• The uninsured rate for children in poverty (13.8 percent) was higher than the rate for all children (9.4 percent).
• The number of uninsured Hispanics decreased in 2011 by 0.6 percent. Hispanics remained the least likely group to hold insurance coverage among major ethnic and racial groups, though percentages of uninsured decreased to 30.1 percent in 2011 from 30.7 percent in 2010.
• In 2011 the uninsured rates decreased as household income increased, from 25.4 percent uninsured for those in households with annual income less than $25,000 to 7.8 percent uninsured in households with income of $75,000 or more.

The state budget is a mess.   Louisiana has not had a “real” budget in five years.  Somewhere mid-year, major cuts are always made because the Governor continues to give away the store through tax exemptions, credits and rebates.  The Rainy Day Fund has been drained.  The state budget is patched with one time funds.  Now, Louisiana’s fiscal situation is getting worse as a result of Federal decisions on Medicaid funding.  When we postpone dealing with these problems, they simply continue to grow and cost more to fix later on.

It is important to remember that budgets and the taxes that support them are a system of forward exchange – we pay taxes forward, not for immediate exchanges for goods and services but so that we have them available in the future. In the same way, we have public goods and services now because of taxes paid in the past.

The Jindal Administration decided to cut the state budget on the backs of the poor, elderly and students striving to do better.  So far since his election in 2007:

• Higher Education has been basically cut by 40% in state funding from $1.6 billion down to $993.6 million in state general funds.
• K-12 education funding has been stalled at 2008 levels. The Minimum Foundation Program has been dismantled and funds diverted.
• Health care funding for hospitals and outpatient services has been slashed with expected closures of some hospitals.

 The real questions are:   What are essential state services?   Should we continue to give away billions of tax dollars every year and dismantle education, health care and other services?

 Louisiana Needs Leadership!

During the legislative session, Senator Jack Donahue created the Revenue Study Commission which is tasked with evaluating the 468 tax exemptions costing cost taxpayers $4.8 billion a year.  Surely, there are tax credits, exemptions and rebates that can be reduced or eliminated.

Senator Donahue tried to be bold by creating the Revenue Commission to begin a critical look at tax exemptions and rebates. But after the first few meetings of the Revenue Commission it seems clear that the Commission is going through the motions of reviewing tax exemptions and complying with the dictates of the Governor to be “Revenue Neutral” in their recommendations about tax exemptions.   The Commission has an opportunity for real leadership and independence.

Louisiana Progress believes that the Revenue Commission should actually find some new revenue.  Louisiana cannot cut its way to excellence.

“Tax exemptions are tax dollars that are not collected and result in a loss of state tax revenues available for appropriation. In this sense, the fiscal effect of tax exemptions is the same as a direct fund expenditure.” – Louisiana Dept. of Revenue

Over the last five years, the Jindal Administration has demonstrated it priorities by siphoning off state funds to private business through tax giveaway schemes and reducing state revenue by rolling back the Stelly plan.

Does Louisiana really need to subsidize inventory, wood products manufacturing, steel manufacturing, sales of electricity, insurance company premiums and motion picture tax credits?

The Louisiana Budget Project (LBP) has an excellent overview of the tax exemption budget at www.labudget.org.  The Better Choices for A Better Louisiana Coalition is focusing on the need for additional revenue.

According to the LBP last year, Louisiana only collected 12 cents of every $1.00 in corporate income tax owed.  Corporate Income tax collection has decreased from nearly $800 million in FY 08 to less than $200 million in FY 11.

Ambition Drives Budget Crisis

By choosing to reduce revenue, the Jindal Administration has created a state funding crisis in order to justify cutting services, privatizing prisons, health care and education.  The systematic dismantling of the Office of Group Benefits, state retirement systems and essential state services is being driven by a political ideology that focuses on profits over people. The administration sees success as reducing the size of government, not right-sizing government to do critical tasks well.

Click here to tell your Legislators that tax exemptions are undermining Louisiana’s ability to fund essential services such as education, health care and infrastructure.

