Education Summit: Just Another Bogus Propaganda Effort

I attended the so called "Education Summit" called Leadership For Change yesterday in Baton Rouge. This was an invitation only conference sponsored mostly by LABI, the big business group, and several astro turf organizations that promote charter schools, vouchers and merit pay schemes all over the country. (Oh yes, a+pel was also a sponsor) There were very few real educators in attendance, and no real educators as speakers or panel members. State Superintendent John White did speak, but after what he tried to do recently with guidance counselors and librarians, special education funding, and what he has done in approving vouchers to religious schools with minimal facilities with weird curricula, I don't count him as a real educator.

But my real problem with this so called education summit is that it spoon fed a lot of decent business people and well meaning civic leaders in attendance a diet of hateful ideas about our public schools and a lot of outright lies about charters, vouchers and other misguided education deforms.

The first speaker was Campbell Brown, the former CNN news anchor and daughter of former Secretary of State Jim Brown. She mostly related horror stories about how the teacher unions in New York protected pedophiles and opposed laws to get rid of teachers who abuse children. She implied that Louisiana may have a similar problem. I have to say I was personally insulted by this, because I was a professional employee of the Louisiana Association of Educators for 20 years and served a term as the Executive Director for the LAE. In all that time I cannot remember one instance where the Association helped keep one pedophile in the classroom. To my knowledge there was never any law designed to protect children in schools that were opposed by the LAE or the LFT. In fact while I was Executive Director of LAE the Association sponsored a discipline law that was designed to create a better learning environment in every classroom.  (That law is now being violated all over the state at the insistence of the non-educators in our own DOE) There were cases where the Association successfully defended teachers who were falsely accused of improper behavior. After the meeting I called the former LAE Director of Legal services and he confirmed for me that the few cases of real misconduct by teachers in the last 30 years in Louisiana were non-members who were never defended by the LAE. I submit that Campbell Brown knows almost nothing about Louisiana public education. She attended all private schools while she was here. Her speech was nothing but an attempt to discredit the teacher unions that have united with the School Boards Association to defeat Jindal's unconstitutional attacks on public schools and public school teachers. But unfortunately the organizers of this "education conference" did not allow any rebuttal of these unfounded charges.

Another speaker, Gloria Romero, was the author of the Parent Trigger legislation that was first passed in California and which was part of the Jindal package adopted in Louisiana in the last session. This law allows parents in schools designated as failing to petition to have the school taken over by the Recovery District. There is no such provision to have any of the numerous failing schools in the Recovery District restored to the local school board, even though our public school systems are demonstrating better results and are now gaining back so many students that the RSD has closed schools and used the buildings for DOE administrators. No one on the panel of Leadership for Change mentioned that fact! In California, since the Parent Trigger was passed only one school has been converted using the Parent Trigger. You may want to read the real story here about how this was handled. No rebuttal was allowed of the bogus claims made by this presenter. As a bright spot, there is one bill (HB 115) offered in this legislative session that would allow parents to petition to have a failing RSD school restored to the local school board.

John White made his usual speech about the great strides made by the education reformers in Louisiana but he forgot to mention that 87% of the RSD takeover schools are graded D and F by his own system and that all but one of the schools taken over in Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee, and St Helena had to be "reorganized" and taken back from their charter managers because they have been absolute failures by every measure. His big success story was about an unnamed student from Greensburg who made an appointment to come to the DOE to thank someone for providing her with a voucher to a private school. He also bragged that because of the Jindal reforms, every school system in the state now has pay for performance policies and policies that protect the best teachers during layoffs. He forgot to mention that there has been no money appropriated for these merit pay schemes and that the number two ranked school system in the state is being forced to lay off teachers because of the numerous unfunded mandates pushed by White and Jindal.

Another speaker, John Chavous, talked about the famous Nation at Risk report from 30 years ago which predicted economic catastrophe because of a week education system. Much of the data used in that and subsequent reports has been discredited. No one mentioned that the No Child Left Behind program which was intended to reform public education has been an absolute disaster and can no longer be enforced because it was based on false assumptions and had unrealistic goals. Chavous while serving on the Washington DC Council helped to bring in Michelle Rhee as Chancellor for that school system. Recent revelations show that she was an absolute disaster for DC schools.

At least one presenter (Romero) repeated the falsehood that "teachers are the biggest factor in student achievement". All of the data shows that teacher effectiveness is greatly overshadowed by the socioeconomic baggage students bring with them to school. No one mentioned the fact that not a single teacher merit pay scheme has been shown to work and that a recent comprehensive study by Vanderbilt University in Tennessee discredited a major merit pay system for teachers just this last year.

Condolezza Rice who seems to be a likable person, talked about the need for high expectations for children, the importance of providing choice, and the idea of rewarding good teachers. I just don't know of any education expertize or credentials she has to be talking about Leadership for Change in Louisiana education.

Governor Jindal showed up late and said he would keep trying over and over again until his reform package is resurrected from the court defeats.

Many in the audience were successful business people who know that you always bring in the best experts when you are contemplating major changes in business. Yet they were subjected to presentations by persons who have absolutely no expertize in education who are still pushing programs that have been discredited. No wonder the real educators in Louisiana are disgusted and dismayed with the extremist propaganda promoted by this so called "Education Summit."