As an alternative to the “draconian Jindal approach” to education reform, the state’s teachers unions have offered up legislation that would revoke value-added teacher assessments, reinstate tenure and empower school boards over superintendents.
Test scores that measure the progress students make each year will now be used as part of a new evaluation system that determines how effective teachers are in the classroom. But not everyone with a stake in the public education system is pleased with the change.
Are business interests plotting to take over the public education system and turn a profit at the expense of the public? That is the charge leading figures within the Coalition for Public Education have aimed against Gov. Bobby Jindal and the school board candidates who favor charter schools.
Letter grades that show a sizable percentage of Louisiana public schools are either failing or under-performing continue to generate controversy. A union-led coalition warns against Gov. Jindal’s privatization agenda, while a business group says the unions fear transparency and accountability.
Louisiana’s experiment with charter schools could be restrained and limited if the right mix of candidates running for the state’s top school board seats do not prevail in this year’s election, warn industry officials who are backing several newcomers and three incumbents.
Union-backed school board candidates who oppose school choice initiatives, teacher evaluations, heightened curriculum standards, the abolition of tenure and other policy changes could face strong opposition this fall. All eight of the elected seats on the 11 member Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) are open to primary challenges.
New report gives Louisiana an “F” for human capital – a measure of the labor force’s education and skills – for a third year in a row.
State lawmakers were not thinking about long term costs when they passed a law back in 1999 that allowed for taxpayers to pick up all or part of the tab for employee contributions to a local pension plan. Pension reform proposals will be up for discussion in the upcoming state legislative session
‘National School Choice Week’ Highlights Success Stories, Teachers Unions Remain Skeptical