Tell the Legislators To:

• Reduce all Tax credits by 5% each year for 3 years- Economists estimate a reduction of 5% would result in $300 million in revenue per year.
• Place a Moratorium on New Tax Exemptions for 3 years
• Identify specific Tax Exemptions to be Eliminated or reduced such as Film Tax Credits or Horizontal Drilling.
• Consider a constitutional amendment to reduce exemptions
• Insist on more accountability for existing credits, exemptions and rebates

The threat to dismantle the LSU Hospital system is driven by a desire to profitize public health care with short term decisions driven by a created crisis.  It is unrealistic to redesign the state health care system in 30 days without input from local communities and policy makers.

The other timely example of privatization or profitization of public services is the voucher debacle.  Over the summer, Louisiana Progress has been reporting on the bungled inept implementation of the voucher program.  The administration education reform agenda is about money, not about the best interest of children, families, local schools and communities.  The choice movement is not about quality, it is driven by money.

“Because of broader battles, there’s pressure on Republicans to more sharply differentiate themselves by aligning with pro-market, anti-government positions. It makes for a clearer, sharper story line.”- Jeffery R. Henig

Jeffrey R. Henig, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, has identified three types of privatization: “pragmatic” privatization aims to force government to do a better job; “systemic” privatization represents a broad weakening or erosion in the government’s role; and “tactical” privatization is designed to advance the political interest of a party or candidate. While voucher advocates may be motivated by all three goals, tactical privatization appears to be fueling at least some of the current efforts.

The current educational landscape is a clear example of diverting public sector resources to private entities in the name of innovation and modernization with little or no accountability. This fall about 5,600 students and 119 private schools will participate in Louisiana’s new statewide voucher program.

Louisiana’s voucher program relies more on back-end than front-end accountability, a source of contention for critics who argue that it has opened the door to financial abuse and academic failure.

Louisiana Progress has advocated for clearer criteria for school selection, accountability for schools and compliance with accepted principles for public school accountability and testing.

Why won’t the Department of Education require higher standards?

Although most of the schools are run by established entities like local archdioceses, red flags have already been raised about a few operators:

• A self-proclaimed prophet and apostle is in line to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in voucher payments for a school called Light City Christian Academy.
• The operator of another participating school, Conquering Word Christian Academy, is under investigation for FEMA fraud.
• It’s unclear whether a third school, New Living Word, has enough teachers and space to serve more than hundred students it plans to accept through the voucher program.

State Superintendent John White said Conquering Word will not be allowed to accept any new students through the program this year. But students who attended in previous years through a New Orleans-specific voucher program will still be eligible for scholarships. Light City will enroll 80 students through the program, and New Living Word will enroll 165 (about half of the seats that school leaders requested). In the latter case, the school signed a memorandum of understanding addressing facilities concerns and authorizing quarterly site visits by state officials.

White said the accountability provisions impose a “moderate screen” on new school applicants and “extremely swift back-end consequences” for private schools that underperform.

The Department of Education has demonstrated their own incompetence in the selection process.

Superintendent White has refused to provide records on that screening process until after the school year is already under way. He said state officials rejected applications from 10 schools because they did not meet criteria laid down in the initial law. After developing additional regulations, they removed two others and reduced the number of seats available at several schools. With 119 private schools participating, that means the state approved about 90 percent of applicants.

Student Accountability Is Not The Same As School Accountability

Students receiving vouchers in Louisiana take the same standardized tests as public-school students. If a private school has at least 40 voucher students enrolled in tested grades (or at least 10 students per tested grade), the school’s overall performance must meet a certain threshold—the same threshold that public schools must meet to avoid closure or reconstitution—for it to continue accepting new voucher students.

This year, however, only about a quarter of participating schools will enroll more than 40 voucher students in tested grades; those schools encompass about 65 percent of the program’s enrollment. State officials say they anticipate the accountability provision will capture 85 percent of students by the program’s fourth year.

White argues that his oversight program relies on a healthy mixture of market forces and governmental oversight. “Responsible policy always tries to empower citizenry by not over-regulating, but at the same time by being unforgiving when it comes to failure,” he said, adding that the plan is to “regulate failure by not accepting failure.”

But in a sign that he might be bowing to pressure from skeptics, White said last week that he will likely seek to tighten requirements for prospective private-school operators in the state—regardless of whether they accept voucher students.

