Teachers group to push repeal of Jindal’s laws

Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, acknowledged that repealing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s public school overhaul laws next year would require a political tsunami.

But that is just what his group hopes to do, remote as it appears.

Monaghan, whose group opposed the bills, told the annual meeting of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers that starting on Jan. 1, teachers and others have 96 days until the session begins on April 8 to get their message across.

He said the theme to lawmakers will be simple.

“Do not defend the indefensible,” Monaghan said.

The chief targets of the LFT’s wrath, as they have been for months, are two laws enacted earlier this year.

One expanded Louisiana’s voucher program from New Orleans only to a statewide choice for low-income students attending troubled public schools to switch to private and parochial schools at state expense.

The other one will make it harder for public school teachers to earn and retain tenure, which is a form of job protection.

Jindal and other backers said the laws will help improve Louisiana’s long-suffering public school system, and give low-income students a way out of failing schools.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, who played key roles in the passage of both bills, blasted the LFT’s stance, especially knowing that the state has long ranked near the bottom nationally on most public school surveys.

“It just shows that the leadership of the union doesn’t get it,” Appel said.

The two laws were hot topics during the group’s 48th annual meeting, which ended last week in Baton Rouge.

The three-day convention passed resolutions urging state legislators to either repeal the laws or make wholesale changes in them.

Monaghan said House and Senate members need to hear from teachers over and over.

“Keep your list and check it twice,” he said.

Monaghan said a political tsunami is needed to force lawmakers to act, especially since the bills dominated the attention of legislators from the first day of the 2012 session.

Both bills won final approval by comfortable margins.

The tenure bill, known in legislative circles as Act 1, passed the House 60-43 and the Senate 23-16.

The voucher measure, known as Act 2, won House approval 60-43 and cleared the Senate 24-15.

Both face court challenges from the LFT in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.

Hearings are set for Wednesday on Act 2 and Dec. 17 on Act 1.

In each case, the losing side is expected to appeal any ruling.

That means it will be months before the last word comes down, likely from the state Supreme Court.

Larry Samuel, an attorney for the LFT, said both laws are legally flawed.

“They were done in a very rushed manner,” Samuel said. “They were railroaded through.”

Among other arguments, the LFT contends the laws are unconstitutional because they include more than one subject.

Opponents also contend that it is illegal for the state to send state tax dollars reserved for public schools to private and parochial schools.

Attorneys for the state have said they are confident both laws will survive.

Appel said the laws represent bold efforts to upgrade public schools.

“If you want to talk about things to make it better we can make it better,” he said of the LFT.

“But I don’t want to water it down,” Appel added.

LFT leaders cited the two laws as among a host of examples of a year when, they say, public school teachers, teacher unions and others in the public school establishment were under political assault.

“We know that we have a tough climate out there,” said Heidi Glidden, an official of the American Federation of Teachers, which is the LFT’s national affiliate.

Officials of the group also produced a short film, which they emphasized was a light-hearted spoof, that showed the LFT’s sign outside of its southeast Baton Rouge office being repeatedly blown up by a Star Wars-like rocket launcher.

The last image showed the state Department of Education getting blown up, setting off cheers and laughter from the audience.

Comments

1) Comment by Girls Can Tell - 28/11/2012

@TommyRucker, you must work for Jindal because your ideas about teachers are as off-base and idiotic as his.

2) Comment by ScotB - 27/11/2012

Mr. Monaghan, if Louisiana public schools could improve to not being one of the ten worst states (much less almost dead last), you would have a better chance of getting someone to listen to you. You sir, are unfortunately the leader of a vast group of underperformers. A difficult position from which to negotiate.

3) Comment by cbelse1 - 27/11/2012

I have moved on from the classroom and now work as a counselor in the front office. I never joined a union and disagree with what they do about 95% of the time. However, I do support their fight against the voucher program, as this program does not address the real problem and instead creates more problems. I ALSO FOUND IT ABSOLUTELY LAUGHABLE THAT SOMEONE BELOW LISTED THE HOURS THAT TEACHERS WORK AS 8:00-3:00. By 8:00, we've already served breakfast and are in 2nd period.

