Governor Bobby Jindal eliminated a $4 million program that provides home care for people with developmental disabilities. You know, the state can’t afford it.
But the state treasurer pointed out that the Louisiana Department of Education spent an astonishing $615 million on consultants in the five years from 2005-2010.
According to the local media:
“State Treasurer John Kennedy gave Gov. Bobby Jindal an idea last week of where to find dollars to expand home services for the developmentally disabled.
“Jindal vetoed $4 million that would have allowed more disabled to get care that keeps them out of institutions.
“Kennedy said in his “opinion column” that even though “money is tight” there is a way to restore the funding. A “good start” would be for Jindal to reverse his axing of a legislative plan to cut $2 million in consulting contracts.
“The state Department of Education pays tens of millions of dollars to consultants each year, many of whom are out-of-state,” Kennedy wrote. “In fact, from 2005 to 2010, the department issued 5,499 consulting contracts worth $615,773,580.74.”
Some of the $615 million spent for consultants:
Contract #662421; “Create a public awareness campaign targeting multiple
audiences in Louisiana to establish a positive image of high school
redesign;” $341,465.48.
Contract #655743; “Contractor to provide services related to interactions
with media, arrange interviews and provide reporters with information, draft
written materials;” $100,000.
Contract #663689; “Contractor will select and train focused individuals from
within education, as well as former educators, to become leaders in the
RSD;” $200,000.
Contract #672113; “Contractor to provide program that will assist students
to learn valuable social skills through organized play on their recess and
lunch periods;” $94,000.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why spend money to change reality when you can invest it in changing perceptions?
That is the same thing Jindal wants to do as the head of the Republican Governor’s Association, change people’s perception of the GOP rather than change the GOP. Essentially, his plan is to put lipstick on a pig, to quote another notable Republican.
Here is the link to Kennedy’s op-ed that contains the specific contract items referenced in the above post :
http://thehayride.com/2013/07/kennedy-theres-a-nice-pot-of-money-available-to-fund-the-disabled/
Keep in mind that “Change Agent” Paul Vallas was superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD) 2007-2011, during which several hundred million dollars of these Daley machine-style pork-barrel contracts were let. So the “new paradigm” was not so new after all.
It’s no wonder the “colleges” of education are not well respected by the university community. As a second career teacher, I am amazed at the money my district spends on outside consultants who deliver very little. There is an entire industry that wants to help improve our education system. The trouble is, we are still trying to implement the last change to end all changes. The message is very clear. What we do is never good enough.
Bill,
Most of the money spent on consultants is wasted, in my humble opinion.
Totally agree…and yet we see more of them every year. My friends in higher ed report the same thing.
Consultants..always money in the budget for them.
Now how does that work out if we are so broke?
It’s like any other kickback scheme. They know that a set percentage of the funds will be recycled back into their own campaign coffers.
This reminds me of an old Farside cartoon picturing the devil walking along with a worried looking man in a hand basket. The sign said, well you know…
Somebody’s in league with the devil.
It’s even worse. And the waiting lists are 10 years or more long. Savvy parents register their kids shortly after birth if they have a disability, before they are even sure they will need assistance. But see, nursing homes are pro-profit businesse and the state institutions have been privatized, so Jindal doesn’t discourage programs that rely predominantly on locking disabled people up. Louisiana has some of the highest percentages of people locked up in nursing homes in America.
Jindal also cut out the $75,000 that was previously given to LATAN which helps disabled individuals by lending them assistive technology and helps them get loans and grants to buy their own after they figure out which pieces are right for them. A lot of these are adults with conditions like blindness and ALS. Assistive tech is very specialized and you don’t want to pay thousands for a piece of equipment that is not right for you for your family member. Some of the legislators tried to call a veto session in order to override Jindal, but they were a few votes short of enough cooperation.
Well, fiscally, it makes a lot of sense. Those disabled people should move into institutions where it’s a lot cheaper to care for them.
Oh, wait….
Now the jindalclones have just acquired a supermajority in the Legislature, so we can expect worse schools, more draconian policies against teachers, and more testing. A friend who works for Teacher Retirement says they have been coming in in droves all year. Yet John White’s latest screed was that teachers were quitting for “financial reasons”. The first time he said it was just the incompetent ones that were leaving. Louisiana will soon have no veteran educators. Then who will teacher the TFAs how to do their job??
Administrators are trying to paint a picture of hope by telling us, ” Don’t worry. Louisianan can’t possibly let them fire 10% of our teachers!! No one is going to get fired as long as they are teaching CCSS and doing their job!”
Really? Bet they will each find a few to throw into the sacrificial 10% volcano in May 2014.
OMG….Louisiana. Sorry.
Do you notice that all but one of the listed contracts have to do with public relations and perception of the schools and only one with actually teaching the students anything.
In America (sic) these days perception trumps reality through and through.
Not sure if we can trust Kennedy either. We is looking at the governorship or at least the Lt. Governor. Might be better than another of Jindal’s choices however, one that would be even worse than Jindal himself, if that is possible, Senator David Vitter.
Vitter is the senator that touts anti-gay rhetoric and family values but had a regular prostitute.
she was a heterosexual christian prostitute
There remains a little hope for the efforts to get the services for disabled kids increased since one of the Republican legislators, John Alario, has a disabled child. The group pushing for services is pretty well organized and their cause is very sympathetic here. Back a year or so ago a similar group backed Jindal down from a policy that people could only get hospice care if locked up in a nursing home.
Sickening.
There is a reason that Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst gave Louisiana high marks when it pompously decided to grade the states according to the ed reform agenda: Ed reform caters to privatization, and Jindal is a privatizer.
It seems that Florida functions the same way. This must be the new version of “compassionate conservatism.”
“compassionate conservatism.” Ah, one of the venerable oxymorons of our times!!!
Yes–I read the news today that the U.S. Department of Justice is suing the State of Florida for warehousing disabled children.
Meanwhile, right here at home, the disabled and the elderly are losing their “Access a Ride” and they are losing it before the expiration date on their cards. And, we are learning that the new 911 multimillion dollar (probably no-bid) contract is having glitches with the new computer system and ambulances are not getting the information because their computers keep crashing. The mayor calls his a hiccup only because no one has died. Gotta love this guy!! And today another love-fest editorial from the NYTimes.
Notice how all these cuts effect the disenfranchised.
Who gives a crap about the disenfranchised. They cost too much.
It’s not clear why hiring consultants is a bad thing of itself. If $4M in services for home care is good, why not other services? The question is more about the mean spiritedness of the cuts.