What is the real cost of vouchers?  Many parishes are laying off teachers and reducing services because students are being diverted to some terrible schools such as Living Word in Ruston.  Lincoln Parish is facing significant cuts.  Do we have enough confidence in Living Word to dismantle the educational infrastructure in Lincoln Parish?

The public, local legislators, parents and community leaders need to focus on the impact of dismantling public education systems.  The state of Louisiana has made it clear, that they have no interest in improving public education.  With the passage of education reform legislation, Louisiana has begun the systematic dismantling of public education.

Some policymakers, BESE members and advocates are concerned about diverting the public money funded through the Minimum Foundation Program –First it’s the charters, then the vouchers, and now course choice diverting tax dollars to untested, unproven, unaccountable educational experiments in profitization.

Follow the Money!

Feeding time for Department of Education online courses for Jindal’s Student Scholarships for Educatonal Excellence Act-LouisianaVoice

Choice Providers: Private Schools Authorized to Raid MFP- Louisiana Educator

After Delaying Release Of Voucher Documents, Louisiana To Send Taxpayer Funds To ‘Prophet’-TPM Muckracker

Parish To Lose 30 Teacher Spots Partialy Due To Voucher Program- Ruston Daily Leader

St. John public schools could lose $2 million to voucher program-NOLA.com

We all need to pay attention to understand the end game is not about quality, accountability or improving education.  The voucher debacle proves it!

In the recently passed Federal Transportation Act, an important provision was included which changed the funding landscape for health care in Louisiana.  Louisiana’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate was reduced from 71.92% to 65.51%.   The result is nearly a $1 billion impact on Louisiana’s health care budget.

Over the past two weeks, key legislative committees have convened to receive information on the cuts from Commissioner Paul Rainwater and DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein, LSU Interim President Bill Jenkins, LSU Board Chair Bobby Yarborough and LSU Hospital Chief Dr. Fred Cerise.  Unfortunately, they all seemed to go out of their way to say nothing, to obfuscate, and withhold information from the Legislators.  No specifics were provided but many platitudes about efficiency and public private partnerships.

DHH, the Governor’s Administration, and the LSU Board have conspired to keep the legislature in the dark.  So much for transparency and accountability! 

With the frustration growing in the legislature, the LSU Board of Supervisors accepted a plan on Friday to make major cuts to all the regional LSU Hospitals.  In doing so they have made it clear that the legislature will not have a role in these decisions.

The Jindal administration is claiming that cuts to the LSU system’s hospitals do not require legislative action. However, Louisiana law clearly states that if drastic cuts are being made to public hospitals then legislative approval is required.

R.S. 17:1519.3(B) and (C)

B.  No hospital nor any emergency room may be closed without legislative approval.  Such approval may be granted by the legislature either by concurrent resolution or by appropriate action in the General Appropriation Act.

C.  The board or the division shall not authorize a hospital to reduce health care services provided by any one of the hospitals of the Health Care Services Division in any manner which causes expenditures of any hospital to be reduced on an annualized basis by greater than thirty-five percent of the previous fiscal year actual spending level.  If any services are reduced by greater than fifteen percent in any one year, legislative approval must be obtained before reducing such services greater than fifteen percent in any year for the next three years.  Funding may be provided by any local, regional, state, federal, or private sources to augment existing funding or to restore reduced funding.

At the LSU Board of Supervisors meeting on Friday, the Board was clear that they were willing to cut up to 34.5% of funding from hospitals in order to circumvent the legislature with these decisions.

Will there be a transparent process to discuss the next steps for health care in Louisiana?  With nearly $7 billion at stake, how can we follow the money?

Is it too much to ask to demand transparency and accountability in state spending on health care?

