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A Further Perspective
Vouching for Bobby Jindal
The education establishments wants him recalled, even as as education reforms are felt far beyond Louisiana.
While the national media has focused most of its attention on the school voucher program Gov. Bobby Jindal has implemented in Louisiana, it is just one small part of a larger set of reforms that could reverberate across state lines.
By empowering students, parents and local school officials with greater autonomy and decision-making authority, Gov. Jindal has put himself at odds with his state’s education establishment, which has instigated a recall effort and a slew of lawsuits aimed at scuttling the reforms.
Under state law, the recall effort would need about 957,000 certified signatures pulled from the 2.87 million registered voters, according to the Louisiana secretary of state’s office. Since Jindal was re-elected with 66 percent of the voter this past October, and maintains high approval ratings, it is fair to say the recall effort faces an uphill climb.
“It’s going to be virtually impossible to get the number of signatures required for a recall,” Brigitte Nieland, vice-president and communications director of the Education and Workforce Development Council for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), said. “I think this is dead in the water. It’s really just a lot of posturing.”
In addition to Jindal, the recall effort also targets House Speaker Chuck Kleckley and Reps. Greg Cromer, Ray Garofalo and Kevin Pearson, all Republicans, who backed the education reform package. Jason Doré, the state GOP executive director, is leading a freedom of information act request to see exactly how many signatures have been gathered.
“Recalling the individual lawmakers is a more realistic goal, but even here they are having trouble,” Nieland said. “Education reform is moving ahead in Louisiana and it won’t be stopped. The recall effort and the lawsuits come from a coalition that is part of the past.”
Rick Hess, the director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is particularly keen on idea of shifting personnel decisions away from school boards to superintendents and principals. This change to school governance, which is now operative in Louisiana thanks to Gov. Jindal, is worth considering in other parts of the country, Hess suggested.
“”The whole point of a school board is to provide direction and oversight,” he said. “But what we see too often is a kind of intrusive micromanaging that does not fit anyone’s idea of good government and good management. It means the boards are not doing their job well, and they are not allowing the superintendents and principals to do their jobs well either.”
Gov. Jindal also signed off on legislation that enables voters to limit school board members to three consecutive four-year terms. Michael Walker-Jones, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), is not certain term limits will achieve the desired effect. He sees an advantage in having experienced school board members.
“Having an institutional memory on the school board can be important,” he observed. “Each district faces unique challenges, each district has its history and there is something to be said for having people on the board who have the knowledge and experience.”
Rep. Stephen Pugh, the Republican who sponsored the term limits bill, places greater weight on “fresh ideas” than he does on experience.
“When you look at where our state is ranked and my parish is ranked in terms of education, it’s clear that we need a new approach,” he said. “School board members exert influence over important policy matters like curriculum and we need fresh ideas. That’s why I like the idea of term limits.”
In 2011, Louisiana was ranked 48th out of all 50 states for K-12 student achievement. Statistics also show that one-third of the state’s students are performing below grade level. Louisiana ranks last in the number of fourth graders who read proficiently and it also has the highest drop-out rate in the country.
In light of these disconcerting figures, Camille Conaway, a public policy researcher with Blueprint Louisiana, based in Baton Rouge, was supremely disappointed to see the teachers unions offer up legislation that would essentially restore the status quo. One bill would have reinstated permissive tenure policies, while the other would enable school boards to have the final say over personnel matters, she explained.
The union-backed proposal on school governance, for instance, would “re-establish a lengthy and bureaucratic process not only for teacher discharge but even for discipline matters,” Conaway said. Rather than empowering local officials, the union plan “would remove personnel decision making from the superintendent and return Louisiana to a political process led by school board members, and restore tenure as we know it,” she added.
About the Author
Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with free market think tanks associated with the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. He has also written for the Daily Caller, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, NetRightDaily.com and NewsBusters.
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JamesDrouin| 8.17.12 @ 6:59AM
Union members performing badly and unions behaving in a manner that only the mentally retarded left wing liberal Democrats find acceptable...what a surprise.
Aristocat| 8.18.12 @ 4:16AM
Taxpayer-funded government schools are unconstitutiona for several reasons:
1) They violate Equal Protection clause because they do not treat all students equally...Only students who attend government schools get funding...
2) They violate the Constitutionally-protected "Free exercise of religion" clause because they force those whose religion requires them to attend private schools to pay for government schools and pay again for their private schools.
