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Archive for the ‘Vouchers’ Category

3rd lawsuit filed over Jindal’s education reform bill; ‘Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night’ (Bette Davis)

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, Public Records, Transparency, Vouchers on June 28, 2012| 7 Comments »

A third lawsuit was filed in state district in Baton Rouge on Thursday that charges Gov. Bobby Jindal and the legislature with violating the Louisiana Constitution when enacting Act 2 of 2012.

The action was taken on behalf of more than 30 local school boards working through the Louisiana School Boards Association, according to Robert Hammonds, legal counsel to LSBA and many of the local districts involved.

“All elected officials, including school board members, are required to take an oath of office that pledges to uphold the Constitution and laws of the State,” observed John Smith, president of LSBA and a school board member in St. Charles Parish.

“To the best of our ability, the members of LSBA operate mindful of our oath,” he added. “We have a right to expect that the Governor and members of the Legislature do likewise, and we have both a right and a civic duty to challenge them when we feel that they have failed to do so.”

“The Constitution was approved by the voters of the state”, according to Hammonds, “and, if the state wants to act contrary to its provisions, the Legislature should put before the voters the changes it wants to see. Until those changes are approved by the voters of the state, however, the existing provisions apply and cannot be disregarded by the Governor, the Legislature, or the school boards bringing this action.”

One of those constitutional requirements is that all bills receive majority vote of the membership of both houses to become effective. The vote on the MFP concurrent resolution (SCR 99) in the House of Representatives was 51 in favor, 49 opposed, and 5 not voting. House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, ruled that the resolution had been approved. When he was questioned by other representatives about how it could have passed since it did not get majority vote of the 105 member House of Representatives, he stated that the House had a “long history” of violating the Constitution.

The LSBA-coordinated legal action is mounted against the Act 2 part of Gov. Jindal’s capitalist education reform package. Vouchers, legacy charter schools, and other parts of the reform program included in SCR 99 will siphon from the public school systems the limited dollars received from the state for public education. There has been no increase in state funding of public education for the last four years, despite ever increasing costs to the school systems for state-mandated retirement and group health insurance costs, among other expenditures.

“The lawsuit alleges that Act 2 and SCR 99 violate the Constitution by diverting money to non-public schools when the Constitution mandates the funds be allocated to public elementary and secondary schools to insure a minimum foundation of education in those public schools,” said Hammonds. The suit also alleges that part of the public dollars to be distributed to non-public schools, groups, and programs in Act 2 and SCR 99 comes from locally generated tax revenues. The tax propositions passed by the voters in each local school system call for the funds generated by those measures to be used for the benefit of the students and employees of that system, though, and not for the support of private and parochial schools and their employees.

Gov. Jindal claims that Act 2 gives parents the opportunity to escape failing schools. He has touted the state’s RSD schools as models of educational reform despite the fact that 100 percent of direct-run RSD schools have received grades of “D” or “F” and 79 percent of the RSD charter schools have received grades of “D” or “F”, according to Smith. “It makes no sense – educationally or financially – to take more than $150,000,000 from public school systems in the state to fund state-run and state-supervised programs that are less successful than those operated on the local level.

A preliminary hearing on the LSBA case, which will be consolidated with the cases filed by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Association of Educators, is expected July 10, Hammonds said. “It is significant that the LSBA, the LFT, and the LAE have similar concerns about Act 2 and SCR 99 and the impact of such legislation on the future of public education in this state. We will be working together to bring those concerns to the attention of the court in the clearest and most concise fashion.”

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Missed out on vouchers? No problem, just become a course provider; there’re big bucks to be had and no accountability

Posted in BESE, Education, Uncategorized, Vouchers on June 20, 2012| 6 Comments »

The controversy over Monday’s meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) School Innovation and Turnaround “Committee,” while important, could be a mere smokescreen for a far murkier and more complicated issue.

To be sure, legitimate questions about teacher certification and accountability standards for charter schools and some 124 private schools accepting voucher money were raised at the meeting formally described as a committee meeting, but attended by the full board.