Louisiana is facing a crisis in health care.  Current predictions suggest that the LSU system will face $329 million in cuts.  These hospitals provide not only valuable health care services to the state’s poor, but also many jobs to local residents.    Click here for summary of services and cuts

Hospital Name	Location	Full-Time Employees	Outpatient encounters	Outpatient Clinic Visits
Bogalusa Medical Center	Bogalusa	598	109,996	48,252
Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center	Houma	940	175,442	96,413
E.A. Conway Medical Center	Monroe	810	147,461	109,656
Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center	Independence	406	77,141	41,698
Earl K. Long Medical Center	Baton Rouge	1,186	196,927	117,751
Huey P. Long Medical Center	Pineville	512	75,325	42,361
Interim Public Hospital	New Orleans	2,284	227,657	114,618
LSU University Regional Hospital-Shreveport	Shreveport	2,354	447,295	388,907
Dr. Walter O. Moss Regional Medical Center	Lake Charles	385	91,199	48,690
University Medical Center	Lafayette	1,003	190,360	109,199

Legislators should be involved in understanding the decisions made about hospitals in their regions, the potential for savings, the opportunities for partnerships with other providers and the implications for these decisions.  The Legislators should also know if DHH is in private negotiations with out of state health care providers with ties to the Jindal Administration.

To Add Insult to Injury —

Unknown Implications of Affordable Care Act (ACA):  

Governor Jindal has been adamant about his decision to reject the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

In Louisiana over 275,000 people who are currently uninsured would be able to get insurance under the Medicaid expansion.  Further, the majority of funding for the Medicaid expansion will come from the federal government and not cost the state for the first three years.  The expansion of Medicaid could go a long way to support Louisiana’s health care system.

Health Care Safety Net Depends on LSU Hospitals, Doctors and Private Hospitals

Funding for local health care providers consumes about one-quarter of the state budget. This includes partial reimbursements to hospitals for their care of low-income and disabled children and pregnant women. This doesn’t cover all of the costs incurred in delivering these services, and so uncompensated care is a serious concern. Severe budget cuts will only exacerbate this deficit and affect the level of care for all citizens even those with insurance getting services at private hospitals.

We need to have a frank discussion about what $329 million in budget cuts to hospitals will mean to our health and to our health care infrastructure.  By cutting access to care, Louisiana will drive more poor, uninsured and Medicaid patients to private community hospitals to care for in emergency rooms.  Louisiana will reduce access to primary care and out-patient services and ultimately increase costs and reduce access for everyone.

We also can’t ignore the fact that these cuts will result in the loss of federal matching funds that ultimately will be made up through local taxes and higher health insurance rates.

When Louisiana leaves federal matching health care dollars on the table by not implementing the Affordable Care Act, the taxes paid by Louisianans are used to support health care in other states.

Legislative Leaders should demand answers!

House Speaker Kleckly and Senate President Alario should convene the legislature for a special  hearing and put the administration officials under oath and demand a complete briefing on the decisions about LSU Hospitals.  The Legislature should ask for a list of all outside private consultants and organizations involved in providing advice on the restructuring of health care in Louisiana.  The concern of Louisiana Progress is that backroom deals with out of state consultants, health care providers and insurance companies are being made without transparency and accountability.  Before we dismantle the public health care system, the legislature, the public and the communities need more information and insight into the opportunities and implications.

According to former Governor Roemer, “Government is bought and paid for by corporations.  Sunshine is the best disinfectant.” 

The Governor should show some respect for the Louisiana Legislators who are elected by the people and are an independent branch of government.  The Legislators need to demand accountability!

Louisiana Progress promotes common sense ideas for improving accountability of private schools that accept the new Scholarship/Vouchers. As the BESE Board considers the plan promoted by Superintendent John White, we want you to know that not all educational advocates, parents and nonprofit advocacy organizations support the limited accountability of schools that are funded at the taxpayer’s expense.

Given that the business community has been pushing an agenda of increased accountability for education for more than a decade, the Department of Education has an opportunity to set a high bar for private schools participating in the scholarship/voucher program. Unfortunately, the Department of Education has chosen to set a low minimum level of performance.

The decision that the BESE board makes today has long term implications to the expansion and evaluation of the scholarship/voucher program. We encourage you to be mindful of these implications. In your haste to implement a poorly though-out and poorly implemented scholarship/voucher plan, the BESE Board will be responsible for the results.

We hope that the Administration will hear the growing drumbeat for accountability for the scholarship voucher program. Many of the proposed reforms will benefit from a clear-eyed assessment of the implications for implementation. The consensus is building to add more accountability measures to the “Scholarship” Program.

