BESE Report – July 2014 Special Meeting

LFT says suspend high-stakes testing

(Baton Rouge – July 29, 2014) Moments after the state’s highest education board voted today to sue Gov. Bobby Jindal for blocking the funds to pay for Common Core testing, LFT President Steve Monaghan urged the board to suspend high-stakes testing until the controversy is resolved.

Monaghan asked the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to “declare a moratorium on high-stakes testing next year, in fairness to the children who are riding through this uncertainty.”

Judith Miranti, one of Gov. Jindal’s appointees to the board, asked about the ramifications of suspending tests. Superintendent of Education John White said that failing to administer the tests would jeopardize federal education funds, which make up a big portion of Louisiana’s education budget.

However, several other states have received waivers that allow them to continue receiving federal funds even though they are not in compliance with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Nothing stops BESE from requesting a waiver except for the toxic politics that threaten education this year.

Left undecided at the meeting is when teachers will know what testing instrument will be used to evaluate students this year.

Superintendent of Education John White asked the board for patience until the August 18 board meeting, when he said there may be some “clarity” about testing.

Division of Administration Attorney Elizabeth Murrill said that “it is a misplaced trust” to believe that anything will be settled by August 18. Legal issues surrounding Common Core and PARCC could take years to resolve, she said.

BESE votes to sue Jindal over Common Core testing

By a six-to-four margin, BESE voted to enter a lawsuit filed against Gov. Jindal for blocking funds to pay for the PARCC tests that accompany Common Core State Standards. Two of the members voting to sue the governor were his own appointees to the board, Judith Miranti and Connie Bradford.

Board President Chas Roemer urged filing suit because “we’ve exhausted all our attempts to negotiate” an agreement with the Jindal administration.

Last month, Jindal signed an executive forbidding BESE to spend money on the PARCC tests, a move that he said was a step toward removing Common Core from Louisiana. The governor said that BESE broke the state’s procurement law when it contracted for testing services without taking competitive bids.

In response, a coalition funded by the Black Alliance for Educational Options, usually a Jindal ally, filed a lawsuit claiming that Jindal overstepped his constitutional authority by blocking the PARCC funds. The coalition includes the New Orleans charter group Choice Foundation, along with some parents and teachers.

District 1 BESE Member Jim Garvey moved to enter the lawsuit, saying that it was necessary in order to preserve BESE’s constitutional role over education.

Members opposing the motion said that whether or not BESE enters the lawsuit, the courts will determine if the governor has the authority he claims.

“It is a travesty that we are facing a lawsuit against the governor,” said District 3 Member Lottie Beebe. “The courts will render a decision. Why do we have to go on record suing the governor?”

Adding to the confusion is the issue of whether or not BESE can file the suit without getting permission from Jindal’s Division of Administration.

DOA attorney Elizabeth Murrill told the board that the law prohibits it from hiring an attorney without permission, even though a lawyer has offered his services for free. Roemer’s response was a simple, “I disagree.”

Voting with Roemer, Garvey, Bradford and Miranti to sue the governor were District 2 member Kira Orange-Jones and District 7 Member Holly Boffy.

Opposed were Beebe, District 4 Member Walter Lee, District 8 Member Carolyn Hill and Jindal’s third appointee, Jane Smith.

Legal score card: Who’s suing whom over what

Alexander the Great solved the puzzle of the Gordian knot by whacking it with a sword. It won’t be nearly as easy to sort out the legal issues rising out of Gov. Jindal’s recent conversion to the anti-Common Core camp.

It began on June 18, when Jindal signed an executive order prohibiting BESE from spending money on the PARCC tests for which it had contracted. The governor’s reasoning was that BESE broke state bid laws by not seeking requests for proposals for the testing services.

A group of legislative fiscal hawks piled on, filing suit against BESE for violating the state’s Administrative Procedures Act. Lawmakers claim that when BESE adopted Common Core standards in 2010, the board failed to publicly advertise the proposed rule for 90 days, as the APA requires.

Common Core supporters responded with a lawsuit filed by a New Orleans charter organization called the Choice Foundation and some parents and teachers. The suit, financed by the Black Alliance for Educational Options, claims that Jindal has no authority to block funding for PARCC because the State Constitution gives authority over education issues to the legislature and BESE. The administration, however, says the constitution gives the governor authority over state spending.

In the latest chapter, the Jindal administration today filed a countersuit against the BAEO group. The countersuit says that BESE’s Memorandum of Understanding with the PARCC testing consortium “offends state sovereignty.”

