Click here to read the letter LFT sent to the Department of Education.
(Baton Rouge – July 26, 2012) Under rights guaranteed by the Louisiana Administrative Procedures Act, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers today asked the State Department of Education to hold a hearing at which critiques, comments and suggestions for improvements can be made in regard to accountability standards for private and religious schools that will accept vouchers this fall.
Those rules were promulgated by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday, which opened a 90-day period in which the public is allowed to weigh in on the issue.
LFT President Steve Monaghan was critical of the process BESE used in voting on the proposed rules Tuesday. The public did not have a chance to see the proposal until the day before the meeting, and speakers’ comments were limited to just three minutes at the meeting.
Calling BESE’s action “a clear subversion of democracy,” Monaghan said, “I fully understand the idea behind a three-minute egg, but I don’t like the concept of a three-minute democracy.”
In the letter to the State Department of Education, Monaghan asked for a hearing at which a complete presentation can be made by critics of the proposed rules. He said the Federation intends to make an oral and written presentation of “a constructive critique of the policy as well as recommendations for specific alterations that we believe are in the best interests of Louisiana students, parents, and taxpayers.”
According to the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, BESE is required to hold a hearing if a request is made by an organization representing at least 25 people within 20 days after publication of the rule.
The hearing must be held “no earlier than thirty-five days and no later than forty days after the publication of the Louisiana Register in which the notice of intended action appears,” according to La. R.S. 49:953A(2)(a).
In a press release issued after Tuesday’s BESE meeting, the LFT called the rules for voucher school accountability “little more than a sham.”
The rules, called the “Criteria for School Participation in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program,” are not nearly rigorous enough to provide a fair comparison between voucher schools and their public counterparts. Even so, the rules can be waived at any time by Superintendent of Education John White.