Stressing areas of common ground, State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek told over 200 delegates to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers annual convention that he wants to work with union leaders to solve the problem of low-performing schools.
Pastorek said the state must increase its investment in education if we are to improve. He said that Alabama, which has seen a marked improvement is student performance, spends $65 million a year on literacy programs alone, while our state budgets just $17 million on both literacy and numeracy programs.
The superintendent gave kudos to former Gov. Kathleen Blanco for investing a total of $500 million in new education funds during her term, and to Gov. Bobby Jindal for adding $250 million to the education budget in his first year in office. He said those increases made possible the recent gains in student achievement.
There was no mention of the 2.75% hit taken by public education’s Minimum Foundation Program in the last legislative session, however, and Pastorek gave no hint about his plans for increasing funding in the coming session.
In one of several lines that earned applause, Pastorek said the most recent student achievement scores rose dramatically “because teachers worked hard, and kids worked hard and kids demonstrated what we know they are capable of doing.”
Despite those gains, he said, some 30% of children in Louisiana’s public schools are still below grade level. Many of those children attend about 500 schools that Pastorek said are at risk of being taken over by the state.
Pastorek said he would like to avoid more takeovers, adding that he is discussing “an alternative way of addressing this issue” with Federation leaders.
To improve those schools, Pastorek said, each must have a climate in which teachers are able to work constructively with their students.
“How can I hold you accountable,” Pastorek asked the delegates, “if you are in a school where you can’t teach?”
A school’s learning school environment is not the responsibility of the teachers, he said, but of the administrators and school board.
Pastorek also called for more “meaningful professional development for teachers,” saying that educators need much more than is provided by the state’s colleges of education.
LFT President Steve Monaghan, left, greets Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek at the LFT's 45th annual convention.
Concerning the state’s plans to attract part of the nearly $5 billion included in the federal Race to the Top program, Pastorek said he hopes the money – Louisiana may be in the running for over $200 million – should be used to for a “strategic push on human capital – to put more successful people in the classroom.”