(Baton Rouge – January 8, 2014) For the second time in less than a year, a Baton Rouge district court judge has ruled Act 1 of 2012, the so-called “talent act,” unconstitutional.

Judge Michael Caldwell first ruled the act unconstitutional last March, agreeing with a lawsuit brought by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. The judge said Act 1 violated a ban on bundling multiple objects into one piece of legislation. But the State Supreme Court remanded the case to the 19th Judicial District, asking Judge Caldwell to reconsider his ruling in light of another decision.

In a carefully worded ruling that acknowledged the Supreme Court’s reservations, Judge Caldwell said that while the high court’s decision had broadened the definition of a bill’s objects, “The object (of the bill) is not apparent to me in several provisions of the act.”

Therefore, Judge Caldwell said, Act 1 violates the multiple object clause and is “unconstitutional in its entirety.”

“The judge basically affirmed what we said from the very beginning,” LFT President Steve Monaghan said after the verdict. “Facts are facts. This was a sprawling piece of legislation that was duck taped together. It was hastily done and we took it to court as we promised to do. As we said from day one, we came to court out of respect for the constitution.”

The act was one of the bills that Gov. Bobby Jindal touted as his education reform agenda in 2012. It amended and reenacted nine statutes and enacted two entirely new statutes. It tied teacher salaries, tenure, promotions and termination to a new evaluation system. It changed the way school boards contract with superintendents, altered the general powers of school boards, delegated new authority to principals and superintendents and mandated different reduction-in-force policies.

An attorney for the state told reporters that Judge Caldwell’s decision will be appealed directly to the Supreme Court.

The law will remain in effect until the high court makes a final decision. Sections of the act dealing with teacher evaluations, tenure, promotions and salaries are unfair and unworkable, the LFT president said.

“No matter how this case is ultimately decided, the legislature will have to revisit the whole concept of education reform,” Monaghan said. “We hope they will not try to pass the repugnant sections of this act as individual pieces of legislation.”

At a press conference following the verdict, Jindal said that he is willing to work with anyone to provide excellent teachers for Louisiana’s classrooms.

“That is our goal as well,” Monaghan said. “We are ready to talk to the governor at any time about reforms that will truly improve education and create a better future for the children of Louisiana.”

Another of the governor’s education bills, Act 2 of 2012, has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it unlawfully diverted public education funds to private, religious and corporate education providers.

– Louisiana Federation of Teachers

KSLA Story

Audit slamming voucher schools is no surprise, LFT president says

(Baton Rouge – December 17, 2013) A legislative auditor’s report criticizing state oversight of the controversial school voucher scheme was foreseen by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers more than a year ago, Federation President Steve Monaghan said today.

“I do not hate to say we told them so because we did just that,” Monaghan said. “The state education board and department of education had ample warning that their accountability standards were inadequate.”

Monaghan was responding to a report by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera saying that the state does not properly monitor the use of public funds or the academic standards of private and religious schools that accept state vouchers.

“We realized in July of 2012 that rules adopted by BESE couldn’t pass muster, and requested a public hearing in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act,” Monaghan said. “In October, BESE finally agreed to the hearing as required by law. But sadly, that hearing was a mockery. We were limited to just 10 minutes to present more than a dozen specific, constructive recommendations to make vouchers more accountable to parents and taxpayers.”

Other groups that had come to the hearing prepared to offer suggestions were given just two minutes each to testify, Monaghan said.

Instead of giving serious attention to the deficiencies in BESE’s voucher rules, Monaghan said, the hearing degenerated into a pep rally for vouchers. Numerous supporters were allowed to praise the voucher program without even mentioning the subject of the hearing, which was Bulletin 133 (Criteria for School Participation in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program).

Almost immediately after that faux hearing, Monaghan recalled, the Louisiana Department of Education released a statement praising those who had attended the meeting in support of vouchers, even though the purpose of the meeting was not to debate educational philosophy.

“This sent a very clear signal,” Monaghan said. “The mission of the department of education was to champion vouchers and privatization by any means necessary, and that’s why more than a year later we have audit report stating the obvious, and what we had attempted to fix in October 2012.”

In light of this audit report and BESE’s refusal to consider reasonable accountability for the $40 million-plus voucher program, Monaghan said, it will be up to the State Legislature to pass appropriate legislation requiring proper oversight in order to protect students, parents, and taxpayers.

– See more at: http://la.aft.org/press/lft-had-warned-state-about-voucher-accountability#sthash.Vwf0rYvn.dpuf

AFT’s First Book Program 

All teachers can sign up for the AFT First Book program. 

If you work in a school, community program, library, or city or county program in an under-resourced community, sign up with First Book to get free and low-cost new books for children in your area.

You can also register with Share My Lesson for access to lesson plans and other free educational resources that you can use in your classroom or program.

Click here to sign up for First Book and Share My Lesson*. 
Click here to sign up with First Book without also registering for Share My Lesson.

When signing up, be sure to indicate your affiliation with AFT to stay informed about book grants and special opportunities. If you have questions or need assistance contact First Book at 866-READ-NOW or help@firstbook.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Sign up for First Book Here. 

