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Governor Jindal's Improvement Plans

“Gov. Bobby Jindal details school voucher, teacher tenure proposals”
by Andrew Vanacore
Times Picayune
January 17, 2012

Gov. Bobby Jindal outlined a far-reaching plan aimed at improving education in Louisiana on Tuesday, one that would expand the use of private school vouchers statewide, make it easier to open new charter schools and all but eliminate the job protections afforded teachers by the state’s tenure laws. The governor’s plan would give any low-income family in the state with a child that attends a school rated C or below — a category that includes more than 70 percent of the state’s schools — the option of using public dollars for private school tuition.

It would eliminate tenure for teachers who don’t earn positive marks on the state’s new teacher evaluation system, end annual pay raises based on years in the classroom, and ban the use of seniority in all personnel decisions. Local superintendents would win greater power over hiring and firing, while the power of local school boards would diminish.

In addition, proven charter school operators would get fast-tracked to open new schools and parents would be able to vote in certain cases to place their child’s school in the Recovery School District, a state agency that has dramatically expanded the use of charter schools in New Orleans.

Preschool programs that get state funding would also face the same type of accountability measures, including letter grades, that other public schools do.

In sum, Jindal made clear on Tuesday that he plans to use his remaining political capital on an effort to win dramatic changes to the state’s education laws, even if many of the details won’t emerge until lawmakers draw up formal legislation in the coming months.

“Our children do not have time to wait,” Jindal said. “They only grow up once, and they have one shot to receive a quality education.”

The specifics that Jindal released Tuesday foreshadow a hard-fought session this spring at the state Legislature, which will likely have to bring forward a raft of bills to realize the governor’s vision. The governor and his allies will meet furious resistance from teachers unions, local school boards and others who see Jindal’s agenda as an attack on public schools.

What’s more, the focus on private school vouchers may threaten to divide a reform movement in Louisiana that has typically enjoyed bipartisan support. In a telephone interview, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu commended Jindal for putting education center stage and said she looked forward to working with him. But when pressed on specifics, Landrieu added that she is in favor of only a “limited” voucher program, especially given the success of public charter schools in New Orleans.

“I would not think that vouchers would be the center of our reform effort,” Landrieu said, although she declined to comment on the specific limitations established in Jindal’s proposal. “It hasn’t been and it shouldn’t be in the future.”

Jindal chose to outline his plan for the first time in front of an overwhelmingly friendly audience. He spoke Tuesday morning at an annual meeting of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, a group that helped the governor with a largely successful bid to win allies on the state board of education during last year’s elections.

Speaking for just under a half an hour, Jindal framed his plan as a dire necessity for the state’s economy and — in a room of private-sector executives — compared Louisiana’s existing school system to a dysfunctional business.

“Let me describe a hypothetical company to you,” Jindal said. “In this company, people are hired by a board. Then they are assigned to their jobs by this board with little input from the person who is ultimately going to be their boss and have to work with them.

“Once in their jobs, they are told to work hard, but there is no accountability,” he continued, “Whether they are doing a great job or a poor one, they get no recognition for their hard work and are treated the same.”

Jindal’s plan is aimed at steering local districts toward decisions on hiring and pay that are based on performance in the classroom. It would free up money to pay more effective teachers better salaries by eliminating annual step raises for all.

A ban on using seniority in personnel decisions would also do away with “last in, first out” layoff policies. And new teachers would only be able to win tenured status after five straight years of good marks on their annual evaluations, rather than by simply hanging on without being fired through their first three years.

Finally, the plan would “empower” superintendents and principals to keep school boards out of the hiring and firing process, although exactly how has not been spelled out. Superintendents, rather than school boards, would take the lead in providing a hearing in cases where tenured teachers are fired.

All of these proposals will be controversial. The state’s teachers unions have objected strenuously to the teacher evaluations that would provide the new basis for personnel decisions at local districts, criticizing what they see as a misguided focus on test scores. Measures to weaken the power of school boards have foundered in the Legislature before.

Even more controversial will be the proposed voucher program. Under Jindal’s plan, a family that earns less than two and a half times the poverty line with a child in a C, D, or F graded school will be eligible to receive help with private school tuition.

The state operates a more limited voucher program in New Orleans already, but Jindal’s proposal would expand the number of eligible students in the city.

Instead of finding some new source of revenue for the program, Jindal is proposing a change to the state’s public school funding formula that would simply allow parents to use the public school funding already set aside for their child to pay tuition. For local districts, that would mean a loss of several thousand dollars in funding for every child who opts to attend a private institution, although the governor’s aides pointed out that private school tuition is often several thousand dollars less than per-pupil costs in public schools.

At the same time, the governor is proposing steps that would expand charter schools, another move aimed at giving parents more choices. His plan would “fast track” proven charter operators who want to open new campuses, though it is not clear what kind of process would replace the existing arrangement, whereby the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approves applications on the recommendation of the state superintendent.

In addition, groups hoping to open new charters in districts that are graded D or F would get to apply directly to the state, instead of going first through the local school board.

Finally, parents of children in failing schools would be able to vote on whether those schools enter the Recovery District after three years of failing grades; today, the RSD can take over a failing school only after four and parents are not a part of the decision.