Archives for category: Louisiana
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A Bad Week for John White, Jindal’s Superintendent: UPDATED LINK

By dianeravitch
October 24, 2012 //
4

A nice summary of a bad week for John White, who was hired to implement Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan to privatize public education in Louisiana.

The blogger has an apt title for the week, referring to a delightful children’s book: John White and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Last spring, Jindal pushed through the legislature the nation’s most sweeping voucher plan, hoping to undermine public education.

The legislation encourages charters and enacts a teacher evaluation plan that is tied to test scores and extremely punitive.

If the voucher process is any indication, privatization will move ahead with minimal regulation or quality controls.

Louisiana enacted virtually every piece of ALEC legislation. You might say that the state is the poster child for ALEC.

The state is throwing open the door to for-profit entrepreneurs or anyone who wants a piece of the public schools’ minimum foundation budget

A federal judge will decide whether the state is diverting money that was supposed to support desegregation into the voucher program.

More than half the children in the state are eligible–about 450,000 students–but only 10,000 or so applied.

The schools they will attend are mainly religious, and some lack even the rudiments of a decent education, like a curriculum, classrooms, teachers–the little things like that.

And the Jindal charterization of the state has hardly begun.

White has a herculean task, doing what privatizers like to do: handing public money over to private interests with little if any oversight.

And lots of out-of-state money flowed into Louisiana to make sure that Jindal gained control of the state board so that Jindal got just the guy he wanted to do the dirty work, and all these privatization plans would move forward, along with new contracts for–what else–TFA.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Privatization, Vouchers

Should Vouchers Take Money Away from Desegregation?

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2012 //
3

A federal judge in Louisiana called on TFA State Commissioner of Education John White to explain why his voucher program should be allowed to take public funds from a school district that is using its funding to comply with desegregation orders. The judge wants to know why he should not enjoin the implementation of the voucher program.

As we have seen in other states, vouchers and charters intensify segregation, but that is not a concern to Governor Bobby Jindal and Commissioner White.

This should be interesting.

Categories Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Vouchers

Bobby Jindal’s Little White Lies

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2012 //
5

Voters in one of Louisiana’s high-performing school districts are angry that their public schools will lose funding to pay for Governor Bobby Jindal’s harebrained voucher scheme, which sends students to backwoods fundamentalist schools that teach religious doctrine.

Jindal insisted that this could not possibly be true, that the vouchers were drawing money from someplace else, not from local taxes. Where does he think taxes come from? Is there a reserve fund in the bayou?

This blog calls him out for trying to hoodwink smart people. In fact, the schools of St. Tammany Parish stand to lose more than $2 million to satisfy the governor’s ideological wishes.

Apparently stung by a series of public meetings in St. Tammany Parish, during which school board members laid out the damage that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education agenda is causing to public schools, the governor “launched an offensive last week to say local tax dollars are not actually being used to help pay for some students to go to private schools,” according to Advocate columnist Mark Ballard.

The governor’s attorney told Ballard that “No local funds, not one dime of property ad valorem taxes or of property taxes or of any millages, any taxes, can be traced” to a student attending a private or religious school because of Jindal’s voucher scheme.

That artfully worded dodge conceals the fact that the state funds the vouchers in part by holding back money that would otherwise be sent to local school systems. As Ballard writes, “The state writes a check to the private schools and discounts local school districts the same amount.”

That amount includes money approved by local taxpayers for teacher salaries, school construction or other local education needs.

Categories Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers

Why Are Billionaires Funding School Board Races in Louisiana?

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2012 //
7

There are few investigative writers in education journalism these days. It is disturbingly rare to find writers who look behind the press releases, the hype and spin.

One place that cries out for investigative journalism is Louisiana, the locus for the most extreme privatization schemes. The governor is now imposing the New Orleans model on the entire state, and many hold up New Orleans as a national model. That means wiping out public education.

So here is an excellent article that does what journalists are supposed to do: Matthew Cunningham follows the money. He looks closely at the money flowing into the state school board races. In 2007, the total spent was about a quarter million dollars. In 2011, it was multiplied by ten times, to $2.6 million. Read the article to see where the money came from.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), K12 Inc., Louisiana, New Orleans

Vermillion Parish School Board Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2012 //
4

Vermillion Parish School Board in Louisiana joins the Honor Roll as a hero of public education because of its refusal to bow down to the unjust, unwise demands of the State Department of Education. The Louisiana State Department of Education is not at all “conservative.” It believes that bureaucracy should override local control and that the people should hand their local schools over to the whims of the state.

