Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, BESE, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Public Records, Teague on February 22, 2013| 6 Comments »
“I have prepared a bill calling for a constitutional amendment making the Louisiana Superintendent of Education elected and not appointed. It will be difficult to pass, but the people should decide who their superintendent is—not the Governor.”
—State Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe), in an email Thursday to LouisianaVoice as a result of LouisianaVoice story about plan to provide personal student information to a computer bank controlled by News Corp., owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Computers, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Public Records, State Agencies on February 22, 2013| 3 Comments »
It’s highly improbable but there is an ever-so-remote possibility that State Superintendent of Education John White could find his job in jeopardy.
Whether he does or not, there is a much greater chance that State Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe) could find himself removed from his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary C Committee and/or removed from three other committees on which he now serves.
That’s because Kostelka intimated on Thursday that he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session calling for a constitutional amendment making the state superintendent of education position elective instead of appointive.
The office was previously elective until 1987 when it was changed to appointive but now Kostelka wants to change it back.
His announcement came on the heels of a news story this week by Capitol News Service that linked White and the state Department of Education (DOE) to Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. which was embroiled in the hacking scandal two years ago in which cell phone communications were compromised in Europe.
Emails obtained by CNS revealed plans by DOE to enter sensitive student and teacher information—including names, social security numbers and grades—into a massive electronic data bank being built by Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of News Corp., as part of a project called the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) being spearheaded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The CNS story has generated a movement among parents to notify White and DOE that they do not want any information on their children provided to any outside entity.
The proposed collection of data on students has already begun in a few states and has created considerable controversy in places like New York. That state’s contract with News Corp. was first approved, then cancelled, only to be reapproved last August as one of several subcontractors for Public Consulting Group, one of four contractors chosen for the $27 million contract.
Under the proposal, Wireless Generation is supposed to store student test scores, student demographic information, curriculum materials, lesson plans and other information and would presumably perform the same function for Louisiana.
Though no cost estimates have been provided for the program in Louisiana, providers for the New York program will be paid in part based on the number of school districts that choose their data systems.
The Gates Foundation plans to turn over the personal data it collects to another, as yet unnamed corporation headed by Iwan Streichenberger, former marketing director for an Atlanta company that sells whiteboard to schools.
A copy of a 68-page contract between SLC and the New York State Educational Department was provided by a citizens’ watchdog group in that state. The contract said, in part, that there were no guarantees that data would not be susceptible to intrusion or hacking, though “reasonable and appropriate measures” would be taken to protect information.
“I have prepared a bill calling for a constitutional amendment making the Louisiana Superintendent of Education elected and not appointed,” Kostelka said in an email to CNS on Thursday. “It will be difficult to pass, but the people should decide who their superintendent is—not the governor.”
Technically, the state superintendent is not chosen by the governor but by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). The reality, however, is that Gov. Bobby Jindal campaigned for and contributed monetarily to the campaigns of favored BESE candidates in the fall of 2011 after the previous board had held up the appointment of White, Jindal’s choice for the post. Only after several pro-Jindal candidates were elected did BESE eventually formally appoint White upon their taking office in January of 2012.
Kostelka, in authoring such a bill, risks incurring the wrath of Jindal who, in popular Baton Rouge parlance, would likely “teague” Kostelka out of this committee chairmanship and even demote him from his current committee seats to minor committees.
The term “teague” comes from Jindal’s firing of Melody Teague in October of 2009 one day after she testified before the Government Streamlining Committee. She appealed and eventually won her job back.
But six months later, her husband Tommy Teague, was fired as director of the State Office of Group Benefits because he did not endorse the privatization of his agency quickly or enthusiastically enough to please Jindal.
Jindal has a well-established tradition of demoting or firing legislators, state civil service employees and appointees who dare display any independence.
He doesn’t do the actual firing, of course, and even goes to great length to deny any involvement in the decision to fire or demote. Instead, he hands off that task to agency heads or cabinet members do the firing and either Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles) or Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego).
Posted in Attorney General, BESE, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency on February 19, 2013| 18 Comments »
As an illustration of the sheer arrogance of Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White, LouisianaVoice is providing an exchange of emails between us, White, and Louisiana Attorney General’s office and our attorney, J. Arthur Smith of Baton Rouge.
Folks, there is no better example of just how this administration, personified by the likes of White, his boss, Gov. Bobby Jindal, all but two members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and a few of Jindal’s choice cabinet members and certain legislators who shall for the time being remain nameless, has nothing but contempt for the voters of this state.
After all, where would Jindal rather be—in Baton Rouge or gallivanting all over the country in futile pursuit of the presidency? (Hint: it ain’t Baton Rouge.)