But lying beneath the surface is House Bill 976 authored by Rep. Stephen Carter (R-Baton Rouge) and signed into law as Act 2, or the “Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Act,” by Gov. Piyush Jindal.

The bill, which passed in the House by a 60-43 vote and 24-15 in the Senate in the legislature’s rush to placate the governor, will allow course providers to “offer a quality, individual education to students.”

So, what exactly, is a course provider?

That’s the same thing that Reps. Sam Jones (D-Franklin) and John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) wanted to know during debate on the bill. No one else seemed interested, including the media whose job it is to explore the issues, but who seem more interested, as one observer put it, to play sycophant to Jindal.

Under terms of the act, postsecondary education institutions may serve as quality course providers for students who seek advanced level course work or technical or vocational instruction. Because “technical” and “vocational” were included in the bill’s language, could that mean that “postsecondary education institutions” would include not only traditional universities and colleges, but vocational and technical schools and proprietary schools like University of Phoenix and IT Technical College, as well?

But the bill goes on to specify that business and industry may also serve as “quality course providers that offer course work in their particular field or expertise.”

“‘Course provider’ means an entity that offers individual courses in person or online, including but not limited to online or virtual education providers,” the act says.

BESE member Chas Roemer of Baton Rouge, meanwhile thumbed his nose at state ethics laws by openly discussing certification of charter school teachers. BESE member Walter Lee, who is superintendent of the DeSoto Parish school system, asked why there is no requirement that charter school teachers be certified when public schools require certification.

Roemer, whose sister is executive director of the Louisiana Public Charter School Association, which would thereby create an apparent conflict any time he addresses issues concerning charter schools, said the policy was in line with the administration’s goal of allowing charter schools to try new approaches. “There are going to be differences and there should be differences,” he said.

State Superintendent of Education John White, who deleted without responding two emails from LouisianaVoice formally requesting public records, said accountability rules for private schools accepting voucher money would be completed by Aug. 1.

That would appear to putting the horse ahead of the cart when one considers vouchers that have already been approved for schools in Ruston, Westlake and DeRidder that are woefully understaffed and which have inadequate facilities to accommodate students they already have, much less up to 300 new voucher students.

But back to HB 976, aka Act 2, aka Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Act, projected to cost the state $44.5 million over a five-year period. The initial authorization of the course provider shall be for three years, with BESE charged with carrying out a “thorough review” after the second year.

Courses would be available to students attending a public school that receive a letter grade of “C,” “D,” or “F,” or who is attending a public school that does not offer the course in which a student desires to enroll, the act says.

BESE is directed by the bill to create a reciprocal teacher certification process for teachers who reside in other states by next January. The teachers must be employed by authorized course providers to teach virtual education courses.

Moreover, prior to the 2013-2014 school year BESE must create a course catalogue for all courses offered by each parish.

The act even contains a veiled threat to would-be recalcitrant local school systems: “No local public school system shall actively discourage, intimidate or threaten an eligible funded student or an eligible participating student during his course enrollment process or at any time for that local school system.”

Of course, no proposal by the Jindal administration would be complete without the obligatory provision for payoffs. “The course provider shall receive a course amount for each eligible funded student,” the act says. The per-course amount means an amount equal to the market rate “as determined by the course provider” and reported to the state Department of Education (DOE).

One Louisiana native, now a retired school principal in Arizona, examined the 47-page bill (something that most legislators probably did not bother to do) and offered several observations about costs, administration and unethical course providers.

“I am struck by how complicated and expensive the oversight of these programs will be and how time consuming it will be for local districts,” she said.

“Districts want to make sure that these providers are sound and ethical and really providing an education. You would be amazed at the number of unethical providers that will pop up when there’s money to be had,” she said. “This is just another burden on your local district which is not staffed well enough to take on one more onerous responsibility.

“This is the shotgun approach to education—a scattering of this and that in terms of learning—instead of a coherent, articulated approach over several years.”

She said that oversight is always expensive and questioned the manner in which it would be done. If a student receives an “A” rather than an “F” that he might deserve, “will the school be judged to be superior or will the students be re-tested to see if they learned anything?” she asked. “Grading is a complex issue and unethical operators are happy to give the A’s if they get the money.