Given the news reports from reputable media organizations including the Monroe News Star, Daily Advertiser, Times Picayune and the Alexandria Town Talk, there are significant issues with many of the schools approved for participation in the scholarship/voucher program.

Louisiana Progress asks that the BESE Board re-evaluate the schools selected for participation to insure a quality educational standard is met. Some common sense requirements should be used in 2012-2013 school year as an expanded statewide pilot.

No school can increase their enrollment by more than 20%.
No school can increase their tuition by more than 20%.
No school should be eligible to accept scholarship/vouchers unless they are in full compliance with Bulletin 741.
No school should be eligible to participate that does not have adequate physical facilities for all enrolled students on the first day of the school year.

These common sense expectations are warranted given the disparity in quality of the schools selected for participation in the program. Some highly reputable schools were selected, but there are several schools that should be eliminated from participation.

Schools Selected to Receive Vouchers not based on Quality
The church-related New Living Word School in Ruston was approved by Superintendent John White’s Louisiana Department of Education to increase its enrollment from 122 to 315 children through vouchers. The New Living Word School in Ruston, does not have adequate facilities or staff to accommodate the significant increase in students.

New Living Word School in Ruston will be the largest voucher recipient in Louisiana. The News-Star articles detail that the school increased their tuition from $200 per month to $8500 per year in order to claim all but $32 of the maximum voucher money allotted per child.

According to a news report from Stephanie Simon for Reuters, “Even leaving First Amendment concerns aside, the dominance of Christian school options raises many questions about how this shift to religious academies will affect the quality of Louisiana education. “Smaller, less prestigious” and often struggling religious schools are more likely to have spots open for voucher students. The school willing to accept the most voucher students — 314 — is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.”

Another news report suggests that the Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, a bunker-like building with no windows or playground, also has plenty of slots open. It seeks to bring in 214 voucher students, worth up to $1.8 million in state funding.

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains “what God made” on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.”

If this is what vouchers have in store for the education of Louisiana’s primary and secondary students, it’s not unreasonable to fear that the quality of education in the state will deteriorate quickly.

Given some of the inadequacies cited in the media, did any state DOE staff do site visits to the schools that applied to receive scholarship vouchers? Are all schools in compliance with the Title 28 Education Part LXXIX. Bulletin 741 Louisiana Handbook for Nonpublic School Administrators-Programs of Study?

Bulletin 741 outlines the operational standards for non-public schools. Also included in the Handbook are criteria for certification of personnel (Chapter 3. Section 301.) stating that the non-public school principal or headmaster must hold a master’s degree in any area from an accredited institution or have principalship on his Louisiana teaching certificate.

Louisiana Progress asks that in consideration of the new accountability measures for the scholarship/voucher program, that the Louisiana State Department of Education certify that all schools participating are in compliance with all provisions of Bulletin 741.
For example in addition to staffing, key provisions include a record of all textbooks purchased are off the state adopted text book lists (Section 517), Class size Ration and student staffing (Section 707), School Attendance (Section 901), School Libraries Section 1701).
Louisiana Progress has expressed significant concerns about accountability and quality of education for students that are receiving vouchers/scholarships.

The question of standardized testing has received the most attention. As LSU education professor David Kirshner says Louisiana’s voucher program “does not require that private and charter schools that accept public funds be subject to the same scrutiny of standardized testing that was used to indict the public schools in the first place. So what we have in Louisiana can in no way can be counted as a push from worse to better. Rather it is only a push from public to private.”

Louisiana taxpayers deserve to know if the schools they are funding are adequate. The current accountability program outlined by Superintendent White could leave failing students in schools that would be F rated given the current methods for the Cohort Index. If nothing else, hold the scholarship/voucher schools to at least a B rating. The stated goal of the scholarship/voucher program is to provide opportunities for students to be educated in better schools. So the Department of Education should prove the schools are better. Nothing less is unacceptable.

Sincerely,

Melissa S. Flournoy, Ph.D.
Louisiana Progress

 The implementation of reform will create new opportunities to assess what is working, to foster collaboration and to invest in innovation in traditional schools, charter schools and in new partnerships with the private sector and community schools.  The challenge facing Louisiana is how to focus on our common goals of improving education for all children.   We have to be willing to address the real life challenges of the children in public schools.  We have to address the number of high poverty schools and help those become high performing.  We have to address the needs of the students far behind their peer group as well as those gifted and talented.  We need to look at the caliber of facilities and address the challenges that teachers and students face every day working in dilapidated or over-crowded schools.