Jindal attorney Jimmy Faircloth said that if allowed to stand, the MOU would “commit the development of Louisiana education policy to a private non-Louisiana entity controlled by a ‘governing board’ consisting of individuals who are completely unaccountable to Louisiana voters.”

The clearest statement made at today’s BESE meeting was by Division of Administration Attorney Elizabeth Murill, who said that it could take years to untangle the legal knot that Common Core and PARCC have become in Louisiana.

Come volunteer, visit our office on 1726 Line Ave. in Shreveport, and help strengthen your union.

Red River United is looking for volunteers to help us build momentum and share our vision of Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Our strength is in our membership. We will have power in the education landscape around us when we step up and fight for it. Join us. We are looking for RRU members and leaders to volunteer in our outreach and organizing efforts. We will be talking to people at their homes, during orientations, in-services, and other trainings from July 28 to August 9.Giving a single day (or more) will help us reach our organizing goals and grow this amazing organization! Times may vary based on the activity planned that day. Staff representatives will contact you with details and times. We specifically need people from July 28 until the beginning of classes to assist with orientations and inservices. Staff representatives will contact you with details and times.

Click here to sign up for the day(s) you will volunteer with Red River United.

Tragic and unnecessary

Politics and Policy: Irreconcilable differences?

(Baton Rouge – July 18, 2014) The political feud between Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White must be resolved quickly so that teachers and their students can get down to the work of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

“The state has had since 2010 to discuss standards, to develop curricula and to design assessment tools,” Monaghan said. “That was when Governor Jindal and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education signed on in full to Common Core standards.

“But instead of preparing teachers and children,” he said, “our state set sail on an educational misadventure of faux reforms that disrespected our constitution, vilified teachers, siphoned funds from already underfunded public schools, and resulted in endless legal battles. Political ideology masqueraded as educational reform.”

Those distractions made it impossible to have honest discussions regarding the standards, Monaghan said. The failure to fully inform and adequately prepare led to the inevitable botched implementation of the new standards and associated assessments.

“While there is plenty of blame to be shared, none of it belongs to teachers or their students,” Monaghan noted. “They are the victims of wasted time and wasted funds.”

Perhaps the hiatus in testing resulting from Jindal and White’s confrontation can be the silver lining in the cloud hanging over public education in the state, Monaghan said.

“We now recognize the error of emphasizing the testing of children over teaching them,” he said. “We have an opportunity to make education learning-centered instead of testing-centered.”

“With just weeks left before schools open, now is the time for statesmen to step forward and give public education a badly needed sense of direction,” Monaghan said.

Before schools open, the state has a moral and legal obligation to provide:

• A set of standards that spell out what students need to know at every grade level. The standards should be appropriate for the developmental level of the child, rigorous enough to be intellectually challenging, and aimed at preparing the child for success in life.
• A curriculum aligned to those standards. The curriculum should be structured enough to ensure that all students reach the goals of the standards, but flexible enough that teachers can adapt them to the particular needs of their students and their community.
• The resources that it takes to successfully bring the curriculum to the classroom. That means adequate preparation and professional development for educators, safe and welcoming schools, learning materials and technology that meets current standards, and appropriate compensation for the people responsible for our children’s future.
• Instruments to accurately and fairly assess student progress toward meeting goals. We should replace low-level standardized testing with assessments aligned with rich curricula that encourage the kind of higher-order thinking and performance skills students need. Testing should be a diagnostic tool, and not a threat used to punish teachers and unfairly label schools and students.

Thus far, Louisiana has failed our children, our teachers and our schools on all these counts, Monaghan said. Hope for the future lies in a speedy accomplishment of all these goals.

 

As part of our After Hours program, our free professional development program, Red River United is offering a free group math Praxis tutoring class. It is absolutely free to all members, and a fun way to pass the test.

The first class will be held on Monday, July 28 at 4:00 PM in the Red River United Office (1726 Line Ave, Shreveport, LA 71104).

 

RRU also offers one on one tutoring for all RRU members.

If you are interested in joining the Math Praxis group, or want to learn about other professional development opportunities, call 318-424-4579 or emailredriverunited@redriverunited.org.

Mark Your Calendars! 

The Louisiana Supreme Court will be hearing Oral Arguments in the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) et al. vs. LA case around Act 1 on September 5, 2014.

Act 1 was found unconstitutional in two lower courts in 2013 and 2014.