“Unless I missed something, I don’t know who is approving these course providers for the first year. Is there a list of them—perhaps providers who’ve been operating in other states? I can’t see that the bill addresses that and that is important.

“This is just one more step in totally dismantling public education and finding ways for businesses to take money from the public coffers—just more privatization using taxpayer dollars. Capitalism is about risk that capitalists take to establish their businesses. Where is the risk in this if the funding is capitalized by taxpayers’ dollars?” she asked.

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The vultures are circling the carcass, aka school vouchers, as Gov. Piyush Jindal’s education reform gets off to rocky start

Posted in Education, Vouchers, tagged , , , on June 14, 2012| 6 Comments »

Gov. Piyush Jindal may have appeared to come away from this year’s legislative session with sweeping wins in his public education reform but in reality, things appear to be off to a somewhat rocky start.

It may be too early to say Jindal’s grand scheme for the revamping (read: dismantling) of public education is falling apart but it would certainly be correct to say the waste of precious state voucher dollars has begun in earnest and detractors are only too happy to cite the inexcusable lack of oversight by John White’s Department of Education (DOE).

Another possible indication that all is not well is the recent exodus of a number of DOE personnel, including a key employee responsible for putting a positive spin on department policy for the media.

Friday, June 8, was the last day on the job for DOE Public Affairs Director René Greer.

“Your questions have challenged us to do better, your reports have given our citizens the information they need to hold us accountable and your narratives have inspired individuals and groups to engage in this important work,” she said in an email to reporters.

Greer, who said she has no immediate career plans, also thanked reporters for their “patience, understanding and support on those occasions when the requests coming into Public Affairs exceeded our capacity to respond.”

Greer, who served at the pleasure of the education superintendent, may have fallen on her sword. “She worked very hard and put up with a lot of internal and external flak,” said one former co-worker. “If I had to guess, I suspect the department’s slow response to (a public records) request from The Independent (a Lafayette weekly publication) may have had something to do with her departure,” the co-worker said.

On May 2, The Independent wrote, “State Superintendent of Education John White and DOE spokeswoman René Greer have yet to respond to numerous phone calls and email inquiries from The Independent over the past 24 hours regarding the department’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver application, despite public record statutes requiring them to do so.

“They also have failed to respond to Louisiana Press Association attorney Joshua Zelden, who told both White and Greer in an email that ‘all documents created, and correspondence entered into, by government agencies in the course of their official business must be made available to all requestors immediately, unless a specific exception to the public records law is cited…”

Louisiana is one of 26 states and the District of Columbia which have requested waivers from NCLB provisions. Louisiana’s application is not immune to the federal scrutiny granted to other states. The U.S. Department of Education sent critique letters to the states in mid-April but the contents of Louisiana’s letter which lay out the deficiencies in Louisiana’s alternative plan for achieving higher academic performance are still being withheld from public scrutiny.

Greer has not responded to an email sent to her on Sunday by LouisianaVoice which asked if her departure was related to the dispute with The Independent.

The department’s problems with The Independent notwithstanding, the biggest newsmaker has been the unbelievably sorry job of vetting voucher applicants:

• The New Living Word School in Ruston has received vouchers for 315 students, the most in the state thus far, despite having woefully inadequate facilities for those 315 additional students. The school has only 122 students and no desks, no books, no chairs and no classrooms to accommodate additional students.

• A small private school in DeRidder has been approved for 119 vouchers worth more than $400,000. Besides misspelling scholarships as “sholarships” on a sign advertising the availability of vouchers on a sign outside the school, it has been revealed that BeauVer Christian Academy has experienced past financial problems. In 2009, Maysia Coker, registered agent and an officer of BeauVer, was sentenced in 36th Judicial District Court in Beauregard Parish to a three-year suspended sentence for issuing worthless checks. She was fined $2,000 plus court costs and ordered not to have a checking account in her name or to be a signatory on any business or personal checking accounts or to hold a position of financial authority during her four-year probation. Coker registered BeauVer Christian Academy as a limited liability corporation on May 5, 2010, state records show. BeauVer had 78 students and 12 teachers last year. The school, formerly known as Beauregard Christian Academy, had seven liens and financial judgments filed against it ranging from $2,778 to $14,000 between 2007 and 2009.