In order to achieve quality public education, we need to use data effectively, we need to invest in successful models and we need to create a cradle to career continuum of services to encourage children and families to be successful.  Together, we can be catalysts for the change we need.

 Public-Private Partnerships for Cradle-to-Career System

•  Pursue State-level Cradle to Career Systems Alignment
• Support Local Cradle to Career Partnerships to Drive Results

 Invest in Results

• Invest in Quality Early Learning and Development and Programs that Get Results
• Use Existing Funding to Create Competitive “Impact” Grants to Districts
• Prioritize Teacher and Principal Excellence to Lift Student Achievement and Growth
• Promote High Performing Schools that Can Demonstrate Evidence of Effectiveness

 Use Data More Effectively to Determine What Works

•  Build State Longitudinal Data Systems
• Support Local Data Systems that Connect School-Based and Provider-Based Data
• Require Providers to Track Impact and Practice Continuous Improvement

Encourage Public-Private Partnerships for Cradle-to-Career Systems Alignment

Pursue State and District-level Cradle to Career Systems Alignment

At the state level, the existing Children’s Cabinet or the Early Childhood Advisory Council should be adapted to include the department directors responsible for the states’ early learning and development systems, K-12 education delivery systems, colleges and universities, and workforce training programs to establish a cradle to career council responsible for establishing short- and long-term student achievement and growth targets, from kindergarten preparedness rates to postsecondary completion rates.

Louisiana should align health, education and criminal justice services for the successful development of a cradle to career system instead of a cradle to prison pipeline.

Support Local Cradle to Career Partnerships to Drive Results

In order to establish similar Cradle to Career partnerships throughout the Louisiana, the state should encourage local Cradle to Career councils, which would bring together educational leaders and investors – early childhood providers, district superintendents, college and university presidents, business and nonprofit leaders, teachers, parents, and community funders – to set student achievement targets, lead cross-sector strategies to improve student-level outcomes, and more effectively use data to inform decisions around funding, intervention strategies, and where to achieve greater systems alignment.

Invest for Results

Invest in Quality Child Care to Support Parents and Children

Child care helps children, families, and communities prosper. It gives children the opportunity to learn and develop skills they need to succeed in school and in life. Quality Child Care gives parents the support and peace of mind they need to be productive at work.  Child care assistance can help families with the high cost of care; particularly low-income families who are struggling to meet their basic expenses and stay employed in a challenging time.  Quality child care is critical to get children off to a good start.

Quality Early Learning and Development and Programs That Get Results

Investments in early learning and development are critical to student success. Investments must be made in programs proven to be effective. Lawmakers have placed a greater emphasis on funding based on results and quality.  This includes better leveraging existing general revenue funding, or using Medicaid resources to invest in home visitation efforts that get results, and continuing quality rating systems that assess child care programs based on quality and results. Despite the importance of these programs to later educational attainment, the overwhelming majority of Louisiana spending occurs after age five. Current coverage for families in need of quality early childhood interventions is inadequate, and we spend billions of dollars to intervene in future years as a result.   Louisiana should find ways to express their commitment to increasing these critically important investments in future years.

Provide Flexible, Fair and Smart Funding for School Districts to Improve Results

Districts need greater flexibility to make local decisions about how best to improve achievement – especially in light of pending budget cuts. Funding to districts must also calculate need in a more fair and accurate way. Establishing a more reliable and fair calculation of poverty and a community’s ability to pay must be pursued to insure quality and equity. Louisiana should provide technical assistance to districts to pursue model teacher and principal evaluation systems so that staffing decisions are based, in large part, on credible assessments of performance.

Use Existing Funding to Create Competitive “Impact” Grants to Districts

By leveraging existing resources, Louisiana should consider expanding competitive grant programs that reward districts that A) boost academic performance, and B) find efficiencies and align funding to improved outcomes for students. These “impact” grants, with existing or repurposed state funding, allow districts to compete for grants that will help to expand or replicate strategies that have had a measurable impact on improving achievement.  Other states, such as New York and Florida, are pursuing similar competitions to boost achievement.

