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Louisiana Federation of Teachers
Weekly Legislative Digest
June 1, 2007

House approves HB1, the state budget, and sends it to the Senate

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved Louisiana’s $29.6 billion state budget, HB1 by Rep. John Alario (D-Westwego) and sent it to the Senate, where it will first be heard by the Senate Finance Committee.

Public education dodged a bullet when lawmakers turned down a set of cost-cutting amendments by Rep. Jim Tucker (R-Terrytown), who is the chair of the House Republican Caucus. His plan would have hit education especially hard. Of the $500 million in Rep. Tucker’s proposed cuts, $177 million would have come from: higher education ($116 million), special schools and commissions ($12.3 million) and the Department of Education ($43.1 million).

Rep. Tucker’s amendment did exclude pay raises provided in the budget bill. However, said LFT Legislative Director Alison Ocmand, the cuts would have hurt the delivery of public education services.

House members who voted for Rep. Tucker’s cuts were: Ernie Alexander (R-Lafayette), Gary Beard (R-Baton Rouge), Shirley Bowler (R-Harahan), Tim Burns (R-Mandeville), Carl Crane (R-Baton Rouge) A.B. Crowe (R-Slidell), William Daniel (R-Baton Rouge) Gordon Dove (R-Houma), Dale Erdey (R-Livingston), Mickey Frith (D-Abbeville), Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles), Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge), Troy Hebert (D-Jeanerette), Ronnie Johns (R-Sulphur), Kay Katz (R-Monroe), Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), John Labruzzo (R-Metairie), Eddie Lambert (R-Gonzales), Charles Lancaster (R-R-Metairie), Nick Lorusso (R-New Orleans) Daniel Martiny (R-Metairie), Jim Morris (R-Oil City), Dan Morrish (R-Jennings), Loulan Pitre (R-Cut Off), Mike Powell (R-Shreveport), Joel Robideaux (I-Lafayette), Romo Romero (D-New Iberia), Steve Scalise (R-Harahan), Pete Schneider (R-Slidell), Mert Smiley R-Port Vincent), Jane Smith (R-Bossier City), Mike Strain (R-Covington), Joe Toomy (R-Gretna), Donald Trahan (R-Lafayette) Tucker, Wayne Waddell (R-Shreveport), Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), Ernest Wooton (R-Belle Chasse).

Teacher raise in budget; work needed for employees, higher ed faculty

As approved by the House of Representatives, the state budget includes full funding for a $2,375 teacher pay raise. The school employee raise, however, is funded at just $750 per employee. Legislative Director Alison Ocmand said the House was in a budget cutting mode, and in no mood to bump up the employee raise. When the budget is considered by the Senate Finance Committee, LFT will work with Senate President Don Hines (D-Bunkie), who has pledged to increase the school employee raise to $1,500.

There is also some work to be done on behalf of higher education faculty, who are budgeted to receive a 5% pay raise. The problem lies in the distribution of the raise. Higher Education Commissioner Joe Savoie wants administrators to choose which professors get raises. Thanks to an amendment by Rep. Eric LaFleur (D-Ville Platte), half of the $30 million higher education faculty raise must be across-the-board. LFT believes all faculty should get an across-the-board raise, and will continue to push for fairness.

BESE to meet over discrepancies in MFP budget

The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will schedule a special meeting to resolve an $87 million discrepancy in the proposed budget for public education’s Minimum Foundation Program. The state constitution requires BESE to write the MFP budget, which funnels money to local school systems. The legislature, which controls the state’s purse strings, can either accept or reject BESE’s plan, but cannot change it. If the two bodies cannot agree on an MFP, the formula reverts to the previous year’s funding.

When BESE wrote its 2007-08 MFP formula last March, it came in at $277 million more than the current budget. But when Gov. Kathleen Blanco proposed her spending plan, it only included $150 million more for the MFP.

The House Appropriations Committee added another $40 million to the MFP. That budget was adopted and sent to the Senate for approval, leaving an $87 million bone of contention to be resolved. Since BESE does not have a scheduled meeting until late in June, a special meeting will have to be called to reconcile the MFP budget before the legislature closes on June 28.

The outcome will be critical to several school systems that faced a loss of funds because they either had a loss of enrolment or were formerly in the “hold harmless” category. BESE’s original MFP would have saved all but one of them from losing any money. Unless the formula is fully funded at BESE’s level, these districts could lose millions of dollars.

