Posted in Notable Quotables on May 13, 2013| 1 Comment »
“I know more about the private lives of celebrities than I do about any governmental policy that will actually affect me.”
“I’m interested in things that are none of my business, and I’m bored by things that are important to know.”
“Maybe the economy (or education, health care, campaign contributions, etc.) should be discussed in cheap hotel rooms.”
—Calvin, from the classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
“The media aim to please.”
—Hobbes, in response to Calvin.
Posted in BESE, Contract, Contracts, Education, Notable Quotables, Public Records, Transparency on May 10, 2013| 7 Comments »
“…The Department is not in possession of any public record(s) responsive to the above-written request.”
—Letter from the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) to LouisianaVoice in which LDOE denies that it has any records showing that Superintendent of Education John White actually cancelled an agreement with inBloom to “park” sensitive personal student information in a data bank controlled by NewsCorp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. White announced on April 19 that he had rescinded the agreement between LDOE and inBloom.
LouisianaVoice made the request for the records on April 22 but did not receive a response until Thursday, May 9.
Posted in BESE, Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables on May 8, 2013| 6 Comments »
“I think we can get it past BESE (the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education). I may ask your help on that but I think we can get it past BESE.”
“The assumption on the board (BESE) is that I’m just doing the governor’s bidding on some favor that he’s cashing in on.”
“I didn’t want to open the formula up to such scrutiny…”
“I can get it corrected. I want to make sure it’s possible without publicly (unintelligible).”
—Comments made by Superintendent of Education John White in a 14-minute telephone conversation with State Rep. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport). White, in the course of that conversation, acquiesced to Seabaugh’s wishes that the Department of Education’s (DOE) Value Added Model (VAM) for teacher evaluation should be “tweaked” after White admitted that he “should have given the (VAM) procedure more thought.”
“I want minimal impact and an ability to bury it…”
—White, giving instructions to begin the “tweaking” process to a DOE employee immediately following the phone call with Seabaugh.
“I suggested (to White) that we tweak this model and it doesn’t have to be policy and he chewed my ass out.”
—The employee, to a co-worker following the telephone conversation between White and Seabaugh.
Posted in BESE, Courts, Education, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables, Vouchers on May 7, 2013| 13 Comments »
“The Scholarship Program will continue…and we will work with the Legislature to find another funding source to keep parents and kids in these schools.”
—State Superintendent of Education John White, in a prepared statement in response to the Louisiana Supreme Court’s 6-1 decision that using funds from the Minimum Foundation Program to fund vouchers for private and virtual schools is unconstitutional.
“Diverting dollars from our already struggling school districts to private school vouchers for a select few students is wrong.”
—State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans), state chairperson of the Louisiana Democratic Party, commenting on the State Supreme Court’s decision that taking MFP funds to finance vouchers is unconstitutional.
“This decision was not only predictable, but it was predicted. The governor appeared to have complete disdain for the law while he was chasing a vice presidential nomination.”
—State Rep. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite), commenting on Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on voucher financing.
Posted in BESE, Education, Governor's Office, Notable Quotables, Public Records on May 5, 2013| 3 Comments »
“This story is pure innuendo and drama—a fiction—under the guise of investigative reporting.”
—Superintendent of Education, in a Jan. 25 email to Southern Education Desk reporter Sue Lincoln, who was preparing a story on skewed data on student test scores released by White’s Department of Education.
“He (White) told me to ‘Check with people over you to be sure this is the right thing to do.'”
—Reporter Sue Lincoln, on a conversation with White over her story about student test score data.
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