4) Comment by twinkie1cat - 27/11/2012

NearBarbarian: I do think that they are still unions. And they are also a way for teachers to communicate, plan, demonstrate, and generally assert some degree of control over the schools. They just don't have the amount of bargaining power of unions in the non-right-to-work states. However, I was amazed at how much power the New Orleans chapter of LFT had before Katrina. I am sure that is why Jindal really privatized the New Orleans schools, to dispose of the union. And when those charters were first developed, they not only did not want New Orleans teachers, did not hire special ed teachers "until they needed them" and did not give teacher created charter groups a charter. I know this because I helped write a charter with two other New Orleans teachers. I started my career in Alabama and was a member of AEA although I never used their services and only taught there for 2 years. However, when I moved to Georgia in 1975, in spite of being a right-to-work state, the 2 unions had, while not huge power, considerable influence and were able to get things done. I was in both unions there. The greatest example is getting rid of Gov. Roy Barnes after one term. Although he was legally a Democrat he was almost as dictatorial as Bobby Jindal when it came to schools and clearly hated teachers. (My paraprofessional said he was not a good student and always in trouble. She had gone to high school with Roy.) He took away tenure opportunity for any teacher entering a system, increased class sizes and cut out the kindergarten paraprofessionals. This had the effect of pushing paras with more seniority up into special education (federally mandated so he couldn't get rid of their positions) so that some really good special ed. paras lost their jobs and teachers got stuck with assistants who were elitist and thought they were too good to work with disabled kids. After his first term the unions not only refused to support either candidate financially but let us know Roy had to go. So many of us either did not vote for governor or held our noses and voted for Sonny Perdue, a Republican. Sonny was fairly moderate, showed respect and immediately returned both tenure and the regular education paras to the school. Unfortunately, Georgia now has a nutcase again for governor, Nathan Deal who is doing bad stuff, but the Georgia teachers will probably have to teach him a lesson too. Atlanta teachers know the power of a good demonstration and could have one going, complete with media, within 24 hours. And this was BEFORE social media. Bad principals and even the Board feared the street committees and special ed. had a kick tail one. And Atlanta has always loved a good demonstration.

5) Comment by TommyRucker - 27/11/2012

Tenure is a concept that TODAY breeds corruption and laziness. It should be completely done away with as today's teachers do not deserve these special gifts. Tenure was designed to protect teachers from political interference and now it is being used by the teachers to protect poorly performing and lazy teachers. Our kids deserve better. These teachers have put their own SELF INTEREST FIRST and FOREMOST. Why should these poorly performing, self-centered teachers be guaranteed a job with ALL the benefits, why should they get something no one else gets.

6) Comment by TommyRucker - 27/11/2012

These teachers have wrecked public education with their greed and whining and this has been going on for decades. They have done an extremely poor job and want to be paid MORE and MORE for doing a poor job. Public education needs a complete overhaul and these unions are only making a bad situation worse. We are in the middle of a terrible economy and these people who work Monday thru Friday, 9 months a year, 8am to 3pm, have tremendous medical benefits and pensions, YET THEY ARE DEMANDING MORE AND MORE. They have the nerve to talk about GREED on Wall Street!! I can understand why caring and responsible parents want their kids out of this corrupt system. They continue to demand less accountability, lower standards, less work and MORE MONEY while the kids are getting worse educations. We even see where they are cheating on their re-certifications exams in 3 states. Modern unions are nothing more than a bunch of self serving political organizations that are destroying the country and will lead us, as they have consistently done, into deeper problems-its the nature of the beast.

7) Comment by NearBarbarian - 27/11/2012

I'm glad that Mr. Monaghan and the LFT are persisting with this--even though it might turn out to be a Quixotic quest. One of the reasons behind my latter point is something that will put Twinkie1cat and I in disagreement, regrettably. Even though the AFT is a union in other states, its local affliliate (LFT) is a union in name only. Like the LEA/NEA, its really only a professional organization. In this state--which is an oxymoronic "right to work" state--unions don't exist in any meaningful way. There is no collective bargaining, no right to strike, no substantial political clout, and meagre economic means. On top of that, most teachers are not members of either the LFT or LEA. Those who are sometimes joined out of respect for the legacy of the labor movement (which is why I joined the AFT in Alabama and here, even after I became a college professor) or joined to have potential access to legal representation in cases of wrongful termination (e.g., retaliation by an administrator). That being said--and Traveler has brought this up before--both organizations should join forces and pool resources to advocate for Louisiana teachers. I completely agree with you and Traveler on another point: workers of all professions owe a lot to the labor movement. I'd add this: to not acknowledge that fact is naive, self-deceptive, self-destructive, and as dramatic as it might sound, a threat to American democracy.