• Upper Room Bible School in New Orleans also received 214 vouchers despite a 78 percent failure rate on students’ LEAP tests. Upper Room was third from the bottom in rankings of all Recovery School District and voucher schools combined.

• Eternity Christian Academy in Calcasieu Parish, which currently has 14 students, has been approved for 135 vouchers which will generate about $1 million in taxpayer funds for the school.

As if all that were not bad enough, now it seems the media, including the Washington Post, New Orleans’ Gambit and Gannett’s Louisiana newspapers are beginning to wake up and ask hard questions, albeit a little late:

• The Baton Rouge Advocate, which has largely been silent on the issue of education reform, had an editorial on Tuesday in which it questioned the legality of Jindal’s intent to raid Minimum Foundation Program funding for public schools to fund vouchers for private schools. “It is a question that the judiciary can and should weigh in on, because on its face, the MFP money is dedicated in the Louisiana Constitution to public schools,” the Baton Rouge paper said. “…the governor and his allies are whipping up the rhetoric on the unions—despite the obvious relevance of the constitutional question,” it added.

• The Washington Post, on May 31, quoted White as saying federal waivers would allow districts and schools to exercise flexibility from federal regulations in exchange for instituting rigorous accountability systems. Citing the vouchers granted to the aforementioned schools, the Post said, “All of this makes you wonder what Louisiana and the U.S. Education Department define as ‘rigorous accountability systems.’”

• Gambit, in its analysis of the voucher program, said “‘Reform’ always means ‘change’ but it does not always mean ‘improvement.’”

Finally, if proof is needed that Jindal’s voucher and charter school crusade is not profit driven, there is the Louisiana Federation for Children and its accomplice, the Alliance for School Choice.

The Alliance for School Choice is clamoring for students like a flock of vultures circling a dying carcass.

In a mail-out received by a north Louisiana family (with no children in school, it should be added), the alliance proclaims, “There is still time to apply to enroll your child in a better school for free.”

For free? Is the Alliance for School Choice for real? Just where does it think the voucher money for tuition comes from, the tooth fairy?

This is tax money paid by Louisiana citizens that will go to line the pockets of profiteers and political opportunists.

For free indeed.

The flip side of the mail-out says, “Time is running out to give your child a better education. Apply for a scholarship before June 29.”

It goes on to say, “Recently, Louisiana lawmakers expanded the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence program statewide, which allows children trapped in low-performing schools to receive a scholarship to attend a participating private or public school in the 2012-2013 school year for free.”

There’s that word free again.

The state version of the American Federation for Children/Alliance for School Choice, the Louisiana Federation for Children, contributed more than $100,000 to Louisiana legislative and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education candidates in 2010 and 2011, state records show.

Many of those candidates also received contributions last year from Gov. Jindal’s campaign, further evidence of the philosophical and financial bonds that exist between the alliance, Jindal and the voucher program—all at the expense of Louisiana taxpayers.

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Requiem for the governor’s retirement package; meanwhile, he’s off for another riveting speech, this time in New Jersey

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, Retirement, Vouchers on April 25, 2012| 3 Comments »

Between speaking engagements in New York and New Jersey, something strange happened to one of the crown jewels in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s legislative.

The governor’s retirement bills are scheduled to be taken up for debate on the Senate floor on Wednesday and early indications are they are in trouble.

Jindal, flush from his education reform successes, couldn’t wait to dash off to an ill-advised keynote speaking engagement before the New York Republican state dinner. Next, he’s off to New Jersey next month to speak at the American Federation for Children’s national policy summit in Jersey City. More about that in due course.

In the interim, opposition, led by Cindy Rougeou, executive director of the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), has grown statewide to his sweeping state employee retirement reform package that not only slashes retirement benefits for state employees, but requires them to pay more and work longer to get them.

