Amended ed bill OK'd

Advocate Staff Photo by ARTHUR D. LAUCK -- The state Senate is voting Wednesday on some of the bills that make up Gov. Bobby Jindal's overhaul of the state's education system. The upper chamber approved one bill and sent it to the Louisiana House to concur in the minor changes made to the langugage.

The state Senate voted 23-16 Wednesday afternoon to approve a key piece of legislation in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education revamp.

The legislation that would revamp public school teacher job protection laws was amended, which means the measure will have to return to the Louisiana House.

The changes were minor.

The proposal is House Bill 974. It is one of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s key bills to revamp public school operations.

The Advocate Politics Blog

Comments

1) Comment by cjohnson52675 - 04/04/2012

Also, I read articles everyday about students at Baton Rouge High School and McKinley High School getting perfect (or near perfect) scores on the SAT and ACT. This tells me that these schools are doing something right, if students are succeeding on a national test. But, the Louisiana public school curriculum is the same across the state (and parishes). So, what is the difference between BRMHS and McKinley. Or the difference between private and public schools? Discipline. It all goes back to discipline. Our public school students don't have it. Teachers spend 75% of their time telling students to sit down, be quiet and pay attention. That is not the case in private schools. They will dismiss you from the school if you have a chronic behavioral problem that you refuse to address. In public schools the students may go to the "time out room---TOR", but they are back in class the next day, causing the same raucous disturbance. Thus, the cycle repeats. I bet if we eliminated this problem the scores would improve drastically, AND we would have a fair field to evaluate the "good teachers" vs. "bad/incompetent" teachers. I realize socioeconomic factors play a role in a students behavior (maybe there are problems at home, or the kid doesn't know "how to act" in different settings) more in the public schools than private schools, but we have always had poverty, drugs, etc. In the "old" days this was not a problem because teachers could paddle, and DISCIPLINE the students and "teach them how to act". Now they ( the teachers) have no "modern" form of "paddling" to really enforce rules. A sad day in Louisiana.

2) Comment by cjohnson52675 - 04/04/2012

If there are any supporters out there, can someone please tell me the positives of the bill? I really just don't understand how this will help the state. Each voucher is worth a maximum of approximately $7,500. Various media outlets have reported that there are approximately 2,000 vouchers available. But there are more than 38,000 students are the "failing" schools. The basic math tells me we just took 15 million from our public school system and only helped 5% of the population (at the MOST). Even if the 15 million number is off, it still stands that this bill only helps 5% of the public school population. I just don't understand why we don't model our public school curriculum after these private and charter schools if they are "sooooo good". Use the 15 million to do that, and then all 38,000 students benefit equally. What am I missing in this argument?

3) Comment by coachblades - 04/04/2012

i sat and listened to one lawaker give a speech about how the average ACT score for louisiana is an 18....No lawmaker was smart enough to go to act.org and see that it is actually 20.1. These plotitians are completely incompetent.

4) Comment by Honey - 04/04/2012

This is the way the votes went......... http://www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=789137

5) Comment by Honey - 04/04/2012

What was the amendement that was attached to this bill??

6) Comment by JL70710 - 04/04/2012

Louisiana's most terrible horrible bad day. :-(