The Louisiana Department of Education chastised four school districts for refusing to obey the Legislature’s command to pay no attention to seniority or tenure when laying off teachers. Three of the four districts–including Vermillion–are among the top 15 districts in the state.

You see, the Legislature thinks it knows more about how to reform education than the best districts and the best educators in the state. Ditto State Commissioner John White, who has only two years teaching for Teach for America and has never been a principal or a superintendent until he was suddenly elevated to his present job by Governor Bobby Jindal, who wants to privatize public education and implement the full ALEC agenda.

The Legislature passed a law (Act 1) last spring saying that layoffs should be based “solely” on demand, performance, and effectiveness. Vermillion’s attorney says that the board has a policy based on the same criteria, but it uses experience as a tie-breaker. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the state, the high-performing Vermillion has a teachers’ union, and the district agreed with the union that seniority or tenure would be used as a secondary way to reduce staff.

Anthony Fontana, a member of the Vermillion school board, spoke plainly about what the Jindal administration was trying to do:

“This is an opportunity for Jindal’s administration to bad mouth public education,” said Fontana. “This is another attack on public education. We are not going to stand for it. We have to stand up and fight.”

Jerome Puyau, the superintendent elect of Vermission Parish Schools said, “Our policy does protect great teachers by adding more objective criteria, it takes away the possibility of politics coming into play whether it is the board or superintendent who institutes it. Vermilion Parish respects the experience, certification, and training that great teachers have achieved through the years and has always placed these criteria for major consideration in hiring which is a major reason that Vermilion Parish has been so successful with student achievement.”

This contretemps makes clear what is behind the Jindal agenda: Not improving schools, but privatizing them, even if it ruins the good schools that already exist in Louisiana.

For standing up to the Bullies of Baton Rouge, the Vermillion Parish School Board joins our H0nor Roll as a hero of public education.

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, ALEC, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Teacher Tenure

Louisiana Evaluation System Flunks Top Teachers

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2012 //
18

Teachers in some of Louisiana’s best schools are getting low ratings. Because their students already have high scores, the teachers are not getting high value-added scores, and many of he state’s best teachers will be rated ineffective. A teacher rated ineffective two years in a row may be fired.

Test scores count for 50% of every teacher’s evaluation.

State Commissioner of Education John White defends the state’s harsh system, even though it appears set to remove excellent teachers from top schools.

How long will it take before the people who launched this inaccurate, unreliable, invalid way of evaluating teachers acknowledge their error? Will they ever admit they were wrong or will they just continue ruining the lives of children and teachers? How long until the public throws them all out and tells them to find another line of work?

Categories Accountability, Louisiana, Teacher Evaluations

A State Board Member Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2012 //
11

Carolyn Hill ran for a seat on the Louisiana state education board as a reformer. But after she assumed office, she realized that “reform” was intended to privatize the public schools, not improve them.

For having the wisdom and courage to see beyond the rhetoric; for speaking out and acting on behalf of children and educators, Carolyn Hill joins our honor roll as a hero of public education.

Commentary: In Louisiana, trickery is disguised as school reform

As a member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, I am writing to express my disappointment in the deceptive practices that are being used to disparage our traditional schools and educators.

I ran for the BESE position because I wanted to be an integral part of reforming schools in Louisiana. My campaign was based on reform. Shortly after being elected to the state board, I realized what is being offered up as reform is nothing more than trickery.

I am reminded of the biblical story relating to Adam and Eve. God warned Adam not to eat of the forbidden fruit; yet, Eve manipulated Adam and evil arose from the eating of this fruit. I use this example to inform my constituents and the public that everything that glistens isn’t gold. Many so-called reformers are trashing traditional public schools while many parents are facing real discrimination.

Choice is being sold to many parents as the silver bullet. However, many parents have reported their concerns and confusion regarding the responses they have received. Some students are being denied access to schools of their choice. I want to appeal to parents to exercise caution with their choice options. The virtual learning opportunities, if not monitored, may have far reaching implications regarding student success. Be wise and proactive in your choice decisions and don’t accept less than was promised.

I recall growing up and revering the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. However, as an African-American, I am concerned that there is silence regarding the future of our children. Where are our leaders? Why do we want out-of-state vendors to come to Louisiana to educate our children? Where are the standards? Why do we promote certification in traditional schools and don’t require the same standards for charter schools? Why are we operating under different standards? Why does a state Board of Education and Legislature make a distinction between education providers? Why would any board of education not require certification and testing when education is all about the attainment of standards?

