Louisiana students deserve better

Beginning in 1989, legislation was passed in this state to implement educational reform.  This was the birth date of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, commonly referred to as LEAP.  The program consisted of state-developed educational standards coupled with state-developed assessments to monitor students’ progress in mastering these standards.  High states testing occurred at the 4^th, 8th, and senior high levels.  Basically this meant that if student did not perform satisfactory on the tests at the 4^th and 8^th grade they were held back until they mastered these tests.  At the senior high level, students could not receive a diploma until they mastered the tests.

Throughout the 18 or so years of LEAP’s implementation Louisiana has received glowing praise for this educational reform movement, not only from state education reform advocates such as Leslie Jacobs, but also from esteemed national journals such as Education Week.  In fact, Education Week gave Louisiana an A plus on our state developed standards, a statistic most often repeated by our educational leaders.

How times have changed.  A group affiliate with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation just gave Louisiana ‘Fs’ for academic achievement, how students fare compared to dollars spent, readiness for college and careers, and international competitiveness.

As far as the state-developed assessments, Louisiana was given a D plus on the validity of the math and English exams as compared to NATIONAL assessments.  Basically what that means is the Louisiana exams were not measuring students’ abilities to achieve nationally.  The state tests only compared English and math skills of Louisiana students to each other, and gave little or no information regarding their national academic ability.   It’s kind of like what I like to term “educational inbreeding.”

And to make matters worse, school curriculums were designed around these tests.

However, that was not the intent of the LEAP reform movement.  Its goal was to provide Louisiana students with an education that would allow them to be successfully competitive nationally.

All recent data indicates that after millions of dollars spent, years of holding students back, and denying diplomas to thousands, we have been misled not only by our local educational reformers, but also by national journals.  There has been no significant movement in Louisiana’s ranking on NATIONAL achievement tests during the entire LEAP implementation.

As Bobby Jindal and other ultra conservatives continue to push their anti-Common Core Standards agenda, I would like to know what they suggest as the alternative to an approach that attempts to address Louisiana’s problem of “educational inbreeding”, by the development of a set of standards that seek to ensure all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.

Will the Common Core standards be 100% successful?  Not sure, but they did include a considerable amount of expertise in their development; a national consortium representing teachers, business leaders, educational leaders, state governors and parents.

And the standards are:

   1. Research and evidence-based

   2. Clear, understandable, and consistent

   3. Aligned with college and career expectations

   4. Based on rigorous content and application of knowledge     through higher-order thinking   skills

   5. Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards

   6. Informed by other top performing countries in order to    prepare all students for success in our global economy and society 

However, one thing is certain, Louisiana can no longer be trusted to educate their youth on its own.  So let’s put a stop to all the misinformation about a government plot to take over of our education system and get on with the business of providing our students with the education they deserve, for this is far more important than political grand standing.

 

Kristy Nichols’ new job as state clairvoyant

Kristy Nichols was hired by Bobby Jindal as Commissioner of Administration.  She is Bobby’s lead puppet, Pinocchio, and with all the justifications she has issued over the years for Bobby’s failed plans, it’s amazing that her nose has remained remarkably small.

However, apparently we folks in Louisiana got a bonus when Jindal hired her.  She is now also a clairvoyant right up there in the company of Dionne Warwick.  She can predict the future health of individuals.  In her latest attempt to cover up Jindal’s failed initiative in privatizing the Office of Group Benefits leading to the bankruptcy of the state employees’ and retirees’ health insurance plans, she claims that many Group Benefits’ members have policies that cover “more than they need” and that, “thousands of people can save money.”

I wonder if she predicted that recent fall off her bike when she needed medical services?

Please don’t forget that the Office of Group Benefits was running a completely successful insurance entity BEFORE Bobby and his experts decided to “fix” it.  The plans offered had relatively low premiums while providing excellent benefits.   Benefits dubbed “Cadillac Plans” by Nichols.

Each year the Group Benefits Office received excellent reviews by the state legislative auditors and national experts.  However, that all changed when Bobby and his experts took over the reins.  They have in effect bankrupted all the medical plans presently offered by the Group Benefits Office.

