Latest News in the War Against Public Education and the Teaching Profession

First the Good News:

HB 330 which would have greatly expanded vouchers, and HB 505 that would have taken away all due process rights of teachers were removed from the House Education Committee agenda for last week. These bills may not be revived partly as a result of the many emails legislators received opposing such legislation. I want to thank many of my readers for communicating with their legislators and informing them that these bills would be destructive to public education. HB 505 by Ivey is however, rescheduled for consideration by the committee this coming Wednesday, but even Governor Jindal has indicated that he may not support it. Please continue your efforts to defeat this horrible bill.

Now for the Continued Attack on the Teaching Profession:

House bill 418 passed a carefully stacked committee of the House Labor and Industrial Affairs Committee Thursday despite much vocal opposition from teacher, police, and firemen unions. This is the bill that would prohibit teachers and other public employees from using payroll deduction for payment of their union or association dues. Our state government is 1.8 billion dollars in deficit, and public employees are subject to layoffs, pay freezes, and outright cuts, yet big business (LABI) and teacher haters want to pass legislation that reduces the influence of professional educators, but does not save the state or local governments one penny!

HB 418 is cynically named the Payroll Protection Bill. These union hating legislators pretend with the use of this title that teachers, police, and firemen are like innocent children who need for their big brothers in government to protect them from the "evil" unions. Payroll deduction will still be available for numerous charities, insurance policies, and even highly questionable cancer polices that are considered by the insurance industry to be little more than rip-off polices. Our big buisness bosses in LABI don't care about the teachers that may be preyed upon by all of these other groups. They only want to protect teachers from their own organizations that are dedicated to fighting for teacher rights and benefits.

Are those big buisness interests such as LABI and CABL concerned about the innaccuracy of VAM ratings, or the serious flaws in the new evaluation system, or the loss of seniority for teachers, or the interference of the LDOE in enforcement of student discipline, or the fact that now some teachers are being required to work many extra hours without pay? No, in fact they helped sponsor and lobby for these changes. But they do want to neutralize their biggest upponents in beating up on teachers!

I am proud to say that even though retired, I am a lifetime member of the Louisiana Association of Educators and I also have great respect and support for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. I worked for 20 years as a staff member of the LAE and helped to win many important battles for teachers. I am now watching helplessly and frustrated the de-professionalization of teaching. It is sad to regularly get letters from dedicated teachers who are being driven out of the teaching profession because of the many ant-teacher policies and laws passed in recent years.

HB 418 will be going to a vote on the House floor probably the week after next. That means that every Representative will get to vote whether or not they want to deny educators one more benefit and whether they really want to stifle the voice of teachers in speaking out against bad education policies and in favor of improving benefits and status of the teaching profession. No, this won't destroy the teacher unions if it passes, but statistics show that when you deny a group of employees payroll deduction for the payment of union or association dues, the membership of those organizations declines and their influence is curtailed. This bill has nothing to do with Payroll Protection! Its only purpose is to reduce the influence of educators on education policy.

This is both Stupid and Ironic

I got an email from a frustrated teacher not long ago, basically saying the following:

 "I am sick and tired of the teaching profession being blamed for everything that parents are not doing in the rearing of their children. I have never before worked so hard to educate children and received so little support and appreciation for the job that I have done for 20 years.  If they want to take away my payroll deduction for dues, I just may not join in the future." 

All I can say to that is, wow how stupid! This is exactly what LABI wants to accomplish. Surely no one else in the teaching profession could possibly be willing to play into their hands this way. Look, I know how frustrated teachers must be at this point but such a reaction is childish and counterproductive!

I believe educators have a good chance of defeating this repressive and unproductive legislation. LABI is letting it be known that its PAC will contribute to legislators who help them do this dirty deed. But even so, all teachers have to do to defeat it is tell their Representative and Senators to vote No for HB 418! It's all going to be determined by how many emails they get (or don't get) from teachers opposing this.

SB 54 passed to Senate floor by Senate Education Committee

Senate bill 54 by Senator Broome is a well intentioned bill, but will in my opinion do nothing but harm by tying the hands of elementary school principals in maintaining discipline. This bill like many other changes in the laws in recent years relieves parents of their responsibility in making sure that students are orderly and do not deprive other students of their education! Please read my analysis of this below, and ask your Senator to vote "NO" on this bill when it goes to the Senate floor.

Critical Legislation in Senate Education Committee on April 30!

There are two very important bills that will be heard in the Senate Education Committee sometime Thursday morning (after adjournment of the Senate floor) that could drastically affect all K-12 educators. (Both teachers and principals) Please read this information and the bills linked here so that you can contact your Senator with your recommendation for his/her vote.

SB32 by Senator Mills is also sponsored by the Louisiana Association of Educators and would greatly improve the teacher and principal evaluation systems in Louisiana. The bill requires that the evaluation system be revamped to greatly reduce the effect of the highly inaccurate VAM ratings on both teachers and principals.

SB 32 would remove all requirements in the law for VAM ratings of educators, and would instead substitute multiple measures of student growth in achievement as part of the educator's evaluation. VAM could still be used but it could not count for more than 25% of the educator's evaluation. Here is a John Oliver video about the absurdity of VAM ratings and standardized testing in America.

