.
TFA’s 2010 federal tax return reveals that it has received nearly $907.5 million in gifts, grants, contributions and membership fees over the five-year period from 2006 through 2010, including $243.6 million in 2010.
The breakdown, by year, shows that TFA had $77.94 million in income in 2006; $142.35 million in 2007; $251.52 million in 2008; $193 million in 2009, and $243.65 in 2010.
Other 2010 revenue brought TFA’s total income to $270.5 million against expenses of $218.7 million for a net income of $51.8 million, the return shows.
Of those expenses, $129.9 million was for salaries.
Another $548,437 was spent on “direct contact with legislators, their staffs, government officials and legislative bodies,” or lobbying.
TFA CEO Wendy Kopp is paid $393,600 by the organization she founded in 1989, according to the tax return, but the salaries of her support staff are equally impressive for an outfit that purports to wants only to uplift the nation’s neediest students in poverty-stricken school districts. A few examples:
• Matthew Kramer, President: $328,100;
• Tracy-Elizabeth Clay, General Counsel, Secretary: $174,500;
• Osman Kurtulus, Vice President of Accounting & Controls & Assistant Secretary: $178,500;
• Miguel Rossy, Chief Financial & Infrastructure Officer: $260,600;
• Elisa V. Beard, Chief Operating Officer: $233,400;
• Elissa Clapp, Senior Vice President of Recruitment: $246,700;
• Ellen N. Shepard, Chief Information Officer: $214,800;
• Lily Rager, Executive Vice President: $178,500;
• Aylon Samouha, Senior Vice President, Teacher Preparation Support: $253,500;
• Eric Scroggins, Executive Vice President: $231,000;
• Jeffrey Wetzier, Senior Vice President, Chief Learning Officer: $235,300;
• Kevin Huffman, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs: $243,300;
• Gillian C. Smith, Chief Marketing Officer: $238,800;
• Aimee Eubanks Davis, Chief People Officer: $229,000;
• Theordore Quinn, Vice President, Strategy & Research: $179,900.
So now, TFA, which faced financial collapse several times in the early years, comes begging to the state of Louisiana with a $5 million request for NGO (non-government organization) funding even though that request is a bit misleading.
The request is made on behalf of TFA by the compliant Department of Education (DOE) to fund TFA operations in several high need areas of the state. Instead, the legislature funds, through DOE, three contracts totaling more than $2.3 million to help recruit TFA teachers in different school districts around the state, including $1.27 million to specifically recruit teachers for the Recovery School District and for the Teaching Fellows program in northwest Louisiana.
In neighboring Mississippi, TFA requested a legislative appropriation of $12 million to send 700 recruits to the impoverished Delta area of the state. Instead, the Mississippi legislature appropriated $6 million, sufficient to fund 370 teachers.
Just how the money is spent is something of a mystery because the local school districts are required to pay TFA a fee of $3,000 per teacher recruited and the districts must also pay the TFA teacher salaries.
On top of all that, TFA receives generous grants and contributions from such philanthropists as the Walton family of the Wal-Mart retailing empire.
TFA does offer summer training to prepare recruits for the classroom—an entire five-week training course as opposed to four years and more (for advanced degrees) for teachers to receive college degrees in education and who generally sign up for the long run as opposed to TFA teachers who commit to only two years.
Some remain beyond the two year hitch but for the most part the TFA turnover is a negative factor in educating kids and in school staffing continuity.
Despite that, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White, himself a TFA alumnus, calls TFA “an incredibly good investment.”
Of course they are. School districts are laying off veteran teachers with years of education and classroom experience in favor of TFA corps members because they are less expensive to hire. Some districts seem to prefer to cycle through ill-trained TFA teachers every two years.
A former TFA teacher claims that the organization’s five-week training model is ineffective, that TFA spends $33 million “doing a poor job teaching corps members to teach.” He describes the TFA training as “not enough depth, not enough breadth, not enough time.”
Reuters News Service, in an article entitled “Has Teach for America betrayed its mission,” quotes TFA alumni as claiming that policies promoted by TFA-trained reformers threaten to damage the very schools TFA once set out to save and that TFA’s relentless efforts to expand has betrayed its founding ideals.