 

A Friendiversary is a fun way to celebrate the day two individuals met and became friends – just like Elephant & Piggie!

With the support of a generous donor, First Book has celebrated Friendiversary for years by providing free copies of Elephant & Piggie books to second graders in low-income schools throughout Louisiana. This year we want your second graders to get books too!

Who’s Invited: Your 2nd grade students!

What: A free Elephant and Piggie Book for every student in your class! Plus a free kit with Friendiversary activities.

Where: Your school

When: The week of February 9th. Just choose a day and time that works for you!

How: Simply visit the Friendiversary page to pre-order the books you need for your classroom. To make sure you get your copies for free, use one of the following codes when you check out:

• Serve 0-20 second graders? Use the code Friendiversary20 to get 20 Elephant & Piggie books absolutely free! (5 copies each of 4 different titles)
• Serve 21-40 second graders? Use the code Friendiversary40 to get 40 Elephant & Piggie books absolutely free! (10 copies each of 4 different titles)
• Serve over 40 students? Please call 866-732-3669 (866-READ-NOW)We’ll help you get what you need!

The number of free books we can give away is limited on a first-come, first-served basis – so don’t wait too long

 

 

USA Today Article

A poverty, not education, crisis in U.S.: Column

 

Oliver Thomas 4:57 p.m. EST December 10, 2013

 

 

New studies show that the number of poor children is rising and the impact it has on learning.

 

 

The latest results of the Program for International Student Assessment — which measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in math, reading and science — were released last week, and once again Finland is near the top. True, this time students in Asia claimed many of the top spots. But Finland’s system remains one of the world’s highest-performing, with its universal preschool program, site-based management and dislike of standardized testing often cited for its success.

 

By comparison, U.S. student scores remained in the middle of the pack. But the most telling difference between Finns and Americans when it comes to education is child poverty.

 

Poverty is the most relevant factor in determining the outcome of a person’s educational journey, and in Finland, the child poverty rate is about 5%. In the U.S., the rate is almost five times as high. Unlike us, the Finns calculate the rate of poverty after accounting for government aid, but the differences remain substantial.

 

As researchers Michael Rebell and Jessica Wolff of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, have noted, there is no general education crisis in the United States. There is a child poverty crisis that is impacting education.

 

Here’s one data point worth remembering. When you measure the test scores of American schools with a child poverty rate of less than 20%, our kids not only outperform the Finns, they outperform every nation in the world.

 

Half of students in poverty

 

But here’s the really bad news. Two new studies on education and poverty were reported in Education Week in October. The first from the Southern Education Foundation reveals that nearly half of all U.S. public school students live in poverty. Poverty has risen in every state since President Clinton left office.

 

The second study, conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, reveals that poverty — not race, ethnicity, national origin or where you attend school — is the best predictor of college attendance and completion.

 

Chew on that. The causes of poverty are complex and varied: excessive immigration, tax policy, and the exportation and automation of manufacturing jobs. Yet the list of solutions is strikingly short. Other than picking a kid’s parents, it amounts to giving all children access to a high-quality education.

 

Here’s the catch-22. While the only long-term solution to poverty might be a good education, a good education is seldom available to children living in poverty.

 

One reason is that spending on education has not kept pace with the rise in child poverty. While poverty grew by 40% in the Midwest and 33% in the South from 2001 to 2011, educational spending per pupil grew by only 12% in these regions over the same 10-year period.

 

Still, we don’t know enough about the future to be totally pessimistic:

 

•In Tennessee, for example, a program called tnACHIEVES is aspiring to provide last dollar scholarships to every needy high school graduate who wishes to attend one of the state’s 13 community colleges or 27 technology centers.

•In Atlanta, the East Lake neighborhood has turned a crime-laden slum with the city’s lowest performing school into a prosperous neighborhood with one of the highest-performing schools in the state.

•Philanthropists, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, are helping to send low-income students to college.

 

 

Beyond the symptoms

 

But such efforts are ad hoc and episodic. And it’s not that our nation isn’t trying.

 

We have spent billions of dollars on food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, Head Start and all the rest. Yet until we move beyond treating the symptoms to root causes, this rising tide of child poverty threatens to turn the world’s most prosperous nation into its largest banana republic.

 

That doesn’t mean the solution must come from Washington.

 

To the contrary, Tennessee Achieves happened because a former mayor and four businessmen decided to do something about the fact that fully two-thirds of Tennesseans lacked post-secondary training and were ill-equipped for meaningful employment in today’s economy.

 

East Lake happened because a wealthy businessman partnered with the head of the housing authority and a neighborhood leader to turn a struggling neighborhood into one of the best. Their efforts to replicate the East Gate model in other parts of the United States through Purpose Built Communities has garnered support from the likes of Warren Buffett and Tom Brokaw.

 

The point is this. America can still work. If not in Washington, then in Tennessee, Atlanta and anywhere else people decide to get serious about a problem.

 

These two new studies about child poverty tell us that the time is now.

 

Oliver Thomas is a member of the USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors and the president of the Great Schools Partnership.

Parents, teachers, students and community members in 100 different locations across the United States held a large coordinated action to reclaim the promise of public education, as part of the December 9 Day of Action to Reclaim Public Education.