Louisiana Voice

Just a reminder that we’re halfway through May and this is only the third reminder of our May fundraiser.

That’s because I hate begging when I know there are so many thousands who are truly in need of food, clothing and basic shelter.

Please contribute to your local Food Bank for their sake and if you have anything left, do remember that it takes finances to keep this blog up to date with the news you want to read. I would be ever so grateful for your help in keeping the investigative stories coming.

We’re presently working on no fewer than three stories of corruption and secretive transactions that stretch from the Arkansas border to extreme southwest Louisiana.

Contribute whatever you’re comfortable with by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right to give by credit card. Unlike a certain grifting former guy, this is a single contribution and WILL NOT BE A RECURRING CHARGE!

President Harry Truman’s Oval Office desk had a placard on it that famously proclaimed, The Buck Stops Here.

That was Truman’s way of saying that whatever happened with U.S. domestic or foreign policy, the responsibility for all decisions rested on his desk. He never dodged that responsibility. Whatever happened, he owned it.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had drafted a letter in which he took full responsibility for the outcome of the D-Day invasion – just in case the bold tactic proved to be a disaster for the Allies. As most of us know, the Allied losses were horrendous, but the invasion ultimately ended in victory and Ike never had to send his letter. But the point is, he stood ready to take full responsibility in case things had gone south.

That is ultimately what really defines leadership: the willingness to accept responsibility.

That being the case, Kenneth “Kenny” Loftin should immediately withdraw his name from consideration for deputy secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice.

For that matter, what the hell was Jeff Landry thinking when he submitted his name for nomination to the post?

Senate Speaker Pro Tem Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge) seems to agree as does the Legislative Black Caucus.

The allegations of rape, beatings and suicides were so bad that the New York Times ran a lengthy story about Ware. Some call the practice of swooping and writing such stories “parachute journalism,” but no member of the Louisiana media seemed willing to attempt an in-depth story so The Times dropped in. More power to them for it.

The issue does not appear on the surface to be a matter of race so much as one of abuse – and suicides – at Ware Youth Center in Coushatta.

Loftin, who opened and ran Ware from 1993 to 2015 and again in 2021 to 2022, has not been accused of any direct involvement of the alleged abuse, including rapes and beatings, but it happened on his watch and his response was to call 10 formerly incarcerated girls and staff members at the facility who gave detailed accounts of the alleged abuse to the New York Times “liars.”

“So, they made it up?” asked Sen. Gary Carter (D-New Orleans) during a legislative hearing on the accusations.

“Yes, they made it up,” Loftin answered.

Perhaps the suicides of a 16-year-old girl in March 2017 and the suicides of 17-year-old and 13-year-old boys just two days apart in February 2019 were also lies. And the 64 alleged suicide attempts in 2019 and 2020 appear to be a tad excessive. Granted, all these incidents occurred during a time when Loftin was not running Ware but for years Ware’s leaders, including Loftin, failed to report complaints of abuse, hired unqualified employees and disregarded state rules, The Times article said.

But never fear. State Inspector General Stephen Street came riding to the rescue.

In a 38-page report issued just last month (April 25), Street informs us that remedial steps had been taken since the suicides to address oversights such as not having checked on the 13-year-old for more than two hours or the 17-year-old for 45 minutes despite regulations requiring visual checks at 15-minute intervals.

Another neat defensive measure was to move bars to the outside of windows so they could not be used as tie-off points in hanging attempts. Digital readers were also installed that required staff members to show they completed room checks by digitally swiping a handheld device.

Question: didn’t anyone in charge have sufficient foresight to have taken those steps long before there were “incidents”?

Bottom line to Street’s REPORT? Ware is now “safe and secure.”

feath·er·bed

/ˈfeT͟Hərˌbed/

verb

gerund or present participle: featherbedding

1. BRITISH

provide (someone) with advantageous economic or working conditions.

• deliberately limit production or retain excess staff in (a business) in order to create jobs or prevent unemployment, typically as a result of a union contract.

The cost of a college education is going up – again – and maybe you’re wondering why.

When I was a student at Louisiana Tech (granted, this was a while back; I got my B.A. in 1970), my costs for a college education were about $100 per quarter (Tech is the only state school that employes the quarter system as opposed to semesters for all other schools).

When I first enrolled at Tech in 1961 (I dropped out to enter the military and returned as a veteran), tuition was an eye-popping $15, plus a few incidental fees and books.

That hundred-buck cost, of course, did not include housing (I lived at home), meals (I ate at home) or infirmary fees nor did it include books. Suffice it to say, those would’ve cost a tad more but still nothing like what it costs to set foot in a college classroom today.

Nowadays, depending on the number of hours you take, Tech can cost in the neighborhood of 10 grand. That’s a pretty good neighborhood. Just down the road, one can settle in at Grambling State University for about $7,700 per year but it’s a smidgen more at the state’s flagship university, LSU, where it will cost an in-state student about $12,000 per year – more than $28,000 for out-of-staters.

That’s for now.

HOUSE BILL 862, by Rep. Jason Hughes (D-New Orleans), has passed the House by a whopping 90-7 vote (to see how your representative voted, go HERE). That bill gives colleges and universities free rein to jack tuition and fees ever higher, making it increasingly unaffordable for many kids to go to college, even with TOPS help.

