Charter School Operators in Louisiana Do Not Need High School Degree

Go to the last paragraph of this post to see why the pro-reform news media no longer reports Louisiana's national ranking of school performance

This article explains that according to BESE policy, charter school directors do not even need a high school diploma to operate their schools! This is how high our state education authorities have “raised the bar” for charter school operations. Thankfully our regular school principals are still required to adhere to the “status quo” which requires at least a Master’s degree along with many other qualifications. Maybe that’s why we seldom see state investigations and school closings based on ethical violations by the real public school administrators.

Here’s an interesting related matter: Betsey Dovos, the U.S. Secretary of Education, considers frequent closings of fcharter schools a good thing because it allows their replacement by better charters. The only problem is that there is no evidence that the new schools perform better.

This article describes legislation being considered in California that would limit the use of TFA teachers with only 5 weeks of training who end up in the schools with the most "at-risk" students. In Louisiana, routinely using uncertified teachers and unqualified operators is how we address the needs of our most at risk students.

Here's another example of Louisiana "raising the bar". I testified before the Senate education committee on Thursday, April 17 in favor of SB 128, which would have allowed local school systems, based on a vote of their citizens, to set their own standards and testing for the purposes of accountability. My testimony included the fact that our state standards for a passing grade on state LEAP tests average 30% correct answers for a passing score. I also pointed out that it takes only 14.7% correct answers to pass the BESE mandated Algebra I End of Course test. Even with these "high standards" about one-third of Louisiana students fail their state tests and are promoted anyway. How could any local school system setting their own standards possibly do worse?

The Advocate reporter, Will Sentell,  was in attendance at the hearing on SB 128 but chose not to report anything about the bill or the testimony. This is how our pro eduction reform news media at The Advocate, in cahoots with big business lobbyists representing LABI and CABLE,  avoid telling the public the truth about our true state standards. They just never report the failures of education reform under John White. The Advocate (before White) used to love to report about Louisiana's low ranking on national tests. This time Sentell neglected to report that Senator Milkovich cited the fact that after 6 years of the new Common Core based standards, Louisiana is now tied for last place in the rankings of the states on the NAEP test. Our lowest ranking ever!