This parent in Louisiana noticed that the state insists that only trained professionals can trim his shrubs.
And only licensed florists can sell flowers to him.
But under Bobby Jindal, the children of Louisiana can be taught by anyone who wants to teach, even if they have less training than a shrub technician or a licensed florist.
And that’s why Louisiana is now an international joke.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Someone with a tad more creativity than me should write up the Onion article that is begging to be brought to life from this bizarre information. “Teachers don’t need no stinkin licences” brought to you by Piyush.
I think dog groomers need training and a license, too. Maybe a list compiled here can be sent to Jindall….what a fool!
Dog trainers do to and on some levels have to have a degree. I knew a woman who was a trainer and she had to have a BS in Animal Behavior plus some other training. But anyone can teach at a charter school.
Bad Jokes in education appear to be Louisiana’s leading growth industry. Story today about how released emails reveal that Supt. John White schemed to cover-up his voucher program blunders and–in his own words–attempted to “muddy the narrative” during legislative hearings on the voucher plan debacle. Apparently it’s not “all about the children”: it’s all about the cover-up. http://tnsne.ws/OcpRzB
With proper media coverage this could be Jindal’s Watergate. A little Gannet paper in North Louisiana, which is normally extremely conservative, the News/Star in Monroe, got hold of the emails and did some quality investigative reporting. This really needs to blow up in Jindal’s face. He will probably just fire that Teach for America minion, John White, but Jindal himself is the one at fault.
Keep us informed here in the northeast. Send an update. I would love to see a TFAer fired. Michelle Rhee next please!
Well they can’t get any other kind of business without tax incentives and who knows what else. A new plant down below Lutcher, NUCOR,(between Baton Rouge and New Orleans) was promised a charter school so their employees’ children would not have to attend the regular schools in St. John the Baptist Parish (Yes, yall, that is the name of the county—Louisiana, remember). Jindal guaranteed them half the seats and control of the charter board. The plant is not even built yet. There have been environmental complaints, apparently swept under the sugar cane fields they are taking out to put it in. I think they are going to have serious trouble getting workers who are willing to live that far down in the country. There is just nothing down there and that is not even the rural part of Louisiana! The nearest “cities” are LaPlace and Gonzales and neither one are anything to talk about.
The film industry is big in Baton Rouge but they are getting such huge tax breaks I doubt that the state benefits much except on things people connected with the movies buy.
From my reading on Ed. Reform in the USA, I think Louisiana might take the cake for the biggest losers. When is Jindal’s term up and do you think he can get re-elected? You guys are in big trouble with him as a “leader”.
That is absolutely correct, as a matter of fact every public service contract that Louisiana lets to contractors (like charter schools), they are required to employ a person with a license for jobs that require menial skills. In New Orleans the garbage contractors that pick up the garbage from all the residential homes are required to employ persons with a specific type of driver’s license, but a person who failed the GED test can teach chemistry in our charter schools. It validates my claim that our Governor and Legislature is bent on privatizing our public schools at any cost.
It’s very clear that this reform movement (funded by corporations) is about resources not children while charter management companies and operators are making millions of dollars daily in our schools. Needless to say that this wasn’t difficult with our “coin operated” Governor and Legislature.
… “Coin Operated” Governor and Legislature. What a great and sadly accurate term to describe them. Thanks NOLA Imperative for this description.
I sure hope everyone who reads this blog reads the link the statements came from. I love that parent. Also the article that indicates the TFA alum Supt, John White has just got to cover his behind. http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20120702/NEWS01/207020308/Emails-reveal-voucher-scheme?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE Everyday there is a new page written on Louisiana’s ed reform. An author who writes a complete book on the reforms will no doubt have a best seller.
Is this John White guy another TFA’er? Isn’t it about time they lose their self-appointed glowing reputation? They teach for 2-3 years max, become reformers and go around the US screwing up everyone’s public schools….Rhee, Ex-hubby Tennessee dude (forget his name, White….any others to add to the list?
TFA shoud be come LFA…lie for America
Yes he is a TFA dreamer, was a Deputy Supt. in New York prior to becoming the Supt. in the state urn district in New Orleans. After less than two months on the job the Governor pushed into the state supt. job. So he has the usual lack of training and experience that the corporate reforms love.
Kevin Huffman.
That was in response to Linda.
Yes Linda he is. Michael Bloomberg sent him to Bobby from New York. I think he was a classroom seat warmer for TFA for about two years and then moved into administration. He was the superintendent for the Recovery District in New Orleans for a few months (state run failing schools—lowest test scores in the state) before Bobby got BESE lined up with his clones in the last election and got White in. Prior to that Bobby had to much opposition on BESE to get White approved. But he padded the election campaign funds of two conservative candidates—Holly Boffy and Chas Roemer, so that with his two appointees he could get what he wanted. Roemer somehow managed to beat out Donald Songy, the recently retired and extremely respected former superintendent of Ascension Parish Schools, one of the highest scoring systems in the state.
I have met and worked with many TFA workers since the late 1990s and have found only two that seemed to be any good. Both are very young and one is teaching autistic kids. I must give her grace, she seems to have the gift and not many people can truly say they love teaching kids with autism, not even special ed teachers. She appears to actually be family! She is staying for a 3rd year in a rural parish. Her friend is teaching regular and her kids had scores as high as those of her lead teacher. She was crying because the principal tried to get rid of her. I get the impression it was a racial thing. But she finally renigged on it. These two were seriously the exception. Most of them had no classroom management skills and were arrogant.
A friend was a paraprofessional for a TFA but was a retired teacher. She had no special ed. experience and neither did the TFA so she would call me for advice and then pass it on to him.
Apparently it is a revolving door of reformers reforming each others’ reforms. I have said that before and it is never ending. We have your old time NO reformer here in CT. What a disaster! How do they earn their stellar reputations when all they do is lie, spin, juke the stats, spend money that will never reach the kids and repeat the entire process over and over. Read this exposé recently published in CT about the great Paul Valla, self-appointed king of reformers.
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/once_you_get_past_the_tweets_school_turnaround_shortcomings_abound/
It appears many in the Bloomberg regime at the DOE are TFA dropouts turned eduational experts and he ships them out to help other states conquer and divide. Power, money, arrogance and ignorance….a deadly combination.
News article put out by news star reveals a Jindal/White voucher “scheme”. The article is backed by private emails, that somehow were placed in their public state email accounts!
barbers, bar tenders, every business owner, every nurse, hygienist, LPN, doctor, physical therapist, anyone that has a license/bonded/and insured for their work
Yes it is true. Only a licensed florist can sell flowers in Louisiana, but only if they are in an arrangement. If they are just loose flowers and you arrange them yourself, the florist does not have to be licensed. I think that law was passed last year.
Oh, and only funeral homes can sell caskets in the state. A group of monks who make caskets to support the elderly in their order have been fighting this for quite a while. But if you are locked up at Angola, the big state prison, and die, you get a nice casket made by inmates in the casket shop. Billy Graham is also getting one of the Angola caskets by special request. It is already built and ready to go and the guy who made it died.
If they enforced the law about the shrubs, and maybe that is a city or parish ordinance instead of a state law, there would be an awful lot of guys with lawnmowers and weedeaters out of work. With the economy lilke it is and the low level of education at a lot of people have, they would have to teach school at one of Jindal’s charters instead!