That’s right. Said another way, Piyush would require that state employees chip an additional 3 percent of their paychecks in order to qualify for fewer benefits—and to work longer to get them.

As if that were not bad enough, a Dallas law firm retained by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said everything about the retirement bills stinks. The bills are illegal, said the report by Strasburger Law Firm, because they break contracts with state employees, something expressly forbidden by the U.S. and Louisiana constitutions.

Not to be outdone, the administration promptly retained an outfit named Buck Consultants at a contract cost of $400,000 to counter the Strasburger report. To date, the contents of the Buck report have not been released.

That appears to follow a pattern. It was only a year ago that another somewhat cheaper ($49,999.99) report was ordered by the administration from Chaffe and Associates of New Orleans. That report was supposed to support the administration’s efforts to privatize the Office of Group Benefits (OGB).

It practically took a triple dose of Ex-Lax for legislators to get the administration to (ahem) cough up a copy of the report.

Even while the Buck report was still pending, the administration began backtracking, amending, re-writing and tweaking its retirement bills.

Nothing like having your ducks in a row ahead of time. Another cliché, flying by the seat of your pants, comes to mind. So does FUBAR.

Probably one of the sleaziest tactics employed by Jindal (oh, where do you start when discussing the administration’s sleaze factor?) was his attempt to dump the entire $18.3 billion unfunded accrued liability (UAL) on LASERS. Of the four state retirement systems—state employees, teachers, school employees and state police—LASERS accounts for $6.3 billion of the total UAL. Yet, Jindal never opens his mouth about the remaining three retirement systems and his “reform” package does not include any of the other three. Only LASERS.

Said another way (the governor is not the only one who can wear out a phrase; we can play, too), John, Pete, Sam and Piyush each have bank loans. Sam owes $10,000; John $700, Pete $300 and Piyush owes $7,000. The bank decides to call in all the loans but instead of seeking a pro rata share from each debtor, it sends Piyush the bill for the entire $18,000.

Well, that certainly seems fair.

Such is life in the administration of Piyush Jindal. Up is down, left is right, in is out, and the playbook of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is sacrosanct.

So now, while his retirement bills appear to be headed toward a torturous death on the Senate floor, our globe-trotting governor prepares for yet another victorious appearance before a friendly audience.

Ever notice, by the way, that the guy absolutely, positively never appears anywhere where the crowd is not friendly—and controlled?

Ever notice that Piyush absotively, posilutely never puts himself in the position of having to answer tough, probing questions?

Give him an audience of ALEC members, LABI meetings, or chambers of commerce and you can’t shut him up (as witnessed by his performance last week in New York) but never will you catch him speaking to an audience of state employees or teachers. Prudent or cowardly? You decide.

So now Jindal is off to New Jersey where he will speak to the American Federation for Children, formerly called All Children Matter until it was fined $5.2 million in 2006 for funneling campaign money into Ohio through the organization’s various state networks. All Children Matter was also fined an unspecified amount for illegal political activity in Wisconsin.

The American Federation for Children, nee All Children Matter, is run by Betsy DeVos, former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. Her brother, Erik Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA, the private security firm that made international headlines in 2007 when its guards killed Iraqi civilians and then attempted to bribe Iraqi officials to quell criticism of their actions.

Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos, contributed $16,000 to Jindal’s first two gubernatorial campaigns in 2003 and 2007. Her husband owns Amway; Amway is a member of ALEC. The circle is now complete.

Betsy DeVos called Jindal one of the nation’s most committed education reformers. “The governor serves as an example of how strong leadership and a bipartisan approach can improve the lives of children, and we can’t wait to hear how he will inspire other governors across the country to stand up for children,” she gushed.

Perhaps he can serve as an inspiration of how not to reform state retirement.

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How do you Teague a Legislator? Ask Jindal; to Teague a teacher, just change the committee rules for witnesses

Posted in Charters, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Teague, Vouchers on March 14, 2012| 7 Comments »

It was more of the same in Baton Rouge Wednesday: a legislator got Teagued, an attempt by a Republican House member to Teague—or at least out teachers for potential Teague-ing—failed, and new light was shed on the Teague-ing of an administration official by Jindal last week.

