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Rumors of John White’s departure for California, like those of Mark Twain’s death, appear to be greatly exaggerated

Posted in BESE, Education on November 30, 2012| 4 Comments »

The rumors that State Superintendent John White will soon be leaving the Department of Education (DOE) for a similar post in California appear to be just that—rumors.

Several unsubstantiated reports have surfaced over the past few days that White will soon announce his departure in favor of the California superintendent of education post but there are several glitches that would seem to squelch those reports.

First, the California superintendent of education is an elective, not appointive post.

Second, California law says that the superintendent of education must be a registered voter in the state.

Third, and most important, the California superintendent’s position pays only $151,000 per year, only 55 percent of White’s current $275,000 salary.

That would make any such announcement on the part of White premature at best and more than a little problematic.

The next election is not until 2014, so White would have no trouble becoming a registered voter but a move there for the purpose of running for elective office would certainly be a crapshoot given that incumbent Superintendent Tom Toriakson, a Democrat, has given no indication on whether or not he plans on stepping down at the end of his current term.

While vacancies in the superintendent’s office are filled by the governor, it’s not likely that Jerry Brown, a Democrat, would appoint a Jindal sycophant to his inner circle.

Of course, that’s not to say that White wouldn’t accept a similar appointive position elsewhere provided some other state or school district has difficulty separating fantasy from reality but it looks as though the California move at least is off the rumor table.

White, served briefly as superintendent of the department’s Recovery School District (RSD) before being appointed state superintendent last January. His nomination had been blocked by members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education but after several new members backed by Gov. Piyush Jindal were elected in October of 2011 and took office in January, the new board quickly approved White’s appointment.

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Michigan latest to attempt implementation of ALEC-inspired school reform identical to Louisiana’s–even cloning the RSD

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, BESE, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Recovery School District, RSD, Vouchers on November 29, 2012| 3 Comments »

At the risk of sounding like one of those freaky conspiracists who wear tinfoil hats and insist we never really landed on the moon, recent events in the state of Michigan have a familiar—and ominous—ring.

The creation of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) in that state is eerily akin to Louisiana’s Recovery School District (RSD) and certainly lends support to the theory that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is behind a national move to turn public schools into for-profit corporate entities with little or no public accountability.

We will return to the Michigan developments presently but first, some background.

The combination of vouchers, charters and computer courses are being promoted by the administration at the expense of public education funding—again, with no accountability built into the so-called “reforms.”

The RSD, which pre-dates the voucher and online courses, for a time was under the leadership void of Paul Vallas, then under equally inept State Superintendent John White and most recently under Patrick Dobard. No matter who heads it up, the RSD has proved a smashing failure and a gaping dark hole into which state revenues seem to vanish.

Vallas, during his tenure, took a state vehicle on personal business to Chicago on more than 30 occasions. On one of those trips, he appeared on a Chicago television station where he announced that he would run for mayor. He never became a candidate and the personal use of the state vehicle for the out-of-state trips was not discovered until he wrecked the vehicle in Chicago.

He also hired cronies from his previous tenures at education departments in Chicago and Philadelphia.

State audits of the RSD have turned up numerous irregularities and there were problems with a private transportation company receiving payment for busing students for the district. The RSD received still another black eye over reports of sexual activity between students at the school, prolonged teacher absences from classrooms (classes reported went unsupervised for weeks at a time) and chargers of attempted bribery. The LDOE official who reported the incidents and his supervisor were summarily fired.

And now comes a report by an outfit called Research on Reforms that reveals that each of the 12 RSD-New Orleans direct-run schools and 38 (79 percent) of the 48 RSD-New Orleans charter schools received 2012 school performance scores (SPS) of “D” or “F.”

The precise definition of a “failing school,” however, has remained in a state of flux since 2005, says the report, entitled Recovery School District in New Orleans: National Model for Reform or District in Academic Crisis.

“The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has continuously revised its definition and labels of ‘failing’ schools to the extent that it is difficult to follow the real progress of any school historically,” it said. “It is imperative that the reader visit the historical state legislative actions that resulted in the creation of the RSD-NO and the disenfranchisement of the citizens in New Orleans in order to determine whether or not the RSD has failed in its commitment to public school students in New Orleans.”

And now Jindal’s education reform packages are tied up in state and federal courts.

