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Archive for the ‘Governor’s Office’ Category

Louisiana DOE hires top dollar out-of-state appointees who control kids’ education but who’re not registered LA. voters

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, Public Records, RSD, Vouchers on March 13, 2013| 19 Comments »

Gov. Bobby Jindal was adamant during his campaign for governor about stemming the outflow of Louisiana’s brightest college graduates from the state.

To show his commitment to keeping Louisiana talent at home, he promptly brought in several out-of-staters to fill key roles. Most prominent among those was Paul Vallas of Chicago by way of Philadelphia to head up the Recovery School District (RSD) and then as Vallas’s successor, John White of New York.

Jindal subsequently shoved Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek aside in order to promote White to head up the Department of Education (DOE).

So much for that rosy bit of political rhetoric from Jindal.

Now White himself has brought in a host of non-residents whose job it is to decide how nearly 700,000 public school students in Louisiana will be taught, what they will be taught, where they will be taught, when they will be taught and even who will teach them.

And LouisianaVoice has learned that five of those, including his Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff, a Deputy Superintendent, and one who, alternately, has been called “Deputy Superintendent,” “Director,” and “Director of the Office of Portfolio,” are not even registered to vote in Louisiana.

A fifth, Hua T. Liang of New Orleans, is an administrator with the Pride College Preparatory Academy in New Orleans, a former charter taken over by RSD. His salary is $110,000 a year.

Chief of Staff Kunjan Narechania, https://louisianavoice.com/2013/02/20/doe-emails-reveal-secretive-programs-ties-to-gates-rupert-murdoch-and-fox-news-network-agency-in-general-disarray/ she of the email to White informing him that Charlotte Danielson of the Danielson Group of Princeton, N.J., was “being a pain again” over DOE’s decision to use only five of 22 components of Danielson’s teacher evaluation system, came to DOE from Chicago but has neither registered to vote here nor has she registered her vehicle, which still carries Illinois plates, in Louisiana, thus depriving the state of vehicle registration fees.

Her qualifications for serving as Chief of Staff to the Louisiana Superintendent of Education at a salary of $145,000 include a stint as Vice President of Design, Teacher Support and Development for Teach for America (TFA), the billion-dollar organization bent on taking over public education nationwide and staffing the nation’s schools with teachers with only five weeks’ summer training.

But, hey! That’s a strong recommendation; John White, after all, came from TFA.

Likewise, Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Bolt ($104,000), http://www.educationpioneers.org/what-we-do/alumnus-bio?cid=0034000000U6gC4AAJ an alumnus of Education Pioneers, came from the New York City Department of Education and resides here now, helping to determine the fate of the state’s education system but, like Narechania, has neither registered to vote nor removed his out-of-state tags in favor of a Louisiana plate.

Then there is Michael Rounds, the Deputy Superintendent who is being paid a cool $170,000 a year. https://louisianavoice.com/2012/11/06/nothing-but-the-best-for-doe-john-white-hires-170000-deputy-central-to-kansas-city-32-million-bid-controversy/ Like his boss John White, Rounds is a 2010 alumnus of the Eli Broad Superintendents Academy which critics say turns out superintendents who use corporate-management techniques to consolidate power, weaken teachers’ job protections, cut parents out of the decision-making process and introduce unproven reform measures.

The academy, founded by billionaire businessman Eli Broad, offers a six-weekend (not week, 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.

Rounds resigned his Kansas City position a year ago following an investigation by a local television station into bid irregularities involving a $32 million renovation project for Kansas City schools—only to turn up as one of the top officials charged with day-to-day decisions impacting our school children. And he doesn’t even vote here.

But Rounds’ prior employment record pales in comparison to the career track our old friend David “Lefty” Lefkowith of Los Angeles. https://louisianavoice.com/2012/10/10/dave-lefty-lefkowith-more-than-a-motivational-speaker-hes-a-political-operative-looking-for-privatization-dollars/

No one knows precisely what Lefkowith’s actual title is, but he is paid well for whatever it is he does. He is listed as a Director, but also has been identified as a self-proclaimed Deputy Superintendent and Director of the Office of Portfolio. One of his primary responsibilities is to push DOE’s Course Choice program but he has cut a wide swath through the upper tier of political power in the state of Florida.

Working with the now defunct Enron Corp. several years ago, he attempted, along with an associate of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to corner the water marketing rights in the state. Following that, he became a motivational speaker through his company, The Canyon Group.

