Charter/Voucher Legislation Passes House

The following are the votes of your representatives on HB 976 that will allow public school students to attend private schools at taxpayer expense. To add insult to injury, these voucher schools do not have to meet accountability standards, do not get graded the way public schools do, and students can be promoted beyond the 4th and 8th grade levels even if they do not pass the LEAP! The bill will also add new charter organizations that can cherry pick students from any public schools and a "parent trigger" that can allow a charter organization to run petitions to fast track the takeover of schools. (See the data at the end of this post on the success of takeovers)

Voting FOR HB 976. (61): , Mr. Speaker, and Reps. Abramson, Adams, Arnold, Badon, Barras, Berthelot, Billiot, Bishop, S., Broadwater, Burford, H. Burns, T. Burns, Carmody, Carter, Champagne, Connick, Cromer, Dove, Fannin, Foil, Garofalo, Greene, Guinn, Harris, Havard, Hazel, Henry, Hensgens, Hodges, Hoffmann, Hollis, Honore, Howard, Huval, G. Jackson, Jefferson, N. Landry, Leger, Leopold, Ligi, Lorusso, Moreno, Morris, Jay, Pearson, Ponti, Pugh, Pylant, Richardson, Robideaux, Schexnayder, Schroder, Seabaugh, Shadoin, Simon, Talbot, Thierry, Thompson, Whitney, P. Williams, and Willmott.

Voting AGAINST House Bill 976 (42): Reps. Anders, Armes, Barrow, W. Bishop, Brossett, Brown, Burrell, Chaney, Cox, Danahay, Dixon, Edwards, Franklin, Gaines, Geymann, Gisclair, Guillory, Harrison, Hill, Hunter, K. Jackson, James, Johnson, Jones, Lambert, T. Landry, LeBas, Mack, Miller, Montoucet, Morris, Jim, Norton, Ortego, Pierre, Pope, Price, Reynolds, Richard, Ritchie, Smith, St. Germain, and Thibaut.

NOT Voting (2): Reps. Lopinto, and A. Williams.

Click on this link to read the Advocate story on valiant efforts by many legislators to amend the most damaging portions of this legislation.

Important Note: HB 974 which destroys tenure, seniority, teacher salary schedules, and makes most teachers "at will" employees based on the value-added evaluations also passed. More on this later.
Please start talking to your Senators now and through the weekend while they are in their home districts. Ask for an appointment with a committee of educators to meet with each Senator. We must make this effort for the sake of our schools and students. Please review the chart below which shows how students have performed after their schools have been taken over by charter organizations.
The schools listed, are all the schools taken over outside of New Orleans. They are schools in  Caddo, EBR, Pointe Coupee, and St. Helena.
(The School for the Deaf and Visually Impaired are not charters but are run by the state)

School Performance Scores Before and After State Takeover
Schools	SPS Before	SPS After	grade after
Linwood Mid	52.2	49.9	F
Linear Mid	53.9	49.9	F
Crestworth Mid	49.9	50.9	F
Glen Oaks Mid	101.9	43.8	F
Prescott Mid	37.6	42.1	F
Kennelworth Mid.	71.5	66.5	D
Pointe Coupee Sr	51.4	49.5	F
Dalton Elem	61.3	50.4	F
Lanier Elem	65.1	45.4	F
St. Helena Mid	57.9	47.6	F
Captol Sr Boys	46.8	41.2	F
Capitol Sr. Girls	57.2	47.2	F
School for Deaf		29.9	F
School for Vis. Imp.		48.2	F