In Tangipahoa Parish, a federal judge has already ruled against the state in a lawsuit that could be a precursor to legal problems for the entire Jindal education package passed earlier this year by the legislature.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle ruled that Acts 1 and 2 of the 2012 legislative session were in violation of a desegregation consent decree currently in effect in Tangipahoa and could have implications for other districts in the state under similar orders.

Lemelle said the acts would “impair or impede” the parish’s ability to comply with federal desegregation laws and that more than 40 other school districts across the state that are under similar agreements could also be affected.

Education Department officials indicated the ruling will be appealed.

On Wednesday of this week, trial kicked off in 19th District Court in Baton Rouge in a lawsuit brought against LDOE by the state’s two largest teacher unions and dozens of local school boards.

The plaintiffs are claiming that Act 2, which created the school voucher system and Senate Concurrent Resolution 99, which is the state’s Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) for funding public education, were unconstitutional.

The argue that the voucher system diverts local funds for purposes for which they were never approved by taxpayers and that the MFP resolution, approved on June 4, the last day of the session, failed to obtained the constitutionally-mandated two-thirds vote because the resolution resulted in a “fiscal impact,” which requires a two-thirds vote.

House Speaker Chuck “the Eunuch” Kleckley (R-Lake Charles) and state attorney Jimmy Faircloth maintain there was no fiscal impact, thus allowing for passage by a simple majority of members present and voting. For the full 105-member House, 53 votes are required for a simple majority. A two-thirds majority would require 70 of 105 votes.

The Legislative Fiscal Office, which is charged with reviewing legislative bills for fiscal impact, disagreed, saying there was a fiscal impact, which reinforced plaintiffs’ arguments.

The resolution passed 51-49, a simple majority of the 100 members present and voting. Sixty-seven votes would have been needed for a two-thirds vote.

There are a couple of interesting twists in the voucher lawsuit in state district court. Faircloth, who is representing the state, contributed $1,000 on Oct. 24 to Judge Kelley’s unsuccessful campaign for the State Supreme Court.

Kelley, meanwhile, is married to Angele Davis, who served as Jindal’s commissioner of administration for the first two and one-half years of his administration.

All of which brings us back to our conspiracy involving the state of Michigan specifically and any number of states in general that either have implemented or are attempting to implement similar programs.

Rob Glass, Superintendent of Bloomfield Hills Schools, it not waiting for the axe to fall; he has issued a call to action to fight pending legislation that would put into place programs strikingly similar to those currently the subject of litigation here in Louisiana.

The legislative proposals in Michigan have prompted critics to ask if that state’s EAA is establishing “a statewide school reform district on the fast track?” That same question is now being raised in Louisiana but unlike Michigan, it is being asked here in hindsight.

The observation Glass made to LouisianaVoice on Thursday is even more to the point: “There is no question in my mind that this is all part of the ALEC game plan. What we’re seeing in Michigan either has been played out or is being played out in other states and the proposals in all the states are identical,” he said.

The demographic profile of Bloomfield Hills is in stark contrast to that of New Orleans and most of Louisiana.

Bloomfield Hills is a city located in the heart of metro Detroit’s affluent northern suburbs in Oakland County. Located 20 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, the city, with a population of less than 4,000, has consistently ranked as one of the five wealthiest cities in the U.S. with comparable populations. Its median family income in excess of $200,000 per year is the highest of any city outside California, Florida or Virginia.

“If we do not take immediate action, I believe great damage will be done to public education, including our school system,” Glass said in his Nov. 28 call to action. “We have just three weeks to take action before it’s too late,” he said of four bills pending in the current legislative session in Michigan.

The bills are:

• House Bill 6004 and Senate Bill 1358 would expand the EAA, presently consisting of 15 Detroit schools, to a statewide system overseen by a chancellor appointed by the governor and which would function outside the authority of the State Board of Education of state school superintendent. “These schools are exempt from the same laws and quality measures of community-governed public schools,” Glass said. “The EAA can seize unused school buildings (built and financed by local taxpayers) and force sale or lease to charter, non-public or EAA schools.”

• House Bill 5923 would create several new forms of charter and online schools with no limit on the number, many of which would be created by EAA. “Public schools are not allowed to create these new schools unless they charter them,” Glass said. “Selective enrollment/dis-enrollment policies will likely lead to greater segregation in our public schools. This bill creates new schools without changing the overall funding available, further diluting resources for community-governed public schools.”