They did this by rolling back the insurance premiums for the last two years in order to balance the state budget, resulting in not enough money to cover the health claims.  The state pays up to 75% of a member’s insurance premium. When Jindal lowered the premiums, the state’s costs were reduced and he could balance the budget.  If Jindal had not reduced the premiums and not outsourced the OGB to a private company, NONE of this mess would have occurred.  The insurance plans would have continued to run successfully. 

But now the employees are going to have to enlist the services of a fortune teller regarding their health care.

If you think you won’t get sick, or have a medical emergency, the state will let you select a low premium plan with an extremely high out-of-pocket cost.  If you desire a better coverage plan, similar to that presently offered, it is going to cost you big time, with higher premiums,  up to 47% higher out-of- pocket costs, higher copayments, AND a deductible.   The sad part is, those most in need of this good coverage are the elderly retirees on a fix income.  These are the least likely to be able to afford it, and thus forced to pick the cheaper plan based solely upon economics.

Of course Jindal is going to blame all these increased insurance costs, coupled with reduced benefits, on Obamacare, when in reality they are all the result of "Bobbycare."

But don’t worry!  If you need help deciding if you might get sick, hurt on the job, hurt around your house, or be involved in an auto accident, just drop clairvoyant Kristy Nichols a note and she’ll be able to tell if you’re one of the chosen few that don’t need good coverage so you don’t  pay for, ”more than you need.”  Good luck with that!

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.

Jindal, like Louisiana, running last

Finally some positive news for Louisiana.  Wednesday, the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion released the results of their most recent McClatchy-Marist Poll regarding voters’ choice of candidates for the 2016 presidential contest.  Among Democrats sampled nationally, including Democratic leaning independents, the clear choice was Hilary Clinton with a total of 63%.  No big surprise there. 

 

But among Republicans, and Republican leaning independents, there was no clear winner. Chris Christie was first with 15%, followed by Paul Ryan with 13%, Marco Rubio with 12% and Jeb Bush with 10%.  Pretty tight race. 

The good news was, guess who was LAST with only 1%?  Our beloved governor, Bobby Jindal.

Even though Jindal continues to submit treatises to various ultra-conservative politico blogs nation-wide, served as the chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association, and is mostly absent from the Governor’s mansion crisscrossing our nation attempting to woo Republican conservatives, it is apparent that most Republicans, nationally, could care less about him when it comes to consideration for a Republican presidential candidate.

However, my elation was short lived, because I sadly remembered all the damage Jindal has done to the citizens of this state in his obsession to gain this presidential nod: the health care workers, the elderly, sick, mentally ill, and disabled, the state retirees, the Medicaid recipients, the special needs children, the public elementary, secondary and college students, the state college and university professors and instructors, and the public elementary and secondary teachers. Please forgive me if I omitted some.  

It also saddened me to come to grips with the reality that this latest poll may only serve to make Jindal try even harder in his delusional quest, and consequently wreak more havoc until his final day in office.

Testimony from someone on the front lines

This letter appeared in the Baton Rouge Advocate, July 19, 2014:

I am writing in response to your editorial titled “Jindal Alone on Core” to express my concern as a parent about the politics being played with education in Louisiana, specifically the attempts to sabotage the adoption of Common Core and PARCC.

I am a mother in a military family. When we received orders to head to Louisiana, my biggest fear centered on the education my children would receive. Louisiana trails in academic achievement nationwide, ranking 48th in the country. Leaving DOD schools and transitioning into Louisiana schools, my kids were more than three years ahead of the curriculum being taught.

That means the majority of Louisiana’s children today graduate high school three years behind other students in the country. This is seen in lower ACT scores and lower retention rates in college. This handicaps Louisiana children who are competing for college acceptance and scholarship dollars, attempting to complete degrees and ultimately to secure jobs. It damages the state’s credibility and makes Louisiana unattractive to the growth-oriented, well-paying, and economically desirable businesses we want to attract.

Mr. Jindal, your current wind vane stance on educational standards and assessments and your pandering to political backers is a game of chicken being played with our children’s futures and the future of Louisiana. Don’t pretend to speak for me as a parent or to represent my interests when it’s evident that what you’re truly representing are your own political aspirations.

Amanda Stenson

New Orleans