LFT President Steve Monaghan calls HB 1368 "badly flawed and fraught with unintended consequences."
The misleading and misnamed “Red Tape Reduction and Local Empowerment Waiver Program” was approved by the House Education Committee on Thursday over the objections of teacher and school employee representatives.
By a vote of 12 to three, the committee gave the nod to a bill that could:
- Water down teachers’ tenure protections
- Allow increased class size
- Eliminate teacher salary schedules in favor of “performance based pay”
- Discourage hiring veteran teachers by adopting “student-based budgeting”
- Give principals control over budgets, including salaries, supplies, resources, etc.
The bill, HB 1368 by Rep. Jane Smith (R-Bossier City) is the centerpiece of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education agenda this year. If eventually passed by both houses of the legislature, it will allow school superintendents to apply for waivers for virtually any law governing Louisiana schools.
LFT President Steve Monaghan spoke against the bill, calling it badly flawed and fraught with unintended consequences.
Far from solving problems of “red tape” in the classroom, Monaghan said, the bill does nothing to empower teachers and school employees.
“Let’s be clear,” Monaghan said. “In this bill, teachers and school employees are inconsequential to the process and are apparently considered less than relevant.”
Supporters of the bill claimed that it would free local school systems from “burdensome regulations” and make it easier for local superintendents to improve the quality of education in their schools.
Speaking on behalf of Gov. Jindal, education adviser Erin Bendily said the goal of the bill is “to give all schools the same level of autonomy that we give charter schools.”
But Jefferson Federation of Teachers President Meladie Munch said that if autonomy is the goal, then school boards already have the option of creating charter schools.
Munch was critical of the whole idea of allowing school boards top ignore laws that were adopted for specific purposes.
“The laws are there for a reason,” she said. “If a law is wrong, it should be repealed.”
When lawmakers waxed enthusiastic over the opportunity to give school systems more autonomy, Monroe Federation of Teachers and School Employees President Sandie Lollie was there to remind them that more than a few school boards are poorly run.
The Monroe City school system is completely dysfunctional, Lollie said, and has been unable to even hire a superintendent since the last one left under a cloud of suspicion.
Jefferson Federation President Meladie Munch (left) and Monroe Federation President Sandie Lollie testified against the bill.
If a school system can’t be trusted to operate correctly under existing laws, she said, it would be very wrong to grant it waivers to those laws.