State Rep. Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) got his comeuppance on Wednesday one day after he voted against legislation pushed by Jindal. Ritchie, was stripped of his vice chairmanship of the House Committee on Insurance after voting no on a tax rebate for those who donate money for scholarships to private and parochial schools.

He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee that approved the legislation, HB 969, on Tuesday. Ritchie, during the committee meeting, asked about mechanics of the bill, including how many children might take advantage of it and how many private and parochial schools could accommodate transfer students.

He also posed questions about whether or not accountability standards would be required at the schools offer the scholarships created through the tax rebates.

HB 969 is one of the bills Jindal wants passed as a means of providing subsidized opportunities for children to attend private or parochial schools. Another bill would use taxpayer dollars for the same purpose.

True to form for Jindal, Ritchie was removed the next day by House Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles). Also true to form, Jindal never does the firing personally, leaving that task to subordinates. In this case, Kleckley is the only one who could have demoted Ritchie.

Rep. Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas) was named by Kleckley to replace Ritchie.

Also on Wednesday, State Rep. Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette), whose district includes Vermilion Parish, opened proceedings at the House Education Committee by introducing a new rule that has never existed in House committee hearings.

The committee was hearing testimony on HB 976 by committee Chairman Stephen Carter (R-Baton Rouge) that would impose sweeping changes, including providing student scholarships for Jindal’s Educational Excellence Program, allow for parent petitions for certain schools to be transferred to the Recovery School District (RSD) and charter school authorization criteria.

Before debate began on the bill, Landry said she had received calls from “concerned constituents” to the effect that some teachers from districts that did not close schools for the day had taken a sick day in order to attend a rally of teachers opposed to Jindal’s education reform.

She made a motion that in addition to the customary practice of witnesses providing their names, where they are from and whom they represent, they be required to state if they were appearing before the committee in a “professional capacity or if they were on annual or sick leave.”

Democrats on the committee were livid. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) said he had never in his tenure in the House seen such a rule imposed on witnesses.

“This house (the Capitol) belongs to the people,” said Rep. Pat Smith (D-Baton Rouge) “and now we’re going to put them in a compromising position? This is an atrocity!”

Committee member Wesley Bishop (D-New Orleans) said, “I have one question: if we approve this motion and if a witness declines to provide that information, will that witness be prohibited from testifying?”

Carter, momentarily taken aback, held a hastily whispered conference before turning back to the microphone to say, “We cannot refuse anyone the opportunity to testify.”

That appeared to make Landry’s motion a moot point but she persisted and the committee ended up approving her motion by a 10-8 vote that was reflective of the 11-6 Republican-Democrat (with one Independent) makeup of the committee.

Edwards lost no time in getting in a parting shot on the passage of the new rule.

Gov. Bobby Jindal was the first to testify and upon completion of his testimony, Edwards observed that no one on the committee appeared overly concerned of whether or not the governor was on annual or sick leave.

Jindal, who had entered the committee room late and knew nothing of the debate and subsequent vote on Landry’s motion, bristled at Edwards, saying, “I’m here as governor.”

The committee, which convened around 9 a.m. Wednesday, was still considering Carter’s bill at midnight.

New Information on Manuel firing

Martha Manuel, former executive director of the Office of Elderly Affairs and who was Teagued last week after criticizing the administration’s decision to transfer her agency from the governor’s office to the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), shed new light on her testimony this week.

Following her dismissal, some said Jindal had no choice since Manual was appointed to the position by Jindal as an unclassified employee at $88,000 per year. One critic said that Tammy Woods, director of Community Programs, who fired Manual by telephone, was correct in justifying the firing because Manuel “was not in line with the governor’s thinking.”

But in a recent radio interview, Manuel said she only testified because she was asked to do so by State Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales) because, Berthelot said, he had been getting a lot of calls to his office about the transfer of the agency.

At that point, her options were somewhat limited. She could have refused, in which case she could have been subpoenaed. Once she testified, she was compelled to testify truthfully or commit perjury.

For his part, Berthelot has nothing to say about the matter.

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