• Senate Bill 620 known as the “Parent Trigger” bill, this would allow the lowest-achieving 5 percent of schools to be converted to a charter school while allowing parents or teachers to petition for the desired reform model. “This bill…disenfranchises voters, ends their local control and unconstitutionally hands taxpayer-owned property over to for-profit companies,” he said. “Characterized as parent-empowerment, this bill does little to develop deep, community-wide parent engagement and organization.”

Glass said he has never considered himself a conspiracy theorist—until now. “This package of bills is the latest in a year-long barrage of ideologically-driven bills designed to weaken and defund locally-controlled public education, handing scarce taxpayer dollars over to for-profit entities operating under a different set of rules,” he said. “I believe this is fundamentally wrong.”

He said that he, State School Superintendent Mike Flanagan and State Board of Education President John Austin, along with the Detroit Free Press, have expressed various concerns about the bills.

“This is not a laissez faire plea to defend the status quo (a favorite accusation leveled at educators by Jindal). This is about making sure this tidal wave of untested legislation does not sweep away the valued programs our local community has proudly built into its cherished school system,” Glass said.

A familiar and ominous ring indeed…

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A message to national media: please leave our governor alone; he already has the job he wants, so let him do it!

Posted in Budget, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Judges, LSU, Prison, Privatization on November 18, 2012| 13 Comments »

This may come under the heading of beating a dead horse, but if Piyush Jindal, henceforth known as the Brahman Brutus of the Republican Party, truly has the job he wants as he has repeated ad nauseum, then why the hell doesn’t he stay in Baton Rouge and do the job he was twice elected to do?

If Piyush will satisfactorily address this one question, then we promise to leave him alone.

Lest anyone think we’re sticking our neck out by offering to lay off this pathetic excuse for a governor, fear not: there’s no way on earth he can reconcile his job to his constantly trotting off in every direction on the compass to address national issues and the problems of the Republican Party.

There’s just no way he can square up the two diametrically opposed activities.

To the remaining Piyush loyalists (and the numbers, believe it or not, are shrinking, Jeff Sadow notwithstanding), ask yourselves one question;

If Piyush truly has his sights set on being governor of Louisiana for the next three-plus years, why do you think he ignores state media and only gives interviews to national media like Fox News, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico and The Huffington Post?

Again, why does he refuse all state media requests for interviews?

• Do you really think the New York Times gives a flying fig about Louisiana’s projected $1 billion budgetary shortfall projected for next fiscal year?

• Do you cling to the faintest notion that CNN worries about the fate of Louisiana’s poor who are facing the loss of medical care because of the closure of state hospitals?

• Do you entertain any shred of belief that the Washington Post is even remotely concerned about that expanding sinkhole in Assumption Parish that swallows up more land each day while threatening the area with potentially explosive gases?

• Do you feel that Politico even knows about the incredibly senseless loss of about $5 billion a year in state revenues because of ill-advised tax breaks, exemptions and credits given to corporations who provide pitifully few jobs to Louisiana residents?

• And why do you think The Huffington Post should be concerned about 1,000 state employees who have been kicked to the curb by this administration (with still more to follow with the completed privatization of the Office of Group Benefits, the anticipated attempt again to sell or, in the alternative, close state prisons?

• Do you actually expect Fox News to investigate the appointment of former legislators to six-figure state jobs to beef up their retirement—jobs for which they are plainly unqualified or to ask probing questions about the awarding of the glut of six-figure salaried jobs in the Department of Education (DOE) to people who are allowed to work part time and to work from their homes in such places as Los Angeles and Tallahassee, Florida? Or to inquire into the hiring by DOE of a former Kansas City school official who left that system under a cloud after the awarding of a $37 million contract to an insider who had worked as a consultant on the project?

In the most recent spate of interviews, Piyush the Pontificator has been quite generous in his criticism of the Republican Party in general and Mitt Romney in particular after having campaigned for Romney with all due enthusiasm during the recent presidential campaign.

So, just where was he with all his sage wisdom during the campaign itself?

You see, you Piyush proponents, he was, as he has consistently been with most issues he has confronted, blindly naïve in foresight an 20/20 vision in hindsight. But he recovers so nicely that he thinks he never leaves a trace of his rumbling, bumbling, stumbling agenda.

