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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Notable Quotables, Vouchers on July 29, 2011| 2 Comments »

“Public schools meet all of the needs of all of the people without pleasing anyone. A better system (vouchers and charter schools) would foster education freedom and quality.”

—American Legislative Exchange Council 1985 publication Education Source Book on improving education.

“I have twenty-five thousand dollars to fix this problem: twenty thousand for you and five for me.”

—Inci Akpinar, vice president of Atlas Texas Construction & Trading which operated Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in New Orleans, speaking to Department of Education investigator Folwell Dunbar, who was looking into reported irregularities at the school. Dunbar recommended revoking the school’s charter. Dunbar was fired. Abramson’s charter has been revoked.

“It’s not just freshly painted walls and new textbooks that have Kenilworth Middle School parents talking – the curriculum and goals of the school are getting remodeled as well.”

—Hype by Pelican Educational Foundation in Promising an educational revolution with the conversion of Kenilworth Middle School to Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School in the same mold as Abramson in August of 2009.

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Hide the women and children! ALEC invades N.O. Monday to offer ‘Solutions for the States’ during 38th annual meeting

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Vouchers on July 29, 2011| 10 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—One of the primary forces behind the systematic elimination of public schools, the privatization of government, and the widespread implementation of the Milton Friedman school of economic principles is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The organization, founded in 1973 by conservative activists, ALEC has drafted a list of radical legislation it plans to propose in Republican-controlled states in an apparent effort to duplicate the so-called “shock doctrine” forced on countries in South and Central America in the 1980s and 1990s with disastrous results.

Louisiana Legislator Rep. Noble Ellington (R-Winnsboro) last December said, “Never has the time been so right” to plan the radical reshaping of policies in the states. His remarks were made at a gathering of conservative legislators in Washington on the heels of the midterm elections that saw Republicans seize majorities in both legislative chambers and governorships in 21 states.

The event was the “States and Nation Policy Summit” and it featured such heavy hitters as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Calling itself “the nation’s largest non-partisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators, ALEC will hold its 2011 annual meeting, “Solutions for the States,” in New Orleans for six days, beginning Monday at the Marriott.

Charter schools are one of the organization’s main showcases, so the timing of the annual meeting couldn’t be worse, given the ongoing investigations of two charter schools in New Orleans and Baton Rouge into allegations of abuse, mistreatment, neglect, and cheating.

The highlight for attendees, of course, will be the appearance of free market wunderkind Gov. Bobby Jindal who will be the featured speaker at the organization’s plenary lunch on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.

ALEC’s proposed legislation must first meet the approval of corporate donors who have veto power over language contained in the legislation which in turn, is developed by secretive task forces out of the view and scrutiny of the public.

The task forces cover every imaginable issue from education to health policy, from union-busting to privatization of schools and government, from global warming to industry deregulation.

ALEC’s agenda tracks the agenda of the late economist Milton Friedman who sent his disciples into Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Poland, Russia, China, Indonesia, and several other countries in the wake of natural or man-made disasters to institute privatization of government programs and industries before the citizens could recoup their senses.

Friedman specialized in earthquakes, revolutions, and tsunamis, moving in and instituting radical change in economic and political policies. That pattern was followed with the public school system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with many formerly public schools now being operated by corporate-run charters.

Invariably, when Friedman’s economists moved in, the chasm between the super rich and the super poor grew ever wider as unemployment soared when jobs disappeared, people lost their homes, and inflation made local currency worthless. It was then that U.S. corporations moved in and purchased state-owned mines and manufacturing plants for pennies on the dollar.

In 2007, ALEC made its most ambitious and strategic push for privatization of education with its publication, School Choice and State Constitutions, which proposed a list of programs tailored to each state.

ALEC’s 2010 Report Card on American Education challenged members to “transform the system, don’t tweak it.”

After what has occurred with the Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in New Orleans earlier this month and now the ongoing revelations at Kenilworth Science and Technology School in Baton Rouge, someone needs to tweak something. The State Department of Education has already pulled Abramson’s charter and now Kenilworth is under investigation.

Both schools are operated by Pelican Educational Foundation which has ties to a Turkish-run, Houston-based firm, Atlas Texas Construction and Trading and Atlas vice president Inci Akpinar.

Louisiana Department of Education investigator Folwell Dunbar, who investigated complaints against Abramson last year, reported that Akpinar attempted to bribe him in an effort to smooth over problems at the school but nothing was done until a year later when the state auditor began an investigation.

Only then did the Department of Education take decisive action by revoking Abramson’s charter—and firing both Dunbar and his supervisor, Jacob Landry.

Apparently ALEC’s 2010 Report Card on American Education has its own definition of transformation: shoot the messenger.

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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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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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