But now it seems that the national media is finally catching onto his act. An op-ed piece in Monday’s Washington Post said that Jindal’s rise in the ranks of the party illustrates that Republican reform is all cosmetic, so much rhetorical hogwash, smokes and mirrors. (But if you insist on latching onto Jindal’s sophomoric grandstanding as candy for your political sweet tooth, then knock yourself out.)
But back to Mr. White.
On January 22, we made the following public records request:
Any communication with or information relevant to Louisiana’s association or business conduct with any corporation or entity owned, led by or associated with Iwan Streichenberger;
Any communication or discussion relevant to the sharing of confidential student information for the purpose of developing and marketing “learning products” or for any other purpose;
All communication and/or contracts relevant to current or future association with Gates Foundation or its subsidiaries.
• Any communication with or information relevant to Louisiana’s association or business conduct with any corporation or entity owned, led by or associated with Iwan Streichenberger.
• Any communication or discussion relevant to the sharing of confidential student information for the purpose of developing and marketing “learning products” or for any other purpose.
• All communication and/or contracts relevant to current or future association with Gates Foundation or its subsidiaries.
• Written communications and contracts containing the phrase “shared Learning Collaborative” or “SLC.”
• Written communications containing the phrase “Wireless Generation.”
• Written communications containing the phrase “Iwan Streichenberger.”
• Written communications and contracts containing the phrase “Gates Foundation.”
Subsequent to that request, we made additional requests for:
• A list of the number of Teach for America teachers employed in each parish in the state.
• A list of complaints about the Louisiana Department of Education’s web page that White said prompted his decision to revamp the page to its current unnavigable mish mash of a web page that is about as user friendly as a sidesaddle on a Hampshire hog.
Of course the latter requests were ignored with all the same efficiency as the original requests. We know that John White personally received the requests because we get read receipts on all outgoing emails and we know the instant our emails are opened and read by the recipient.
And we save all our read receipts just in case the need should ever arise to have them—say in a civil lawsuit against the department.
At 3:41 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 19—28 days after our initial request), we sent the following email to our attorney (and copied White and Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell):
Art, this request is almost a month old. By law, state agencies (the Department of Education included) have three days in which to produce requested records or provide a date and time they will be available for inspection. The department has done nothing to provide these records other than send me a B.S. letter. I might overlook this if it were an isolated case, but this has been repeated time and again. I’m weary of playing their little games and I’m ready to file suit against John White and the Department of Education. I don’t want to file only to have them provide the records. I want to pursue this to seek my court costs, my attorney fees and any applicable fines. The Monroe News Star filed suit and White cratered and provided the records and nothing further was done. I don’t want that. I want to extract penalties for non-compliance or they’ll just repeat the procedure the next time I make a public records request.
Please file the necessary litigation immediately. I will pay the filing fee but I want the Department of Education to reimburse me.
My receipt indicated that White opened and read our email at precisely 3:44 p.m.
At 3:50 p.m. Tuesday, I received the following response from attorney Art Smith:
Gotcha. Will be glad to do.
Then, beginning at 6:20 p.m. and continuing through 6:43 p.m. we began receiving the first of what would ultimately be eight separate emails containing 119 pages of emails and other data from the Department of Education, some of which addressed our requests and others that did not.
Those responses that did not address our specific requests, however, were quite revealing. Because White made such a big production of the complaints he said he received about the old format of the department’s web page which led to the complete revamp of the page, we decided to call his bluff and ask for those complaints.
What we got instead of complaints about the old web page was a stream of complaints about the current format, including one writer who, in the email’s subject line wrote “YOUR NEWLY DESIGNED WEBSITE SUCKS,” and who then proceeded to chastise the department for the misspelling of “recieve.” (Yep, that’s the way your new DOE website spells receive.) “For crying out loud, USE YOUR SPELLCHECKER!” the Monroe critic wrote, adding, “Please correct this and make this site professional, not juvenile.”
Another wrote: “Many of your links lead to errors. Come on, man!”
“I am unable to locate information that I need to do my job. If we no longer have a website that is user friendly, what are we expected to do?” asked another.
Strangely, however, there were no complaints provided by White about the old web site even though he said the changes were made pursuant to “many complaints” about the old site.
Unimpressed with White’s last-minute attempt to head off unpleasant litigation, we followed up with another email at 9:37 p.m., again copying our attorney and Caldwell:
Mr. White, I am in receipt of eight separate emails from your office which purport to provide the information I requested (itemized below).
I can’t help but notice, however, that absent from the 117 pages you provided me under threat of litigation (which remains a valid option) were responses to requests 1, 2, and 6.
Please, without further delay, provide:
1) Any communications in any form or contracts relative to the “Shared Learning Collaborative” or SLC, a project of the Gates Foundation.
2) Information regarding Louisiana’s participation in Phase I of the above project.
6) All communication and/or contracts relevant to current or future association with Gates Foundation or its subsidiaries.