Perhaps Bob Mann said it best in his recent post on his web blog Something Like the Truth http://bobmannblog.com/ when he compared Jindal to a passenger on the Titanic who, seeing the iceberg, conveniently ignored the danger but later was critical of the ship’s captain for his performance at the helm.

But let’s examine the record.

The only part of Piyush’s sweeping state employee retirement program reform package that passed during this year’s legislative session was the so-called “cash balance” plan where by new hires would come in after July 1, 2013 under a 401 (k)-type pension program.

Unclear—because the Piyush administration, in its headlong rush to reform, neglected to obtain a ruling on the IRS and Social Security status of the cash balance plan.

An adverse decision could force state employees—and the state—to contribute to both Social Security and Medicare, which would add to state employee and state costs.

The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) board voted last week to ask the legislature to delay the July 1 start of the new program because the administration has yet to request a clarification of the IRS and Social Security status.

State employees do not pay into Social Security and thus, unless they have sufficient quarters in the private sector, do not currently qualify for Social Security benefits or Medicare.

The IRS determination period does not begin until February, according to Maris LeBlanc, deputy director of LASERS. It is not clear how long it will take to obtain a determination and LeBlanc said to her knowledge, the Social Security equivalency letter, which is required from the administration, has not been submitted.

Division of Administration (DOA) spokesman Michael DiResto said DOA would submit the letter regarding that status to federal officials this week.

The Louisiana Retired State Employees Association (LRSEA) has filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation was approved without the legally-required two-thirds vote because there was a cost involved in implementing the new program.

House Speaker Chuck “the Genuflecting Gelding” Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), predictably parroting the Piyush position, maintains there was no extra cost in the implementation and that a simple majority vote was sufficient.

The legislature’s own actuary, however, differs with Kleckley and Piyush, making the determination that there was a cost.

So, who do you believe: the one who is paid to evaluate the cost of legislation or the one who desperately wants to cling to his political appointment as House Speaker?

Meanwhile, you can look for Piyush on any major network news program—because he has the job he loves.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Education, Notable Quotables on November 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“Mr. Hahs has a clear advantage over the (other) bid participants. Further, he had the ability to influence the district’s decision-making process by being allowed to interact with all decision makers on the prior project while other competitors were under a gag order.”

—Written statement from a company that competed for a $32 million contract to renovate Kansas City Schools. The contract was awarded to a company founded by a man who served as a consultant on the origional bid project in which all bids were rejected. The consultant/contractor was brought in as a non-paid advisor by Mike Rounds, then-chief operating officer for the school system who subsequently resigned and was recently hired by Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White as a deputy superintent at a salary of $170,000. White and Rounds were classmates in 2010 at the Broad Superintendent’s Academy.

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Nothing but the best for DOE: John White hires $170,000 deputy central to Kansas City $32 million bid controversy

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, BESE, Education, Privatization on November 6, 2012| 9 Comments »

First it was Los Angeles resident Dave “Lefty” Lefkowith of the unsuccessful attempt to auction off blocks of water in Florida on behalf of Enron and now State Superintendent of Education John White has hired another out-of-state executive staff member who brings considerable political baggage to his new job.

Lefkowith, you may recall, is being paid $146,000 to commute from his home in Los Angeles to hype the Department of Education’s (DOE) computer Course Content. Oddly, his title keeps changing.

Originally listed as DOE’s Director of the Office of Portfolio, he identified himself as a “deputy superintendent” when he made a video best described as amateurish in which he promoted the department’s Court Content.

But when White announced a reorganization of his staff last month, he listed Lefkowith as an assistant superintendent “overseeing vouchers, charter schools and other areas.”

Included in that same announcement was the appointment of Mike Rounds who is being paid $170,000 a year as deputy superintendent for district support, whatever that title entails.

Rounds, it turns out, comes from Kansas City where he served as Chief Operating Officer for Kansas City Public Schools.

Both he and White are 2010 graduates of the Broad Superintendents Academy of Los Angeles which critics say turns out superintendents who use corporate-management techniques to consolidate power, weaken teachers’ job protections, cut parents out of decision making and introduce unproven reform measures.

The academy, founded by billionaire businessman Eli Broad, offers a six-weekend course spread over 10 months. There are no qualifications that students have any experience in education, just that they have a bachelor’s degree.

