Dear Colleague,
Just before Christmas, Governor Jindal invited the Federation, legislative leaders and other stakeholders to have a conversation about education. During this meeting, the governor listened politely to all comments and repeated his promise to continue meeting and keep listening as he prepared his “bold plan” for education.
On January 17, the governor unveiled his plan in a speech to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. Unfortunately, the governor chose his words very poorly as he framed his controversial agenda.
On one hand, Gov. Jindal acknowledged teachers as the backbone of education and urged that teachers be celebrated and appreciated. However, just moments later he inaccurately and unfairly asserted to these influential business leaders that teachers “are given lifetime job protection…and short of selling drugs in the workplace or beating up” their students, teachers couldn’t be fired.
Not only is this statement untrue, its evocation of those specific behaviors in reference to educators is unjust and insulting. It would indeed be unfortunate if the tone set in his speech is an indicator of the attitude he and his allies will assume in the upcoming legislative session.
We had hoped that the governor would identify areas where consensus among stakeholders could emerge in the best interests of children and all citizens. There are more than 30 policy initiatives outlined in the governor’s press material, a barrage of ideas that will have to be carefully sorted when lawmakers come into session on March 12.
On the positive side, there are issues that we can agree with in the governor’s agenda. We are encouraged by his attention to pre-K education, for example. Experts agree that a good preparation for school is the best guarantee that children will succeed later. We are hopeful that we can find common ground with the Jindal administration and make early childhood education the centerpiece of this year’s legislative agenda.
But some elements of the plan suggest that the governor has been misinformed. On those, we strongly disagree with Gov. Jindal.
We are particularly disappointed with his plan to expand a voucher scheme for private and religious schools statewide. While the vouchers currently are only used by a little over 1,000 students in New Orleans, the governor’s plan could affect some 380,000 students in about 70% of Louisiana’s public schools, according to some reports.
That would devastate public education, and further divide us into a state of educational haves and have-nots. Private and religious schools are largely unaccountable, and can pick and choose which students they want to admit.
Also of great concern is the governor’s apparent lack of understanding of teachers and the educational community. In a flurry of initiatives, Gov. Jindal suggested doing away with the teacher salary schedule, radically reducing the protections of teacher tenure, and tying teacher compensation to student achievement based upon a yet-to-be-implemented Value Added Model.
The VAM is problematic for a number of reasons, including these:
- Fewer than a third of teachers can be evaluated using VAM.
- More than two-thirds of teachers (those in non-tested/non-graded areas) will be evaluated using instruments which are just beginning to be piloted.
- As it stands now, the grievance procedure which has afforded teachers a measure of due process has been essentially gutted.
We understand that not all value added models are alike. We’re also aware that the debate over their generalized use and the limits of their usefulness is anything but settled. Nonetheless, any evaluation system backed by the state and funded by taxpayers must be explainable, defensible, fair and accurate.
Much of the governor’s address, and his most offensive language, was dedicated to an assault on teacher tenure. Gov. Jindal, or his speech writer, felt obligated to toss some red meat to the big business crowd at the LABI meeting.
But as we have repeatedly reminded our leaders, tenure does not assure lifetime employment. Tenure does not stop school systems from removing ineffective educators. Tenure exists to protect teachers from politically or personally motivated discipline and to afford each educator the right to teach according to the best practices in the teacher’s field of expertise.
We believe tenure be improved, and made more relevant to the modern teaching profession. But can’t we begin with a civil conversation, instead of the governor’s mocking assertion that teachers earn tenure because they “have merely survived for three years,” or that their salaries are based on “the length of time they have been breathing?”
In regard to the governor’s call for an extreme expansion of charter schools, we urge him to reflect quietly on his own musings. He has correctly noted that there are really no magic bullets to address student achievement. There are good charter schools and there are poor charter schools. However, state oversight of charter school operations is already inadequate and we’re rightfully concerned that expansion will open the door for profiteers, scam artists, and out-of-state corporations more interested in the bottom line than educating children.
If you are concerned about these issues, we urge you to contact the Governor’s office at 225-342-7015 or 866-366-1121 (Toll Free), or contact him through his Web site at www.gov.la.gov. Share with him your professional, personal message concerning teacher evaluation, tenure, performance based compensation, and school vouchers.
If you need additional information about these topics, please visit the LFT Web site at http://la.aft.org
As always, LFT will take a principled stand based on our core values. We will work with the administration and legislature wherever possible. We will not hesitate to oppose them when we feel that their agenda is not in the best interests of professional educators and the children we serve.
Sincerely yours,
Steve Monaghan, President