3) They violate the Bill of Rights because they are an establishment of religion....The religion of Secular Humanism which has been defined as such by the Supreme Court and is the religion of government schools....either that, atheism, or agnosticism...
JD| 8.18.12 @ 1:03PM
Almost everything Democrats have ever done violates the Equal Protection clause that way.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.19.12 @ 6:07PM
It isn't merely the government: America cannot do education.
Now, homeschooling, yes, it can be done and is done today on a small scale. But America cannot do education, courts, prisons... any institutions.
America was created only to do business.
Von Mises Jr| 8.17.12 @ 7:45AM
We see the government time and again use protectionist policies to stifle competition. Insurance costs in health care are exacerbated with restrictions of selling across state lines. Public Employee Teacher Unions protect incompetence with tenure and arbitration rules. Sugar, steel and other tariffs protect domestic companies from international competition.
This is what capitalism rejects. You get high insurance, poor schools and higher prices due to liberal's protectionist policies. If they are so damn good and so damn smart, why are they afraid of competition?
JD| 8.18.12 @ 1:03PM
They only hate monopolies when they don't run them.
Indy| 8.17.12 @ 8:01AM
Jindal is my pick for Secretary of HHS, Education or Energy.
Von Mises Jr| 8.17.12 @ 8:35AM
Let's hope he becomes Secretary of HHS and we end the Departments of Energy and Education.
Indy| 8.17.12 @ 9:53AM
Yes that would be the perfect solution. The Federal takeover of Education is especially troubling, look at the Common Core standards, we don't know who is writing them and working with publishing companies to write textbooks, this is all flying under the radar and quite alarming since it is really a globalization of education. I wish we could sit down for a drink to share info with those who are doing research and working towards solutions...we have much work to do.
Von Mises Jr| 8.18.12 @ 7:19AM
It would be a waste of time, Indy. They are communist running the Dept of Education. We simply need to teach our own children and help them educate their friends. They are much more curious than our trolls and many times more intelligent. And they are figuring out they will be paying for the losers EBT Card with their liberty.
RJ| 8.17.12 @ 11:55AM
Right On. I also hope that HHS will be reformed. If it continues as it is today, the health of the nation would be better off getting rid of it too.
JamesDrouin| 8.18.12 @ 12:56PM
Well, hopefully not ... those three Departments should be defunded and disbanded.
They are monumental failures by any measure.
DRed| 8.17.12 @ 10:02AM
Those vouchers are going to be used fund Islamic schools teaching the sharias. Jindal is a stealth muslim. Open your eyes, people.
Harry the Horrible| 8.17.12 @ 10:39AM
As long as they can also be used at Christian schools. We still have the Muzzies outnumbered.
Houdini| 8.17.12 @ 11:14AM
Until we break the back of public employee unions, our schools and other municipal institutions will be at their mercy.
Kingofthenet| 8.17.12 @ 11:49AM
First state I think about when I think 'Higher Education' is Louisiana, a bastion of knowledge like no other.Who needs those liberal States, like Massachusetts, Wisconsin, NY/NJ and California, with their Fancy Smancy, 'Ivy Leagues' when you got God.
http://ncse.com/news/2008/06/l.....ill-001437
Tom Kyba| 8.17.12 @ 12:25PM
Yeah, who needs to improve the level of teaching when we've got you with snot pouring from both nostrils as you enlighten everyone with your infantile yeehaw stereotypes of religion and southerners.
All hail Lord Kingofthenet!
spike59| 8.17.12 @ 3:46PM
boy, i sure wish I could have gone to some of those Fancy Ivey League schools like Columbia and Hardvard, so i could learn all 57 states, and how to speak Austrian
Butch| 8.17.12 @ 2:00PM
Jindal is sharp as a tack and a first-rate politician, too. There has to be a role for him on the national scene after his second term in Louisiana.
cicero| 8.17.12 @ 3:12PM
You can shuffle the deck chairs all you want, but the ship is sinking. School boards are too prone to be elected and controlled by the teachers unions. For decades we have heard that it is never the teachers' fault. It is the culture; the home environement; the State mandatedd tests; etc. However, if we pay more money, they will be able to work miracles. It has reached the point where, if you hear what they are saying, it is time to scrap the public school system in its entitety. If they cannot educaate the children, of what use are they?
