Louisiana students, the sacrificial lambs

As Bobby Jindal continues to spend taxpayers’ money on law suits attempting to prevent the implementation of the Common Core Standards and the tests used to measure mastery of them, he  repeatedly advocates that Louisiana should develop its own standards and assessments. He’s not alone in this advocacy, for State Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, who with 17 other legislators just lost in court in their attempt to stop Common Core implementation, also claims that abandoning them, “will give us a chance to develop our own standards equal or higher than what we have today.”

I can’t believe that the opponents of the standards still keep proposing this in-state development plan as an alternative to utilizing the Common Core Standards.

So for the last time Mr. Jindal, Mr. Geymann, and anyone else who believes Louisiana can do a better job by developing their own standards and assessments, WE DID THIS FOR 20 YEARS!  It was known as the Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) and it has resulted in our kids still being ranked 48^th or 50th in reading and math skills on the most recent national survey.

Additionally, the just released ACT scores, a national test of college readiness measuring English, math, science and reading skills given to both private and public high school seniors and juniors, show that the state’s average score has dropped yet again, and that only North Carolina, Hawaii and Mississippi have lower scores.

Where is there one shred of evidence to support this in-state approach?  Louisiana has robbed generations of children of a good education; one that would allow them to be competitive no matter where they chose to live in our nation.  And that should be the ultimate standard of a truly good educational system; the standard which the Common Core Standards seek to address.

You’d think a Rhodes Scholar, who received one of the finest educations possible (Brown University and Oxford University), would want that for the children he serves.  Jindal certainly wants that for his own children by enrolling them in some of the finest schools in our state.  And yet, he couldn't care less about your own children, and he is willing to sacrifice them for a possible slim chance of a presidential bid. 

The sad part about all this mess is, in reality, Jindal couldn't care less about Common Core, for he has no core belief systems of his own regarding most issues.  Instead he simply adopts whatever the ultra-conservative power brokers consider media attention issues at the present time.  Five months ago, it was all about rejecting Medicaid expansion funding under Obamacare.  Now it’s the Core Standards.

How blessed we are to have such a wonderful governor.

How dumb does Jindal think we are?

If you’re a state employee or retiree and a member of one of the state’s Office of Group Benefits Insurance Plans, better prepare yourself for premium sticker shock accompanied by increased out of pocket expenses and reduced health care benefits.

A recent commentary by one of the newer Jindal appointed Group Benefit Policy and Planning Board members goes on and on about how the privatization by Jindal of the Group Benefits Office has led to a more efficient insurance system.   Interestingly, most of the praise and data that this appointee references about the Group Benefits Office, in terms of providing good benefits while successfully keeping premium increases below the national average, occurred during the years BEFORE Jindal’s privatization move.

For those not familiar with the Office of Group Benefits, basically prior to 2012, state-paid employees administered health insurance for state employees and retirees.  Their responsibilities included processing claims, running a state designed PPO plan and formulating contractual agreements with health care providers such as Humana, United Health, BlueCross/Blue Shield, etc.  to provide HMO service plans for participants.

Contrary to what we usually think about state employee run ventures, they did such a great job that Group Benefits was recognized as one the most successful and efficiently run health insurance entities in the country.  Their self-run PPO plan was also lauded for it success. They had amassed a health reserve fund of over a half billion dollars and kept health cost premiums contained while providing excellent benefits to its plan members. 

That all changed when Bobby and his crew took over, fired just about everyone working there, and farmed out the services to a private corporation in the name of cost savings.  Additionally, he made changes to the group benefits governing board.

Jindal and his experts in just two years have taken a successful operating insurance system and turned it into  an operating loss, with its health reserve fund now almost depleted.    The Louisiana Voice reports that, “Jindal’s plan for saving $20 million a year through the privatization of OGB has been less than a smashing success as the agency has hemorrhaged red ink to the tune of $16 million more per month than it receives in premiums.”

Now the PR from Group Benefits Jindal-appointed board members is that the plans previously offered by the Office of Group Benefits are ,”so rich that if they aren’t changed they will trigger a ‘Cadillac tax’ of $31 million in upcoming years.”

If all that sounds confusing basically it means that they’ve screwed up the good health insurance plans previously offered to state employees and retirees so badly that they’re going to have to bail out these plans on the backs of the members by raising deductibles, reducing services, and raising premiums.  And the great part is the Jindal administration doesn’t have to worry about being blamed for any of this because they are just going to tell everyone that it’s the result of Obamacare. 

However, it is important to realize that the real goal for the Jindal administration is to force ALL state employees and retirees out of the Group Benefits Health Insurance Plans altogether, for the state currently pays part of a retiree’s health insurance premium.   This partial premium payment is legislatively mandated and the chances of getting it repealed are miniscule.  And, since Bobby has cut education and medical services to the bone and still can’t produce a balanced state budget, he is running out of sources of money.  Therefore he has set his sights on reducing participants in Group Benefits Health Insurance Plans to fill the budgetary gaps by making the plans unattractive and unaffordable for the services and coverages offered.

Of course, the resultant outcome of Bobby’s latest plan will be more uninsured in Louisiana.

I just pray we can all stay healthy and survive until Jindal leaves office.

What about Louisiana's Children?

I see our governor, Bobby Jindal, has found a new issue to advocate in hopes of improving his chances of getting recognition for his quest to become president, namely, the immigration border mess.  He discovered that 1,071 unaccompanied immigrant children have been placed with sponsors in our state.  He is demanding from the Obama administration a full status report on these individuals, and wants federal dollars to help care for them.

I believe this is a fair request, and admire his compassionate concern for the well-being of these 1,000 or so kids.  However, from Bobby’s previous actions, I doubt that compassionate concern is the real motivation for Jindal’s latest outburst.  At first, Jindal, born of immigrant parents, was silent about the issue, but now he has decided that the immigration debacle is bigger than the Common Core Standards, so he has jumped ship in hopes of more media attention.

However, I would like to further pursue Jindal’s latest  display of compassionate action and request FULL well-being status info from his administration:

I would like a status report on the well-being of the estimated 277,000 Louisiana citizens, which includes children, that are now without health insurance coverage because of Bobby’s refusal to accept Medicaid expansion funds under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  Gee, offered federal dollars and turns them down.

I would also like an accounting of all the Louisiana high school graduates who can’t afford to attend college due to tuition hikes caused by Jindal’s reduction in finding education in this state by over $700 million.

Please give me an accounting of the elderly in our state that could no longer remain living independently in their own homes due to the loss of assistance services provided by the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly, which Jindal used for other purposes.

Also helpful would be a status report on the Louisiana children in need of mental health services formerly provided by the Early Childhood Support and Services Program which Jindal wiped out.

Need I continue?

While it’s true that the Obama administration needs to report on its long range plans for the well-being of the unaccompanied immigrants being dispersed throughout our state, Governor Jindal needs to provide a status report on his long range plans for the well-being of the Louisiana citizens that he has already impacted by his actions.

 

But I doubt that we will ever see that status report.