Prioritize Teacher and Principal Excellence to Lift Student Achievement and Growth

 Louisiana must prioritize the investments being made in teacher and principal quality. Great school leaders and highly talented teachers are critical to our ability to sustainably improve student achievement. We encourage districts to include student achievement and growth as the predominant measure in more rigorous teacher and principal evaluation systems – and support teachers and principals in more purposeful ways as a result of these more rigorous evaluations, trace teacher effectiveness data back to colleges of education (and begin to fund those schools according to performance) and implement performance-based compensation systems that reward and retain highly effective teachers and principals.

Louisiana must insure adequate training for staff participating in the evaluation process and provide opportunities for monitoring, review and grievance procedures to address concerns.   Given the new flexibility to hire new teachers with no certification or training in educational instruction, tracking educational performance to undergraduate majors and institutions will be instructive.

Use Data More Effectively to Determine What Works

Build State Longitudinal Data Systems and Offer More Data Analysis to Providers

Louisiana should expedite the integration of data systems at the departments responsible for early learning and development, K-12 education, higher education, and workforce training. Access to quality data is essential if policymakers are expected to improve results and find savings through systems alignment and by investing in only those strategies that work. This systems’ alignment will improve the analysis of the impacts of early childhood programs on school readiness and provide a better way to understand measures of achievement and progress in K-12 and student outcomes related to postsecondary education.

Support Local Data Systems that Connect School-Based and Provider-Based Data

Lawmakers should help districts establish data systems that connect school-based data (i.e. academic, attendance, behavioral) with nonprofit service provider data as well as other public sector services such as health care and criminal justice data (e.g. tutoring and after school). With such a system in place, districts will be able to work with providers more effectively and efficiently, students get exactly what they need to succeed, and funders and policymakers can better determine which programs are working, and which ones are not. School-level resource coordination will be important to the success of these systems.

]]> http://www.louisianaprogress.org/WordPress/transforming-education-improving-outcomes-for-children/feed/ 0 http://www.louisianaprogress.org/WordPress/transforming-education-improving-outcomes-for-children/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LouisianaProgress/~3/BD-SC28VtPs/ http://www.louisianaprogress.org/WordPress/incarceration-as-job-creation/#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:31:22 +0000 ryan http://www.louisianaprogress.org/WordPress/?p=1707 “Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s.”

 That paragraph opens an eight-part series published earlier this month by The Times-Picayune about how the state’s largely private prison system profits from high incarceration rates and tough sentencing, and how many with the power to curtail the system actually have a financial incentive to perpetuate it.

 Facts:

• 1 in 86 Louisiana adults is in the prison system, nearly double the national average.

 • More than 50% of Louisiana’s inmates are in local prisons, which is more than any other state. The next highest state is Kentucky at 33%. The national average is 5%.

 • Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of its prisoners serving life without parole.

 • Louisiana spends less on local inmates than any other state.

 • Nearly 2/3 of Louisiana’s prisoners are nonviolent offenders. The national average is less than half.

 So, how did Louisiana double its prison population in the past 20 years? And what distinguishes us from other states?

 In the early 1990s, the state was under a federal court order to reduce overcrowding, but instead of releasing prisoners or loosening sentencing guidelines, the state incentivized the building of private prisons. But most of the prison entrepreneurs were actually rural sheriffs. They saw a way to make a profit and did.

 ”We went to Jackson Parish … and what the sheriff there gets is a guaranteed $100,000 a year, whether the prison is making a profit or not. But what he really gets — and he was not shy about using this word — is the patronage. Because his department, prior to this, had 50 employees, and now it has 150 employees. In a place like that, 100 jobs with benefits is huge. And what he means by patronage, of course, is that he’ll get re-elected if he keeps supporting these jobs.”- Cindy Chang, Reporter, Times-Picayune

 Conditions at the rural sheriffs’ prisons differ remarkably from those in larger state institutions.

 Prisoners who end up in these local for-profit jails, where many of the inmates are short-timers, get fewer rehabilitative services than those in state institutions, where many of the prisoners are lifers. That is because the $24.39 per-diem per prisoner in local prisons is half that of state prisons.