8) Comment by twinkie1cat - 27/11/2012

Unions protect their members. The local chapters of NEA and AFT are both unions and teachers' groups. That is the purpose of the AFT and NEA to make sure that teachers and school personnel don't work in conditions as dangerous as the burnt down clothing factory in Bangladesh and for little more money and have due process should a school system try to fire them. They also protect teachers from racist and oversexed administrators. As a result of that protection, the teachers are satisfied in their jobs and work hard to protect and educate the students. Union busting is a favorite game of Republicans because they don't like organized groups voting against them and their immoral, anti-American, anti-Christian policies. Teachers unions also, as part of their dedication to quality public schools provide many services to teachers, including professional development to make them better teachers. Without unions teachers are underpaid, overworked, and treated as being of no more value than day labor. I am not currently a member of LFT or LAE or working in a school. However, I have been. Once you are a teacher you are always a teacher because it is a calling, not a job. Not just anyone with a college education can do it. This dedication makes us vulnerable to abuse because the profession becomes part of who you are. Therefore we put up with a whole lot of mess that people who have "jobs" don't. They can walk away and get another job. We cannot separate that easily. Being vulnerable, we need to be protected from abuse by our unions. That is their job, taking care of teachers so we can take care of the students and help them become the best people they can be. Jindal's laws reduce teachers to factory workers or day labor, of no use to the company once the job is done. Teachers are family. We know each other just by observation. Big business and conservative politicians don't understand this. They think it is just a job.

9) Comment by HerbF - 27/11/2012

I haven't decided wheather the law is worth keeping or not. I don't like the voucher program because it subtracts resources form public schools, and may end up promoting religion, and/or very poor private schools. I do understand that they are reevaluating applications, and I believe the intent of the law is to promote the interest of the students and the schools. But, at what cost? And, will it be effective? Also, the teacher evaluation requirements impose a very large workload on administrators who are already stressed. This is going to result in a very large number of retirements that otherwise would not have happened. We are going to lose a lot of teachers. On the tenure portion, I really don't know enough about it to comment.

10) Comment by Traveler - 27/11/2012

To "Yadodge0501": I am not a member of LFT (or LAE). I am not employed as an educator in Louisiana. I don't have a horse in this race. However, if you will take the time to research the history of unions in our country, you will find that many of the benefits that workers take for granted today are the DIRECT result of union efforts: the minimum wage, health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation leave, safety regulations on the job, etc. If you objectively research the history of the Hostess Company, you will realize that for many years, the employees "compromised and caved in" under the leadership of no fewer than six CEO's who walked away with massive personal fortunes, while the workers struggled to make ends meet. You know, you really should be well-informed before you make such blanket statements.

11) Comment by yadodge0501 - 27/11/2012

LFT is not a teachers group, its a union. It only has the financial welfare of its members in mind with the usual Modus Operandi of producing more of nothing for more pay. Unions blind, militant, anti-value influence has run every business they have invaded into the ground. Witness Hostess Bakeries, GM, Chyrsler. LFT knows the state can't be bankrupted as easily, so they persist in this field which hurts students and taxpayers

12) Comment by Traveler - 27/11/2012

Readers of this article may find it informative to read the following entire article, also in today's The Advocate: Judge Halts New Voucher, Teacher Laws Desegregation order in conflict by HEIDI R. KINCHEN Florida Parishes bureau November 27, 2012 6 Comments A federal judge on Monday ordered a halt to implementation of the state’s new voucher and teacher hiring laws in Tangipahoa Parish, saying those laws conflict with court orders in the parish’s decades-old desegregation case. One attorney in the case said he will now file similar challenges to state Acts 1 and 2 of the 2012 Regular Session in “two or three” other desegregation cases in which he’s involved, and other parishes may follow suit. At least 30 school districts across the state remain under federal desegregation orders, including East Feliciana, Pointe Coupee and St. Helena parishes.