He went straight from a $35,000 contract with DOE to his new status as employee.

But Lefkowith is not only a non-voter in Louisiana; he doesn’t even choose to live here.

Unlike Deirdre Finn, https://louisianavoice.com/2012/09/25/education-loading-up-with-badly-needed-pr-types-at-six-figures-meanwhile-charter-school-vultures-are-circling/ a former deputy chief of staff for Jeb Bush, who works as public relations hack for the department—but from her home in Tallahassee, Florida—at $12,000 per month, Lefkowith does work in Baton Rouge but resides in Los Angeles and commutes back and forth, making some wonder how he affords to do that because, even at his $146,000 salary, commuting each weekend to and from Los Angeles by air is a far cry from the short interstate drive from Gonzales or Denham Springs or U.S. 61 from St. Francisville.

But except for Lefkowith, one still might expect the others to at least register to vote here.

That doesn’t seem to be asking too much considering the fact that these people have waltzed into Baton Rouge to take over one of the two largest state agencies (DHH being the other) so they can dictate the educational fate of our children—and teachers, many of whom have more years of classroom teaching than these carpetbaggers have been living.

The very fact that they have chosen to ignore this very foundation of democracy reveals their character and their motives. This isn’t about the children or education, never has been; it’s about fortunes to be made from public educaton. Rupert Murdoch said it all when he said public educaton was a $500 billion market waiting to be exploited. http://www.nationofchange.org/rupert-murdoch-us-education-system-1318783996

Still, one would expect that members of an oligarchy would have the decency to at least pretend to be sufficiently civic minded to register to vote in the state they care nothing for but which they’ve taken over by decree.

Yes, one would expect that.

But one would be wrong.

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Letter to U.S. Attorney, LouisianaVoice claims continuing pattern of RFP bid rigging, vendor favortism at OGB, DOA

Posted in Attorney General, Ethics, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, RFP, Request for Proposals on March 9, 2013| 20 Comments »

New claims of possible bid rigging and unfair trade practices within the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) and the Division of Administration (DOA), have surfaced in a two-page letter sent to the U.S. Attorney’s office and to LouisianaVoice this week.

OGB is a multi-billion dollar agency which administers health benefit claims for state employees, retirees and their dependents.

If true, it would be the third time in less than two years that insider negotiations have been conducted between a potential bidder, OGB and DOA preparatory to DOA’s issuing a request for proposals (RFP).

A copy of the unsigned, undated letter also was addressed to State Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) and to Louisiana Inspector General (IG) Stephen Street, though the writer expressed skepticism over any anticipated action by the IG’s office.

“I am writing as a concerned citizen who has had enough,” the letter said. “I write out of concern that there is something fundamentally wrong with the operations of the Division of Administration. I included the Inspector General out of protocol, but not with the expectation that he will act.”

The letter accused DOA, through OGB of engaging “in a pattern of behavior that has to be, at the very least, unethical” in its dealings with a South Carolina company.

“Within the past few months, the staff of the Office of Group Benefits has been instructed to conduct multiple meetings with a business called BenefitFocus (which is in the business of group health eligibility activity).

“The problem with these meetings is that the blatantly expressed reason for the meetings is the preparation of an RFP on which the company will then bid.

“In fact, in the last meeting,” the writer said, “there was an open discussion on how to either construct an RFP that will yield the company an insurmountable advantage or (that would) make the company a ‘sole source’ vendor that will eliminate competition.”

BenefitFocus is headquartered in Charleston, S.C. and its web page describes it as “the country’s leading provider of benefits technology.” It claims more than 18 million members and 300,000 employers who manage “all types of benefits” through the company which “provides employers, insurance carriers, consumers and government entities with cloud-based technology to shop, enroll, manage and exchange benefits information.

“BenefitFocus clients include small, medium and large employers from all industries, as well as the nation’s top insurance companies,” the website says.

Among the clients listed were Blue Cross/Blue Shield in several states, including Louisiana.
The anonymous writer described the activity between OGB and BenefitFocus as a “pattern,” saying such events have occurred at least twice before.

“The first instance was when OGB (by order of DOA) was looking for a financial advisor. The eventual successful vendor was Goldman Sachs, who had participated in multiple OGB meetings before the bid process and who even had the audacity to help write the RFP,” the letter said.

