“We can change the current reality if we build a broad base to reclaim the promise of what America is all about,” he told an audience of over 200 delegates to the 49th annual LFT convention. “But we’re not going to change any minds without a lot of dialog going on.”
Thanks to the involvement of a wide-ranging coalition of interests, Monaghan said, the tone of the 2013 legislative session was markedly different from 2012, when Gov. Jindal steamrolled a series on anti-public school and anti-teacher laws through the legislature.
The LFT president said that a number of grassroots efforts arose in response to the governor’s radical agenda after the 2012 session. Groups like Teachers Standing for Solutions in Lafayette helped sway lawmakers’ opinions.
“”I saw legislators who were not our friends in 2012 who weren’t so anxious not to be in 2013,” he said.
A pivotal moment in the last session came after the State Supreme Court agreed with LFT and upheld a ruling that the Minimum Foundation Program could not fund non-public education options, Monaghan said.
“The court told the governor and the legislature, ‘You were wrong.’ That restored my faith,” he said.
Following the high court ruling, the Senate Education Committee buried this year’s MFP after a conservative Republican senator said that “procedurally and substantially, this (formula) is defective.”
As we entered the 2013 legislative session, Monaghan said, capitol insiders were prepared for yet another year in which funding for public education remained frozen.
“But Representative John Bel Edwards went to work,” Monaghan said, “and the LFT, the Louisiana School Boards Association, the superintendents and others hung all together. AT the end of the day, only four people voted against” a 2.75% increase in public education funding.
Another event showing that the tide is turning against false reforms is a decision by Superintendent of Education John White to recommend that the Value Added Model be “put on the shelf for two years,” Monaghan said.
“That was another decision shaped by conversations that we had with other groups,” Monaghan said.
This year is ending with “a breach in the governor’s choke hold on the legislative body,” Monaghan said.
The fight is far from over, the LFT president stressed.
“The governor will be in office for the next two years,” he said. “The wheel never stops turning, and if we stop pushing, things could get worse.”
Monaghan reminded the audience that Gov. Jindal “doubled down” on his voucher and course choice schemes.
“The public wasn’t clamoring for more voucher seats without data or evidence that the program should be expanded,” he said. When the governor added another $40 million to his voucher scheme, Monaghan said, “There was no real debate. It was all based on ideology. No one asked does it work, or should we invest in vouchers, or are there adequate controls there.”
The “circle of billionaires” that spent millions to elect a favorable BESE board and legislature are not going to fold their tents and go home, he said. They are already preparing for the next election.
Monaghan expressed optimism that their money can be defeated by an expansive, broad-based coalition of public education supporters.
Concluding the speech as he had begun, Monaghan said. “If we build that broad base to reclaim the promise, we can change that reality.”