LFT fights off reduction in penalty for guns on campus

Working with Senate Education Committee Chair Chris Ullo (D-Harvey), LFT resolved concerns about a bill changing the penalty for students caught with firearms on school property. In its original state, Ullo’s SB 265, introduced at the request of the Department of Education, could have reduced a student’s mandatory expulsion from one year to just one semester.

As amended and sent to the Senate floor, the bill calls for a minimum two year expulsion for possession of a firearm or illegal drugs on campus for high school students. The bill also toughened a requirement that offenders enter a treatment program before they can be readmitted to school; it now requires that students successfully complete a program before they can be readmitted.

East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers President Carnell Washington testified for the stricter expulsion rules, saying “Bringing a gun to school is one of the things teachers fear the most. These (expelled) kids must pay the price for the safety of the rest of us.”

An amendment to the bill gave local authorities some leeway in dealing with students who are repeat offenders of any school policy. Under current law, fourth offenders are automatically expelled for virtually any infraction, and administrators wanted some discretion in dealing with these cases.

One amendment hit at the core of the debate over Sen. Ullo’s bill: it removes the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s ability to waive requirements that all school systems have alternative programs in place to educate students who have been expelled.

Some school systems complain that requiring them to have alternative settings is an expensive unfunded mandate, which violates a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year.

LFT President Steve Monaghan said that is the problem with the unfunded mandate provision. “If a district needs an alternative program, but chooses to spend its money on something like a big new football stadium, the state should be able to force them to do what is right,” he said.

Panel denies due process rights for school employees

A plan to grant some due process protection to non-tenured school employees facing termination was killed by the House Education Committee this week. HB 666 by Rep. Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) would have required school districts to allow employees a hearing before the superintendent and the school board before they could be fired.

LFT and the LAE were the only groups to appear in support of the bill. Opposing the bill were the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the Louisiana School Boards Association, the Superintendents Association, East Baton Rouge and Orleans Parish School Boards, and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The opponents had the usual management complaints, saying the bill would tie the hands of administrators, make it too hard to fire employees, and create a sort of tenure for employees.

“These arguments are all incorrect,” said LFT Legislative Director Alison Ocmand. “The bill didn’t give employees tenure, just a right to a hearing and notice of the hearing.”

LFT President Steve Monaghan said the committee’s action proved the need for a statewide public employee partnership law.

“The real key to due process is in partnership agreements at the local level,” Monaghan said. “Employees and management should agree on contracts that include the protections employees deserve.”

Voting against the bill were Reps. Avon Honey (D-Baton Rouge), Ernie Alexander (R-Lafayette), Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), Billy Chandler (D-Dry Prong), Lelon Kenney (D-Columbia), Mike Powell (R-Shreveport) and Donald Trahan (R-Lafayette).

Voting in favor were Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge), Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas), Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) and Monica Walker (D-Marksville).

Bill creates new crime: teacher on adult student sex

Ignoring the fact that all school systems have policies against employees having sex with students, and ignoring the fact that it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor, the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice voted to create a whole new category of crime: educators having sex with adult students.

HB 969, a combination of proposals by Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles) and Rep. Hollis Downs (R-Ruston), does not change the legal age of consent, which is 17 in Louisiana. What it does is make it illegal for a teacher, coach, administrator, paraprofessional, teacher aide or student aide to have sex with a student who is between the ages of 17 and 19. No other adults with responsibilities over 17 to 19 year-olds are singled out in the bill.

The bill does not criminalize sex between other school employees and students. Which prompted Rep. Ernest Wooton of Belle Chasse to quip, “So if I’m a teacher, and I fall in love with a high school student, then I have to quit and start driving a bus.”

In a meeting room crowded with TV cameras and reporters, the committee voted unanimously to approve the bill and send it to the full House.

“By singling out just a few educators, this bill sends an unfortunate message to the public,” said LFT President Steve Monaghan. “It creates a perception that there is a big problem.”

Committee shoots down ban on guns in college dorms

Citing concerns about protecting the second amendment rights of college students, the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice turned down a bill aimed at prohibiting firearms in college dormitories.

HB 461 by Rep. Rick Gallot (D-Grambling) would have included dormitories in the firearm-free school zone that already exists in state law. Rep. Gallot said he was trying to put the force of law behind gun prohibition policies that already exist in all state universities.

Opponents, which included the National Rifle Association, Southern University Law School Professor Maurice Franks and Rep. Warren Triche (D-Thibodaux), ignored the fact that firearms are prohibited in college dormitories. They argued that tragedies like the recent Virginia Tech shooting could have been averted if students had been armed.