Please read the full bill by clicking on the bill number above, because it contains many other important changes in the law. My opinion is that this bill would greatly improve the teacher and principal evaluation systems and would minimize the damaging effects of using VAM to overrule all other important measures of teacher effectiveness. If you agree with me, please send an email to each of the Senate Education Committee members asking them to vote "yes" for Senate bill 32.

SB 54 by Senator Broome is a well intentioned bill but in my opinion would be a huge mistake because it would tie the hands of our school principals in maintaining order in schools and in requiring that parents to take responsibility for the behavior of their children at school. Please consider asking the senators on the Senate Education Committee to vote "no" on SB 54.

This bill would prohibit all suspensions and expulsions of students in grades K-3 unless their behavior presents a threat to the physical well being of others. I can assure my readers that there are many extremely disruptive behaviors that do not necessarily rise to the level of being a threat to the physical wellbeing of others that is absolutely not acceptable in a school environment. Principals need to have the full authority to utilize both in-school and out-of-school suspension to correct this behavior and to require parents to take responsibility for their children.

Our elementary schools are not funded at near the level it would take to provide counselors and social workers and therapists that would be needed to control all of the unacceptable behavior of children that interferes with the education of other children. Sometimes there may be mental health issues involved that schools are not equipped to handle. It is time we stop making educators totally responsible for the unacceptable behavior of some children (a small minority). 

Ask the Senators on the Education Committee to vote "no" on SB 54!

Please send your emails to the following Senators on the Senate Education Committee, either today or early tomorrow morning.

Senator Conrad Appel (Chairman) 721 Papworth Avenue Suite 102A Metairie, LA 70005	(866) 946-3133 appelc@legis.la.gov
Senator Eric LaFleur (Vice-Chairman) P.O. Box 617 Ville Platte, LA 70586	(337) 363-5019 lafleure@legis.la.gov
Senator Dan Claitor 320 Somerulos Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802	(225) 342-7602 claitord@legis.la.gov
Senator Elbert L. Guillory 633 East Landry Street Opelousas, LA 70570	(337) 943-2457 guillorye@legis.la.gov
Senator Jean-Paul J. Morrell New Orleans Lakefront Terminal Building 6001 Stars & Stripes Blvd., Suite 221 New Orleans, LA 70126	(504) 284-4794 morrelljp@legis.la.gov
Senator Mike Walsworth 4007 White's Ferry Rd Suite A West Monroe, LA 71291	(318) 340-6453 walsworthm@legis.la.gov
Senator Mack "Bodi" White 808 O'Neal Lane Baton Rouge, LA 70816	(225) 272-1324 whitem@legis.la.gov
Senator Page Cortez (Interim Member) 101 W. Farrell Road Bldg. 5, Suite 100 Lafayette, LA 70508	(337) 993-7430 cortezp@legis.la.gov

The War Against Public Schools and Teachers Resumes Next Week!

Two Committees of the Louisiana House of Representatives next week will go back to work attempting to further dismantle public education and do more damage to the teaching profession.

Great News! I attended the House Ed Committee. Both HB 330 and HB 505 were pulled off the agendy for this committee meeting by their authors. This could mean that they will not be considered at all! Your emails have been very effective!

House Education Committee: 9:00 AM, Wednesday, April 29

So after all the dismal academic results of most of the voucher schools and the audits showing misuse of our tax dollars by greedy voucher school directors, and the terrible academic track record of vouchers nationwide, you may have thought that voucher fever in Louisiana had died down. . .  Wrong! Voucher proponents have a bill to be heard the House Education Committee, Wednesday, April 29 that would allow new voucher schools to enroll more than the present statutory limit of 20% voucher students.

HB 330 by Badon would allow the LDOE to waive the 20% limit of voucher students in some of the voucher schools that have been in operation for less than two years. You see, the problem is that some new private schools have trouble getting off the ground with mostly private paying students, so this would let entrepreneurs start their schools with more publicly funded voucher students if they can convince the LDOE that they have a viable school even before they start! That has not been hard to do with John White's voucher loving LDOE. This is just another scheme to let the privatieers profit using our public school students and our tax money.

Many of these new voucher schools fit my definition of Predatory Schools. That is, private schools and charter schools that get public school funding and attempt to attract only the higher performing students so that their performance will look better than the real public schools. Even though these predatory schools are supposed to be non-discriminatory (The Brumfield Dodd requirement), no one really checks to see that they attract a fair ratio of black or at-risk students. In addition, they have the freedom to reject students with disabilities if they say that they are not equipped to instruct such students, (This exemption greatly boosts their scores on state tests), and they can easily use their discipline policies to remove disruptive and low performing students (further boosting their scores).

So next time you hear the proponents of privatization reciting their slogans and talking points like: "Its time to break up the public school monopoly", or "competition will force all schools to perform better for our students" be aware that these are false claims just to help justify ways of diverting our tax dollars to non-accountable predatory schools. They do not play by the same rules. If this process is allowed to continue, public schools will become the dumping grounds for underprivileged and low performing at-risk students while the managers who run these privatized schools get rich on our tax dollars. As my friend, former School Board Association President, Noel Hammatt often says: "Follow the money."