Critic Sharon Higgins says she became alarmed when she witnessed her school district in Oakland go through three Broad-trained superintendents in quick succession. She said she saw principals and teachers whom she described as “high-quality, dedicated people,” force out by Broad superintendents trained to aim for “maximum disruption” when they came to a district, with little regard for parent or teacher concerns.

Rounds resigned his Kansas City position last March 16 following an investigation by a local television station into bid irregularities involving a $32 million renovation project for Kansas City schools.

A month after his resignation, the contract was cancelled.

Ryan Kath, a reporter for KSHB-TV in Kansas City, broke the story of a contract awarded to an unpaid consultant who had been brought in by Rounds to help in the selection process on the original request for proposals (RFP) by the school system. After all the bids on the first project were rejected, a new RFP was issued and the consultant founded a company which subsequently bid on and won the contract.

In early 2011, Kath said, the Kansas City Public School system decided to upgrade a number of school buildings after decades of neglect and deferred maintenance. Specifically, much of the work was to upgrade central air conditioning in several of the schools. Initially, the project was to cost about $85 million and many of the area’s leading construction companies spent thousands of dollars assembling bid packages.

School district staff needed outside help to wade through the complex selection process and Rounds retained a pair of paid consultants to oversee the process.

Rounds, who was in charge of selecting a company to manage the project, also brought in a voluntary adviser, Dayton “Buddy” Hahs, an area businessman with an extensive background in energy conservation. Rounds told Kahn he asked Hahs for help because of his expertise in the industry and because Hahs did not charge a fee for his work. “He wanted to make sure than when we selected an energy performance contractor that it went well,” Rounds said.

Hahs reviewed bids, formulated questions for bidders and sat in on interviews.

On Aug. 30, bidders received emails informing them that all bids were being rejected “in the best interest of the district.” No other explanation was provided.

Also on Aug. 30, Rounds emailed Hahs saying, “I would still really like to sit down with you to discuss the way forward on our infrastructure requirements” and a couple of weeks later, Hahs and a business partner attended a meeting with district personnel.

On Oct. 7, the district divided the project into several tiers and issued a second RFP on the first tier of construction along with a fee for acting as project manager. Many of the same companies bid on the revamped project.

The district on Nov. 16 awarded the contract to a “mysterious new company” that no one had ever heard of,” Kath said. The contract was awarded despite the company’s submitting a bid that was $2 million higher than the low bid.

That company was HMM Construction Services, founded by Dayton “Buddy” Hahs, the same unpaid consultant who had participated in interviews on the initial RFP. State corporate records were filed on Oct. 11, just four days after the second RFP went out and only a couple of weeks before the deadline for submitting bids.

Moreover, Kath learned that Hahs was never required to sign a non-disclosure agreement which is considered standard protocol for consultants and advisors and despite advice from the district’s legal counsel that a non-disclosure agreement be signed by Hahs.

William Black, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said that the bid “destroys the heart of what it means to have competitive bidding.”

Others called the contract a “monster inside deal.”

On March 13, just over a month after Kath’s initial story, it was announced that Rounds would resign, effective March 16, “to give his full attention to land a superintendent job in an urban school district,” according to a statement from the district.

On April 14, Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Stephen Green announced that the district was terminating the contract after it became clear that HMM would not be able to meet its deadline and also would run over budget.

In May of this year, Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich released an audit of the district that was harshly critical of the contract. “Any case where a friend or relative or someone on the inside is getting a contract, you have to really document why they were the best person because there’s going to be immediate suspicion on the part of the public,” Schweich said.

So, after issuing a controversial contract to a contractor with inside knowledge at a cost $2 million more than the low bid, Rounds leaves the Kansas City School system to seek a superintendent’s job “in an urban school district,” only to wind up as Deputy Superintendent for District Support for the Louisiana Department of Education—working with John White, his old classmate from that bastion of educational achievement, the Broad Superintendents Academy.

First there was Lefty Lefkowith commuting to Louisiana from Los Angeles to serve as an assistant superintendent and now we have Mike Rounds of Kansas City as a deputy superintendent—at a combined salary of $316,000.

Apparently all those urban school districts out there did a better job of vetting Rounds than did the Louisiana Department of Education. Aren’t we lucky?

And let’s not forget that this state is broke.

We can’t wait to see White’s next personnel move.

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