So, where does that money go? I mean, LSU, for example has more than 37,000 students. The University of Louisiana Lafayette, the state’s second-largest public university, has 16,200. Tech has 12,400.

But for our purposes, we will consider LSU.

LSU has some 5,800 employees on its Baton Rouge campus.

Of that 5,800, there are 1,416 full-time professors (355), associate professors (327), assistant professors (353) and instructors (381). The pay spreads are rather stark. Professors make from $80,000 to $312,000); associate professors from a low of $56,000 to a high of $240; assistant professors between $50,000 and $190,000 and instructors between a poverty-level $16,000 and $106,000 (except for one part-time instructor whose pay was list at $114,000).

And while there are 1,416 full-time teachers on campus for those 37,000 students, for the 614 total athletes at LSU (315 men and 299 women), there are:

• 18 head coaches – one at $475,000, one at $400,000, two others at more at $380,000 and $310,000 (not counting millions that the Tiger Athletic Foundation might be chipping in);
• 7 assistant head coaches – two at $400,000 each, another at $355,000;
• 52 assistant coaches – 7 at $400,000 each, three others at between $310,000 and $350,000;
• 1 athletic director at $525,000;
• 13 assistant athletic directors earning between $92,000 and $425000;
• 8 trainers ($51,000 to $91,000);
• 7 assistant trainers ($64,000 to $105,000 and yes, I’m also stumped as to how assistant trainers earn more than trainers).

As near as I can figure it out, there are 106 full-time employees in the athletic department to tend to the needs of 614 student-athletes.

But not to worry. The Ol’ War Skule has 62 librarians to handle the requirements of 37,000 students. The breakdown:

• 23 librarians ($42,000 to $100,000);
• 21 assistant head librarians ($55,000 to $104,000);
• 15 assistant librarians ($46,000 to $79,000)
• 3 library specialists ($34,000 to $50,000).

It gets better.

• 13 auditors ($55,000 – $258,000);
• 52 accountants ($51,000 – $88,000)
• 7 accounting technicians ($40,000 – $50,000
• 3 purchasing agents ($42,000 – $50,000)
• 5 assistant purchasing directors ($104,000 each)
• 50 business managers ($55,000 – $110,000)
• 12 directors of business and fiscal affairs ($70,000 – $178,000)
• 34 business & fiscal staff members ($44,000 – $70,000)
• 7 attorneys ($70,000 – $379,000);
• 3 paralegals ($61,000 – $139,000)
• 45 department heads ($67,000 – $281,000);
• 14 project leaders ($68,000 – $100,000)
• 4 project supervisors ($70,000 – $85,000);
• 12 project coordinators ($45,000 – $77,000) would someone please explain the difference between a leader, a supervisor and a coordinator?
• 53 program managers ($58,000 – $103,000);
• 34 administrative program specialists ($47,000 – $69,000);
• 24 executive directors ($74,000 – $275,000);
• 72 directors of academic affairs ($84,000 – $177,000)
• 111 associate directors ($45,000 – $147,000);
• 225 assistant directors ($41,000 – $125,000);
• 61 assistants to the director ($42,000 – $65,000) I don’t know the difference, either, but what on earth do all those directors direct?
• 258 managers ($33,000 – $143,000);
• 12 assistant managers ($47,000 – $52,000;
• 53 program managers ($58,000 – $103,000);
• 23 analysts ($50,000 – $150,000);
• 178 computer analysts ($43,000 – $150,000);

There’s more:

• 12 project coordinators ($45,000 – $77,000);
• 66 administrative coordinators ($30,000 – $53,000);
• 554 plain ol’ coordinators ($30,000 – $65,000). Wait HOW many? How many coordinates would that many coordinators coordinate if they weren’t coordinating all over each other?
• 16 deans ($113,000 – $290,000);
• 32 associate deans ($69,000 – $221,000);
• 38 assistant deans ($73,000 – $158,000);
• 94 post-doctorate research scientists ($43,000 – $63,000);
• 36 research scientists ($40,000 – $91,000);
• 86 research associates ($43,000 – $63,000);
• 79 counselors ($40,000 – $74,000);
• 4 junior counselors ($45,000 – $55,000);
• 114 nonteaching professionals ($33,000 – $120,000);
• 1 interpreter ($93,000)
• 1 president ($725,000);
• 11 vice presidents ($230,000 – $475,000)

Eleven vice presidents? We as a nation of more than 300 million don’t seem to need more than one vice president.

Looking over some of these positions, I’m reminded of a term that was specific to railroading back in the day called featherbedding. But hey, that’s just me. They’re going up with tuition and fees so even more may be placed on the payrolls

If you like any of the three stories below, or if you appreciate truly independent journalism, then I would respectfully ask that you consider helping to keep the stories coming during our May fundraising drive.

The Jeff Landry administration promises to keep me busy. That, along with ongoing investigations in parishes throughout the state – from Shreveport to New Orleans, from St. Tammany to Calcasieu – will require expenditures for gasoline, overnight lodging, and public records (when I can get them).

I humbly ask that you give what you can: $5, $10, $20 or whatever. Unlike some other online services, I don’t hold monthly fundraisers. They are twice a year: May and October. Those and the sale of my books are the only sources of revenue to keep the investigative stories coming.

You may click on the yellow DONATE button to the immediate right or mail a check to: Tom Aswell, 107 North College Street West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726.

As always, your continued support is appreciated more than you know.