On April 13, 2011, CNS learned that Goldman Sachs had been active in discussions about the planned privatization of OGB as far back as October or November of 2010. That was about the same time that the idea of privatizing OGB was first floated to then-OGB CEO Tommy Teague in a meeting between then-Deputy Commissioner of Administration Mark Brady, Teague and four representatives of Goldman Sachs.

Teague was fired two days after LouisianaVoice published that story.

When it came time to open the proposals for the project, Goldman Sachs was the only bidder and stood to receive $6 million in fees for its services, whether it was successful in finding a buyer for OGB or not.

Gov. Bobby Jindal eventually rejected the Goldman Sachs bid after details of the Wall Street banking firm’s involvement were made public and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana was ultimately awarded the contract to serve as a third party administrator over OGB’s preferred provider (PPO) organization. BCBS also administers other claims for OGB under a separate contract.

“Earlier in 2012, the letter said, “OGB staff was directed to have multiple meetings with Extend Health, a company in the Medicare Advantage exchange business. The staff attended the meetings and helped answer background questions.

“In later activity with the company, an RFP was drafted (a very narrow drafting) that gave Extend Health a nearly sickening advantage in the bidding,” the writer said. “Of course, Extend Health won.”

Extend Health, the largest private Medicare exchange in the U.S., offers access to multiple Medicare plans for 2013. Retirees who enroll in a Medicare plan through the Extend Health exchange are enrolled in a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) and received HRA credits of $200 to $300 per month from the state up to a maximum of $2,400 per year for single coverage and $3,600 for family coverage.

The credits may be used to pay premiums for Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare Part B. Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, Medigap plans and dental and vision plans.

LouisianaVoice has made public records requests for copies of all correspondence between OGB, DOA and BenefitFocus.

Let’s see how long it takes DOA to invoke the ol’ “deliberative process” exemption.

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BESE takes funding from disabled students with MFP passage as Chas Roemer tells Lottie Beebe to pipe down

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.

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First it was mental health, then hospitals and hospice; now immunization program terminated at parish health units

Posted in Budget, Governor's Office, Health Care on March 6, 2013| 17 Comments »

First it was the closure of Southeast Louisiana Hospital, shutting off mental health services to residents of the state’s most densely populated area, then there was the move to “partner” state hospitals across the state with private facilities, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to terminate Hospice care.

Now Gov. Bobby Jindal, in submitting his executive budget, has announced intentions to cease immunizing the state’s indigent children at parish health units throughout the state.

Instead, private pediatricians will take over the duties of immunizing children under the state’s Vaccines for Children (VFC) program.

Through the VFC program, vaccine is made available at no charge to enrolled public and private health care providers for eligible children, according to the Department of Health and Hospitals web page.

Children 18 years of age and younger who are Medicaid eligible, uninsured, American Indian or native Alaskan are eligible for VFC.

But even if the immunizations themselves remain free, pediatricians will probably charge for an office visit—particularly those who do not accept Medicaid patients.

The cuts to the program were included in the Executive Budget presented to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget on Feb. 22. “One of the items included (in the budget) was restructuring of the administration of the DHH Office of Public Health’s (OPH) Vaccines for Children program,” said a statement released by DHH on Wednesday.

“Under the proposed restructuring, children who received immunizations at parish health units would be transitioned to receive immunizations by their private pediatricians or health care providers, where 92 percent of children already receive their immunizations through the program,” the statement said.

The DHH web page indicated that parish health units provide only about 5 percent of all immunizations statewide.

“The DHH Office of Public Health recently sent pediatric immunizations providers a notice letting them know this was proposed as an element of the State’s fiscal year budget,” DHH’s statement said.

“The proposal is on the table,” a DHH spokesperson added.

“Providers administer the bulk of their childhood vaccines in July and August as part of back-to-school preparations, so OPH wanted providers to be aware of this proposed program restructuring in advance,” the statement released by DHH said.

The final budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2013, will not be determined until the legislative session which begins on April 8, DHH said. “Until the legislature passes a final operating budget for FY-14, exact details of the elements involved will not be discernible,” the statement said.

Efforts to learn the administrative cost of the immunization program at the parish health units also were not immediately successful but federal VFC programs provide the vaccine to doctors and other providers at no costs.

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Forget Boehner, Obama and sequestration; the real debate is between Kristy Nichols and John Kennedy over state budget

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.

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