 Inmates at state prisons can learn to be welders, plumbers or auto mechanics— while prisoners housed in local prisons, and are certain to be released, gain no skills and leave jail with nothing more than “$10 and a bus ticket.”

 It’s a vicious cycle.

 If Louisiana can reduce the prison population, then the state will have more money to provide the much needed services to the inmates who remain in the system. However, the Sheriff’s Association is one of the most powerful lobbies in the state and consistently oppose any change that would reduce the state’s prison population.

 Louisiana’s prison sentences are among the harshest in the country. The state leads the country in the percentage of inmates who are serving life without parole and exceeds the national average for the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars. For example, a two-time car burglar can receive 24 years without parole. Three drug convictions can send a prisoner away for life.

 Though the state’s prison budget is $600 million, comparisons with other states are difficult.

 If you look at the size of the state’s corrections budget, it is misleading.  Louisiana incarcerates two people to every one person in another state since we spend so little on services. $25 a day is incarceration on the cheap.  In Louisiana state prisons spend, on average, $55 an inmate, combined with local prisons the average comes out to $38 per day, per inmate, which is the lowest in the country.

 The more money the state spends on incarceration, the less it can spend on preventive measures like education, workforce training or rehabilitation. (According to Education Week’s State Report Cards, Louisiana was one of three states to receive an F for K-12 achievement in 2012.) Without these ex-convicts return to their already-struggling communities with little or no prospect for supporting themselves thus the cycle of crime often begins again.

 This is the starkest, most glaring example of how our prison policies have failed. It showcases how private prisons do not serve the public interest and how the mass incarceration as a form of job creation creates a long-term crisis by trying to create a short-term solution.

The Challenge for Louisiana: Balancing Business and Families

 Family Economic Security

In Louisiana, women make up 52% of the population and nearly half of the workforce.  Women are more likely than ever to be in the workforce as key breadwinners, children are more likely to live in families in which both parents work, and families are struggling more than ever to make ends meet.  Working families urgently need public policies that help them meet the dual demands of work and family.

Failure to Act in the State Legislature

In the 2012 Legislative Session, numerous bills were introduced to address the issue of equal pay for men and women.  SB 568 by Senator Peterson, HB 573 by Representative Norton, and SB 189 by Senator Dorsey-Colomb would have established an Equal Pay Act for Louisiana.  All three bills died in committee.  SB 577 by Senator Peterson, to establish a taskforce to examine the issue of equal pay in Louisiana and make recommendations on how to address the wage gap.  The bill passed both the House and the Senate, but was vetoed by Gov. Jindal due to the “costs” it would take to implement such a taskforce.  At a time when our families and our economy are struggling, Governor Jindal vetoed legislation that would only create a task force to help understand and address wage disparity.

A Non-Partisan Issue

Improving the economic outlook for families by addressing wage disparity should not be a partisan issue.   Most citizens support the core American values of fairness and equality, including ways to improve the wages and lives of families no matter their race, geographic location, socioeconomic status or political affiliation.  By vetoing the measure, the Governor has shown his lack of commitment to the business implications of the wage differentials and the impact on the economy in Louisiana.  Balancing the interests of business and families is critical for the future of Louisiana.

Contents of Policy Brief:

• The Wage Gap
• The Benefits Gap
• Economic Impact on Families and Businesses
• Business Solutions
• Policy Solutions

the THEME
Who are the awesome people who are moving Louisiana forward? Maybe it’s someone who is promoting innovative solutions in economic development, energy independence, equality or education. Maybe it’s a friend or a boss. Or maybe this person is quietly moving Louisiana forward. That’s okay. This is your chance to recognize someone making a difference.

the OBJECTIVE
Send us a picture of someone you think is awesome and tell us why.

the REQUIREMENTS
Please submit your photo and a short explanation (up to 40 words) on our Facebook page or through an email to ryan@louisianaprogress.org. We’ll take submissions now through Wednesday, May 23. Then we’ll publish a Slide Show with a selection of the submissions.

Once we receive the images, we will turn to you, the Progress community, to choose the most interesting individuals. They will be announced on our website, featured on our homepage, and receive a free subscription (or gift subscription) of the Progress Journal.