Because of the stalling tactics employed by you and the department, I shall not grant you the customary three days waiting period for this information inasmuch as it has already been 28 days since my initial request.
Litigation shall follow if this information is not provided by the close of business Wednesday, February 20, 2013.
White opened and read our latest email at 9:43 p.m.
We’ll keep you posted on developments and if anyone wishes copies of the emails that were provided, we will be happy to provide them electronically at no cost. Just contact us at: louisianavoice@cox.net
Posted in Broadband, Internet, Charters, Education, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Prison, Privatization, Retirement, Revenue, State Agencies, Taxes, Vouchers on February 15, 2013| 14 Comments »
Whenever Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks, be it on Fox News, CNN, to fellow Republican governors or at a rare press conference such as the one held on Thursday, his threefold purpose always seems to be to inflate weak ideology, obscure poor reasoning and inhibit clarity.
His less-than-masterful tax plan for the state, which he admitted to reporters is like so many of his ill-conceived programs in that it actually remains a non-plan, might well be entitled “The Dynamics of Irrational and Mythical Imperatives of Tax Reform: A Study in Psychic Trans-Relational Fiscal Recovery Modes” (with apologies to Calvin and Hobbes, our all-time favorite comic strip).
It’s not certain what drives him to wade off into these issues (see: hospital and prison closures, higher education cutbacks, charter schools, online courses and vouchers, state employee retirement “reform,” and privatization of efficiently-operating state agencies like the Office of Group Benefits) but his actions are probably precipitated by deeply ingrained biological, psychological and sociological imperatives that have triggered a reduced functionality in the cerebral cortex (Pickles).
Or it could be some depraved attempt to inflict vengeance on society because his two imaginary childhood friends teased him and wouldn’t let him play with them.
And though he insists he has the job he wants, we can’t help but wonder if he isn’t even now casting a covetous sidelong look at the advantages of plundering (Frazz) in case his presidential aspirations fail to materialize.
The reason for all this speculation is brought on by his admission in that ever-so-brief (less than 12 minutes or six question, whichever came first) press conference Thursday that the administration does not have a proposal as yet to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes despite his well-publicized announcement that he wants to scrap state income taxes for individuals and corporations (especially corporations) in a “revenue neutral” way that would most likely involve increased sales taxes.
But he doesn’t have a proposal yet.
Are you listening, legislators? He doesn’t have a proposal yet. That means the onus is going to be on you and if he doesn’t have his way with you (as he has for the past five years—and you can take that any way you please), he’s going public with the blame game.
If everything goes south, you don’t really think he’s going to take the blame, do you?
He doesn’t have a proposal yet. Now we see where State Superintendent John White gets his prompts on running the Department of Education. White has not submitted a completed plan for any project begun at DOE since he took over; everything—vouchers, charters, course choice—is in a constant state of flux. He announces rules, retracts, readjusts, re-evaluates only to lose a lawsuit over the way his boss proposed to fund state vouchers.
Jindal doesn’t have a proposal—for anything. His retirement “reform” package for state employees was a disaster from the get go. Even before he lost yet another court decision on that issue in January, the matter of whether or not the proposed plan for new hires was an IRS-qualified plan—meaning a plan the IRS would accept in lieu of social security—remained unresolved.
He didn’t have a proposal: let’s just do it and see later if the IRS will accept it. Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.
Remember when he vetoed a bill two years ago to renew a five-cent tax on cigarettes because, he said, he was opposed to new taxes (it was a renewal!)? Well, now he’s considering a $1 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes.
“Everything is on the table,” he said. “That’s the way it should be.”
But isn’t he the same governor who closed hospitals and prisons without so much as a heads-up to legislators in the areas affected.
Isn’t he the same governor who rejected a federal grant to make boardband internet available to rural areas of the state but had no alternative plan for broadband?
Isn’t he the same governor who continues to resist ObamaCare at the cost of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding to provide medical care for the state’s poor?
He said he is looking at different ways to protect low- and middle-income citizens.
By increasing the state sales tax by nearly two cents on the dollar? By rejecting another $50 million federal grant for early childhood development? By shuttering battered women’s shelters and attempting to terminate state funding for hospice? By pushing for more and more tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Louisiana citizens? By appointing former legislators to six-figure state jobs for which they’re wholly unqualified while denying raises to the state’s working stiffs? Yeah, that’ll really protect the low income people of the state.
“It’s way too early to make decisions on what’s in and out of the plan,” he said of the soon-to-be proposed (we assume) income tax re-haul.
Well, Governor, it’s your job to make decisions, to come up with a proposal to present to the legislature so House and Senate members may have sufficient time to debate the issues—unlike your sweeping education package of a year ago.
In your response to President Obama’s State of the Union address this week (not your disastrous response in 2009 in which the Republican Party subjected you to national ridicule), you said, “With four more years in office, he (Obama) needs to step up to the plate and do the job he was elected to do.”