I did campaign on education reform — responsible reform — where there is an equitable playing field. The education reform that exists in Louisiana today consists of irresponsible education policies and laws. Again, I am saddened that many have forgotten the struggles of King and others who have taken a stand for all people.

Are we going to abandon this legacy?

I am also reminded of all the elected officials who were in opposition to the education reform legislation during this past legislative session. I want to say thank you. I also say we must not abandon our responsibilities. We must rise to be the voices for our children, parents, and educators. If we don’t stand openly and vocally for our children, then it may be said we are as guilty as if we had eaten of the forbidden fruit.

—Carolyn Hill is the District 8 member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Honor Roll, Louisiana, Privatization

Ever Heard of These Charters?

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2012 //
7

Louisiana passed its historic privatization legislation last spring, which included not only vouchers for more than half the students in the state, but inducement for many organizations to open multiple charter schools.

Now the state is getting swamped with applications from unknown or little-known groups. Maybe it is your Uncle Harry and Aunt Mabel. Maybe it is the guy who usually runs a hardware store. Maybe it is a dentist and his friends. Are they qualified to run schools?

Who knows?

People in public schools call them “pop-up charters” because they materialized out of nowhere to grab some funding away from the public schools. Yes, that. Every charter that opens, no matter how unqualified its founders or inexperienced its teachers, takes money away from the minimum foundation funding fo the state’s public schools. Once they get set up and operating, there is no one to hold them accountable. Accountability is only for public schools.

This is a money grab, plain and simple. And call it what is is: privatization.

Please look over this list and see if you ever heard of any of these would-be charter operators.

Frankly it seems that Bobby Jindal and John White don’t care who sets themselves up in business and calls themselves a school, so long as they take money away from public schools.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Louisiana, Privatization

Playing Games with Data in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2012 //
18

Yesterday I wrote a post about how the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education was pulling a few fancy tricks to inflate the scores of charter schools. This makes it easier to claim that they are incredibly successful (when they are not) and persuade the Legislature to add many more.

But it turns out that Louisiana is even slicker than Pennsylvania when it comes to playing games with the data. One of our readers, whom I deduce is or was an employee of the Louisiana Department of Education, has the goods.

Read this post and please be sure to open the link for more chicanery in Baton Rouge. The bottom line: Now that Bobby Jindal and John White control the State Department of Education, don’t trust the data they produce.

Actually, John White and Louisiana have already perfected several of these techniques and added a few twists of their own. I’ve documented some of the tricks being used here:

Louisiana Managing Expectations and Manipulating the Public – for example: “T” isn’t for Terrible Schools, it’s for Turnaround Schools!

Basically they are defining schools they take over and/or turn over to charter operators as “Turnaround” schools for two years and don;t report any data on them. If the scores don’t improve they plan to reassign them to a new charter. Only schools that do well will ever get reported. Additionally, all of the recovery school district in New Orleans is defined as a small school district, less than 1000 students. Even though taken together they easily exceed that coun. Several of the sub-districts like Algiers have multiple sites and exceed that number, but for purposes of reporting the data for these districts LDE has decided to count the schools as their own district. I’m pretty sure even then we have one or two schools with more than 1000 students, but this has been reported by our departing accountabilty folks to USDOE with no apparent effect.

PA’s only mistake is not reporting what they were doing, USDOE doesn’t care if you cook the numbers, as long as you tell them you are I guess.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Privatization, Vouchers

The Next Targets of Corporate Reform

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2012 //
21

Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute summarizes “What’s Next” for reformers (some prefer to call them privatizers).

Race to the Top was a great coup for the privatizers/reformers.

Now they plan to follow up with a direct assault on schools of education, abetted by NCTQ’s forthcoming rankings, to be published by US News. NCTQ was created by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation a dozen years ago, and saved at the outset by a $5 million grant from Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In 2005, it got caught up in a federal investigation for taking money from the Department to speak well of NCLB. Read here to learn more about NCTQ.

The privatizers intend to move on principal evaluation, to make it more like teacher evaluation (test scores matter).

Pension reform will be high on their agenda.

Privatizers will promote digital learning by removing seat time requirements and following the guidance of former Governor Jeb Bush on this subject. No mention is made of the negative evaluations of cyber charters, both by Stanford’s CREDO and the National Education Policy Center, or of exposes that appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post about the awful performance of cyber charters.

Gird your loins, folks, the privatizers are flush with victories in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Florida, and other states, and they are coming back to do some more reforming.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Alternate Route To Certification, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Louisiana, Pensions, Principals, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Technology, Computers, Testing, US Education
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