For example, Reuters says that TFA, founded to serve public schools so poor or dysfunctional they couldn’t attract qualified teachers, now sends fully one-third of its recruits to privately-run charter schools, many of which have outstanding academic credentials, wealthy donors and flush budgets.
It’s about the money, folks.
And while there certainly are TFA teachers who truly have the welfare of students at heart and who are effective teachers, TFA has backed off its claim that almost half of its teachers achieve outstanding academic gains by students.
Heather Harding, TFA’s former research director, told Reuters that statistics claiming significant gains were unreliable and misleading because only 15 percent of TFA recruits even teach subjects and grades that are assessed by state standardized tests. As an alternative means to measure growth, Harding said, many teachers rely on assessments they design themselves.
So while TFA recruits may come into the classroom with high ideals and lofty goals for their students, TFA long ago stopped being about the students and became all about the money.
It would be a mistake for parents, legislators, school administrators and benefactors to forget that.
Any coach of any sport will tell every player on his team to keep his eye on the ball.
In this case, keep your eye on the dollar signs.
It’s all about the money.
Posted in BESE, Budget, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Revenue on March 4, 2013| 5 Comments »
The relationship between the offices of Gov. Bobby Jindal and State Treasurer John Kennedy, if indeed a relationship ever existed in the first place, has deteriorated into a colorful exchange of pointed jibes and name calling—mainly by Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols who certainly knows how to use the terms “going forward” and “the reality is” to make her point.
Actually, the running feud between the two offices has been simmering for some time but this week took an ugly turn on the heels of a radio show appearance by Nichols and an op-ed column written by Kennedy.
“Imagine, God forbid,” Kennedy wrote, “that your boss just cut your salary by 25 percent because business is bad. Instead of reducing your spending or getting a second job, you elect to do the following:
• Take a cash advance on our credit care to pay your car note.
• Refinance your mortgage, but instead of choosing to lower your monthly payments, ask for the one-time savings up front to pay for your Disney World vacation.
• Decide reluctantly to sell your bass boat. It’s worth $2,500. You ask $10,000. You wonder why it doesn’t sell.
• Instruct your kids they must begin paying for room and board. When they ask where they’ll get the money, tell them to borrow it.
“Your plan may work—for a while. Then, as sure as ‘eggs is eggs,’ you’ll go broke, just like Louisiana eventually will if the legislature passes the Jindal administration’s proposed, yet again unbalanced budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
“Here’s how the administration plans to ‘balance’ state revenue and spending this time (with Nichols’ boldface response in parentheses):
• Pretend the state will have an extra $800 million to spend as a result of the yet-to-be-realized savings from leasing state hospitals to private hospitals, even though the leases have not been negotiated (With this point, Treasurer Kennedy reveals himself to be an opponent of reforming the old charity hospital model, not to mention that he apparently does not know how to read the budget.);
• Refinance the state’s tobacco bonds (good idea) but dump the $90 million one-time savings into the operating budget and spend it next year (bad idea) (The Treasurer insults Louisiana’s young people by comparing the state’s commitment to providing them a college scholarship to paying for a ‘Disney World vacation.’);
• Proposed to sell state real estate at inflated prices well above appraised value and spend the money before they sell (Again, the Treasurer exposes himself as a big government defender of the status quo who would rather keep underutilized property in government’s hands instead of downsizing the government’s footprint and returning the property to the private sector.);
• Borrow $100 million from the New Orleans Convention Center to keep our colleges open while promising to repay the loan with proceeds from future bond issues that will exceed the state’s constitutional debt limit (It was the Treasurer’s office itself that recently created a manufactured crisis over the state’s debt limit because of its inability to count. Thankfully, the Division was able to correct the Treasurer’s error.);
• Raise college tuition 10 percent for Louisiana students who already owe $900 million in student loans, despite the fact that education is the new currency of our global economy and 8 percent fewer Louisianans have a college degree than the rest of America;
“Call this budget what you like: a fond illusion or smart accounting,” Kennedy said. “The result will be the same: mid-year budget cuts for the sixth year in a row, because the budget is not balanced. Why should we care? Because making a college cut $10 million with six months left in the fiscal year is like a $20 million cut from day one. That shreds muscle, not fat.
“There’s a better way. It’s not complicated: don’t spend more than you take in, and when you do spend money, spend it on things you need, not things you simply want.