That’s right, folks. You can’t make up stuff this good. The response is so easy that it’s embarrassing but here goes:
Pot, meet Kettle.
In retrospect, drawing on comic strip for inspiration when writing about Jindal somehow seems entirely appropriate.
Posted in Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators on January 24, 2013| 9 Comments »
Sometimes we miss a good story but with the help of our readers we usually catch up—even if it does take a year—or two.
Normally, we’d let a story this old slide into oblivion and chalk it up as one we missed. But this is just too bizarre not to go back and pick it up, thanks to a reader’s sending the slate.com link to the story our way.
The apparent ignorance of one state senator on the subject of evolution can only be described as surreal while the arrogance of a former state senator can serve to make us thankful she’s not around any longer.
During last year’s legislative session, Baton Rouge native Zack Kopplin, now a student at Rice University, was testifying before a state Senate committee on a bill to allow supplemental materials to be used by teachers in science classrooms.
The bill, SB 374 by Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) was just what the creationist legislators did not want because it provided for the teaching of evolution and global warming.
Kopplin, 19, describes himself as a Christian but opposes the teaching of creationism to the exclusion of traditional science. During the hearings, he was testifying about the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) that allows the teaching of creationism when Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe) asked for a specific example of evolution.
Science teacher Darlene Reaves, responding to his request, described an experiment involving E.coli in which different samples were separated, and after several generations, one of the strains mutated and gained the ability to metabolize—an actual demonstration how the bacteria was able to evolve.
That’s when things got a little weird. Walsworth, ever alert for anything that might undermine the holy grail of creationism (if not overly enlightened about the bacterium that causes diarrhea from raw milk, undercooked meat and contaminated water), asked an incredulous question: “They (the E. coli bacteria) evolve into a person?”
Just in case you believe we’re making that up, here is the link to the exchange: http://www.youtube.com/embed/hQObhb3veQA?autoplay=&wmode=transparent
Ignorance on a scale of this magnitude is frightening enough but when that person is one of 39 senators who make laws that affect the rest of us, it’s downright terrifying.
Almost as bad was the haughtiness displayed by then-Sen. Julie Quinn (R-Metairie) during hearings on SB 70 by Peterson in 2011. (Both SB 70 in 2011 and SB 374 in 2012 were identical in calling for the repeal of LSEA and neither passed.)
Kopplin is again testifying when he is interrupted by Quinn. “That wasn’t what I asked,” she said, “and I am an attorney and I listened patiently to all the accolades that everyone has, all the little letters behind their names, doctor, etc. So, as an attorney, I am asking a question and I would like an answer to that question: do you support a law that prohibits the teaching of religion in the classroom?”
(First of all, when you are sitting on a Senate committee, Ms. Quinn, you are not an attorney; you are a state senator, no better or worse than the senator sitting beside you who might be a plumber or a horticulturalist. And your twice referring to yourself as an attorney while disparaging witnesses who went to school far longer than you to earn advanced degrees by referring them as having “little letters behind their names” is beneath contempt.)
Again, she asked Kopplin, “Do you support the promotion of religion in English class?”
Without missing a beat, Kopplin responded, “The Bible is always used in most English classes because it’s a classic piece of literature.”
Quinn throws up her hands at this point, scooting her chair back and shaking her head in apparent condescension as Peterson, seated at the witness table to testify on behalf of her bill, explained, “Promotion would be the key word in response.”
But then Peterson had her own rejoinder that again had Quinn, an ardent proponent of creationism, sneering in good, Christian derision.
“I don’t think Senate Bill 70 deals specifically with creationism in science classes and that’s why you see the plethora of people with ‘little letters behind their names.”
“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful,” Quinn said somewhat defensively.
“I’m very respectful of over 40 Nobel laureates,” Peterson said. “I’m very respectful of the Association of Biology Teachers.” (Quinn rolls her eyes here and, mouth open, looks at her colleagues on the committee as if asking for help in shutting Peterson up.) “I’m very respectful of the Louisiana Association of Biology Educators,” Peterson continued. “I’m very respectful of the (unintelligible because the committee chairman attempted to cut Peterson off) Science Teachers Association, I’m very respectful of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and I’m respectful of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, as well as American Society for Cell Biology, and the Society for Vertebrae Paleontology and lastly, the American Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
“And yes, they have little, medium and big letters behind their names and they’re all suggesting that we repeal the act,” she said.
Here’s the link to their exchange. Watch the body language of Sen. Quinn. http://www.youtube.com/embed/3e2zPfsNe-w?autoplay=&wmode=transparent
Even though Peterson has twice failed to gain passage of her bill, word is she’s going to try again this year.
We can’t wait to watch and listen to the testimony to see which legislator will play the lead buffoon this time.
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