Note: In addition to the voucher schools, the BASIS Charter schools from Arizona wants to add 5 schools in Louisiana. It is the perfect example of a Pradatory Charter School. We already have magnet schools that perform this function and do not raid our tax dollars for the benefit of millionaires!
Please contact your State Representative and ask him/her to vote against HB 330! 

Representative Ivey wants to remove all job security for teachers

HB 505 by Representative Ivey of the Central area in Baton Rouge would prevent new teachers from ever attaining tenure under any conditions, but more importantly, this bill would allow teachers to be fired at the end of each school year without legitimate reasons. Even new teachers without tenure now get some due process because of  a provision in state law that requires that any disciplinary action against them (including termination) must be supported by valid reasons. The teacher is allowed to have a court review of their termination to determine if it was arbitrary or capricious.

HB 505 would not only eliminate the possibility of a new teacher ever gaining tenure, it would allow all such teachers to be terminated at the end of each school year without the need to provide a valid reason because this new law would give teachers only one year contracts! We need to keep the present law because LAE won several lawsuits last year in cases where teachers were being denied due process.

Governor Jindal and big business groups like LABI like this legislation because their goal is to make every teacher subject to dismissal at any time, for any reason.  Right now it would not apply to experienced teachers, but I predict that if this is successful, they will go after experienced teachers next. Part of their rationale is that if teachers have no job protection, they can be told to work extra hours each day attending meetings to plan test prep or to provide extra tutoring sessions without pay after school or on Saturdays etc. You see, LABI does not want to pay for those extra services with their taxes.  They obviously think that teachers don't have families and that their only goal in life should be to raise the almighty student test scores. You see, big business cannot force their employees to work extra hours without pay because there are federal laws that protect private employees from abuse. LABI companies have to pay their employees overtime when they work overtime but public school employees have no such protection under law. That's why they need this minimal protection under state law which this bill would take away.

Here is a typical scenario, although I am sure good principals would not do this:
A principal of  a public school next school year will be under tremendous pressure from John White to raise the school performance score each year (even if the school already has a high score). The new evaluation system for principals for 2015-16 says that they have to raise their school performance score every year!

This particular principal decides that the only way to improve the student scores on the ever more difficult Common Core tests is for teachers to provide extra tutoring after school and on Saturdays. No matter that most students who are performing poorly will probably not even come to a tutoring session, the teacher will still be responsible for being there in case any kid shows up. On top of that, the principal could require teachers to make phone calls on their own time to parents to recruit kids to the tutoring sessions, or maybe even go to their homes and pick them up and give them a ride to the session. There is no limit to what big business and John White thinks teachers should have to do to raise test scores. These teachers have no protection under federal law about overtime work.  . . they are "professional" public employees.

So if this new law passes, a principal may want teachers to work extra to save the principal from repercussions from John White's punitive new evaluation system. Do teachers who object to this extra work have any recourse? Yes, probably no court would allow them to be fired for refusing to do a bunch of useless overtime. So they could not be fired during the school year, but the principal would let it be known that any teacher who does not donate extra time to the tutoring program or who does not make phone calls to parents would not have their contract renewed for next year, and the teacher would have absolutely no recourse. This is like slave labor! There would no longer be a real teaching profession under these new rules! And you know what's really sad? These extra efforts don't really work for the students that are not motivated. The charter schools that tried these extra work programs have mostly abandoned them because they do not raise scores. Charter schools have found that there is a much more effective way of raising their test scores. Simply dump the low performing students back to the real public schools using strict discipline policies. The real public schools can't refuse them according to law!

Teachers Fight Back to Defend Payroll Deduction Rights; Tuesday, Town Hall telephone meeting and connections to legislators; 11 AM, Thursday April 30 visit to capitol

On Tuesday, April 28, at 6:00 PM LAE and LFT will host a joint town hall meeting by telephone conference call with their members to organize them to oppose efforts by LABI to deny teachers payroll deduction for Union or Association dues.

On Thursday, 11 AM, April 30 the LAE and LFT will sponsor a joint lobby day at the capitol to defend the right of teachers and other public employees to use payroll deduction for Union or Association dues. (This is open to both members and non-members)

HB 418 by Bishop of Lafayette is a blatant attack on teacher organizations. It will be heard in the House Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on Thursday. It's purpose is to weaken as much as possible the organizations that fight for teacher rights and that oppose the privatization of schools and the implementation of reckless and punitive reforms of our public schools.

This is a very critical fight, because I believe these teacher organizations are the last real hope for public schools and professional benefits and rights for teachers.

I urge teachers to join in this effort.

Parent's Rally to Erase Common Core; 10:00 AM, April 29 

I personally feel that this is an important cause because I believe that further implementation of the CCSS and the PARCC testing will be a disaster for Louisiana Schools. Here is the Facebook page for the event. Parents and teachers who oppose the CCSS will meet on the capitol steps at 10:00 to hear leaders and to go inside the capitol to lobby their legislators.

I urge parents to join in this effort.