“Louisiana families know that. So do Louisiana businesses. Why can’t government figure it out?”
Because Jindal can never face up to a confrontation, he sent Nichols in as his proxy for this fight. Her response was almost immediate.
“We appreciate the treasurer’s opinion,” she said, “but given his long track record of half-baked gimmicks and his office’s recent miscalculation of the state’s debt, we will pass on his suggestion.”
Ms. Nichols, let’s clarify a point here: were you talking about half-baked gimmicks on the part of the State Treasurer or the Governor? It’s a little difficult to distinguish.
“The reality is that the budget is balanced,” she said.
Last week, when appearing as a guest on the Jim Engster Show on Baton Rouge public radio, Nichols said, “We have sufficient funding for construction projects going forward. The reality is we have many significant opportunities and may options in terms of how we finance construction going forward and do not have an issue with the ability to continue construction projects today and to move forward with construction projects going forward.”
Nichols told Engster that the Medicaid reductions “gave us an opportunity to look at the public hospital infrastructure and find ways to deliver services in partnership with local providers. The reality is once we made reductions to Medicaid, we were faced with $300 million in mid-year reductions,” she said.
To a caller who ask how the state would save money by having physicians see patients when under the Charity Hospital system, Nichols said, “The reality is as again, we moved forward with the challenge of reductions of federal Medicaid rates and we looked at ways to transform and continue to provide public hospital services, we looked at the cost structure of the public hospital system. As private hospitals take over services, by leveraging those economies of scale, we were able to reduce the cost of the same care provided in public hospitals and the reality is that same service in public hospitals was very costly on a per unit basis.”
When Engster asked about the Medicaid expansion as it relates to the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), Nichols said, “We balanced the budget irrespective of the Medicaid expansion. The reason we are not participating (in ObamaCare) is very clear. The way it is structured…the program in totality needs to be structured in a way to give the state flexibility to provide services in a way reflective of the state’s needs and reflective of the state’s budget. The reality is the state will be faced with coverage of half-a-million more people on the Medicaid rolls. That’s a 40 percent growth.”
When another caller from New Iberia asked about cuts of 45 percent to the University of Louisiana Lafayette budget since 2008, she said, “As we looked at moving forward past mid-year, we made a decision not to reduce the higher education budget. We are committed to that going forward. We are committed to not cutting budgets and to work with higher ed to consider options to increase revenue. As we move forward, we look at opportunities to raise revenue.
The reality is we’re certainly glad she cleared all that up as the administration moves forward.
Gov. Jindal couldn’t have said it better.
Posted in BESE, Budget, Charters, Courts, Education, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Revenue on March 4, 2013| 11 Comments »
State District Judge Mike Caldwell, who earlier threw out parts of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform law that limited the authority of local school boards has dealt another crushing blow to the Louisiana’s gonenor’s* overreaching education revamp.
Caldwell had earlier left intact the provision that made it more difficult for teachers to attain job protection via tenure but on Monday agreed with the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and reversed his previous ruling, saying that the entire bill must be declared unconstitutional because too many different items were crammed into it.
In previous court cases, Judge Tim Kelley, Caldwell’s contemporary in the 19th Judicial District which is East Baton Rouge Parish, had struck down the method by which the state, through Jindal’s school voucher program, planned to pay private-school tuition with public funds.
Both Kelley and Caldwell are Republicans and Kelley’s wife served as Jindal’s commissioner of administration during most of his first term.
Prior to those two rulings, a federal judge knocked down the proposed voucher program, saying that it had the potential to disrupt a desegregation consent decree in Tangipahoa and possibly other districts.
Another 19th Judicial District Judge, Republican Tim Morvant, ruled back in January that a 401(k)-style retirement plan for future Louisiana employees was unconstitutional because it had received only a simple majority of legislative votes instead of the required two-thirds vote.
The administration has said in each case that it would appeal and repeated that assertion following Monday’s ruling but all in all, it’s not been a good few months in court for Jindal and his attorney, Jimmy Faircloth.
But at least all those appeals will keep the meter running for Faircloth.
*Gonenor is a hybrid word coined by one of our readers (we only wish we could take credit) that combines the words “gone” and “governor,” which, when combined, implies (correctly) that Gov. Jindal is often absent from the state.
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