All schools should be private, or at least charter. If they fail, they close. The parents should be able to vote with their dollars. A universal voucher system is the only answer. Why confine it to a chosen few of the poorest? You could send a kid to a private boarding prep school for the cost of the per child stiped in any major U.S. city school, where less than half graduate, and those who do are barely at 8th grade achievement levels. When are we going to wake up and take our country back?
Butch| 8.17.12 @ 5:42PM
Jackpot on those school boards, cicero. They get a special election where I live, and the electorate is majority teachers union. They rubber-stamp the union and oppose all reform that might keep parents from seeking better schools. The unions wouldn't have any "customers" under a voucher system, and Jindal knows that. Further, Louisiana is loaded with Catholic schools.
Jindal successfully canned the head of the L.S.U. system; he can get some real accountability professionals running those public schools, and he will if he has enough time.
Appleby| 8.17.12 @ 3:44PM
How about we close down the Department of Education and fire everybody that allegedly works there? And -- news flash -- make the parents of children responsible for their education? Don't give me that crap about your willingness to sell your child into wage slavery tomorrow for the price of a "free" education today. Buy him a laptop and take him to the library, and teach him what you know (or if you're under 40, what your parents know) and before you know it, he'll be better educated than you are and ready to take over the business.
The main thing we must do is get people over the notion that EVERYBODY ELSE is responsible for feeding, clothing, housing, educating, entertaining, marrying and burying the children to which they gave birth. Set hiring standards and leave it to the parents to make sure their kids meet or exceed those standards. At their own expense.
George Collins| 8.17.12 @ 5:32PM
Abolishing the Dept. of Education is not an option. A real budget cut is the only way to get an agency as corrupt and ineffective as Education under control. If you spent $100 last year, then you have $95 this year, and no hiring. $90 next year.
Appleby, I share some of your sentiment, but let's be realistic.
C'mon Man!| 8.17.12 @ 7:18PM
Lawyers are scum, and so are the people who use and hide behind them. "My lawyer said to do it" is irresponsible and selfish, with a temporary minor gain, perhaps, for the client, but permanent loss for the masses.
I have had several chances to "sue" someone, but have, and will continue to, pass.
Oldefarte| 8.18.12 @ 1:51PM
What needs to occur concerning public education is simply to eliminate labor unions from same, which could be brought about possibly by legislation [but only after an education of the public as to the destruction that unions facilitate within public school systems and in life generally speaking]. Unions are the cause of ineffective and inept teachers being to obtain and maintain their employment, not to mention the tenure of same. If teacher unions were eliminated and the administration/control of education turned back to the states, the problems of public education could be remedied quickly!!!!!!!
KamilBourne13| 8.18.12 @ 3:03PM
what Samuel said I'm stunned that people can earn $7118 in one month on the computer. did you see this page EarlyRich(dot)com (Click "Home" on the menu bar)
Jay Stevens| 8.18.12 @ 7:20PM
I agree with Appleby. It is time to pull the plug on the DoEd. It is not like we haven't given them enough time to achieve useful results.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.19.12 @ 6:04PM
Education will never be reformed in America, replaced maybe-- but not reformed. America can do agriculture, but not schools;
and our prisons are much much worse than our schools.
The business of America is business, not education.
Mnestheus| 8.20.12 @ 12:07AM
In homage to Jindal Family Values the Governor should surely mandate science teachers sufficiently fluent in Sanskrit to explain to grades 1 through 5 that the universe rests on turtles all the way down .
Barbara| 8.20.12 @ 1:52PM
Our family are lifetime Louisiana residents. For many reasons, Gov. Jindal’s school voucher program is alarming! Even people who do not have school aged children, and people who don’t work for school boards should be concerned dangerous potential of placing education into hands of some church leaders who are not what they profess to be –as well as likelihood of furthering political corruption and social oppression (via religion). Too many preachers & pastors (not all of them!) have more regard for politics and cronies, than ministry for God. Some are dangerously deluded, and should simply resign and cease abusing 501 (c) statuses. Sadly, the title of “pastor” doesn’t mean the same as bygone times when religious values truly mattered to all of the people who wore those religious titles. Furthermore, there is the appalling problem of CHARITY NONPROFIT FRAUD, and victimization as it pertains to awarding employment! *See more about preachers, politics, and nonprofits @ http://www.lawgrace.org/2012/0.....-religion/