Letter: Education a factor for businesses

The most highly paid person in Louisiana government, whose job and six-figure income depends entirely upon Gov. Bobby Jindal, has endorsed the governor’s plan to replace income taxes with the country’s heaviest sales taxes. Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret’s explanation is that corporate executives look at a state’s tax structure before deciding where to build or expand a business.

What Moret either doesn’t know or prefers to simply ignore is that corporate leaders often put as much weight, or even more, upon the quality of a state’s education system, because of a company’s need for both an educated workforce and an affluent customer base.

And Louisiana’s perpetually underfunded K-through-college education system has never been more sliced, diced, chopped and scattered than since Bobby Jindal came into office.

Attention, Moret, Jindal and all others in whose hands the future of Louisiana rests: Nothing is more important to our future than education. Nothing.

Russ Wise

St. John Parish School Board member

LaPlace

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 02/03/2013

A "purposely created ingrained culture" might explain why funding level with the funding spectrum of recent history does not seem to make much difference in Louisiana or anywhere else.

2) Comment by Scrooge - 02/03/2013

Actually, underfunding worked before the 1960's, a whole segment of Louisiana's population did alright without educations, right? All the diversionary ***** does not address the real problem in Louisiana or the historical reasons for it. Somehow, a purposely created ingrained culture where survival was the mode of living and educational attainment meant little since opportunities were non-existent is supposed to attain academic excellence in a generation ? Let them eat books? Why in the &^%$ would crime and economic outcomes in Louisiana be so bad? Less public education will fix that, obviously.

3) Comment by bourbon-soda - 02/03/2013

Moving right along, in a list at the Annie B. Casey website of per- pupil expenditure adjusted for cost of living, Louisiana ranks 18th among the 50 states, and spends $588 more the mean (+0.234SD) and $1021 above the median. Source: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx ?ind=5199 or search "per pupil spending adjusted for cost of living" . I derived and calculated Louisiana's rank (18th out of 50) and the mean, median, and standard deviation from that list. Compared to other states adjusted for cost of living, Louisiana public schools are not underfunded, at least at the source. What happens to the money on the way to the students may be the problem. I infer from swinham's comment that before diverting further funds to public education, Louisiana might consider taking care of some other factors that might attract business to Louisiana.

4) Comment by bourbon-soda - 02/03/2013

Meanwhile, Texas, where Rice is located, spends $8400 and gets better NAEP scores. Even someone smart enough to go to Rice can fall for the "underfunded" mantra. If there is a need for Texas missionaries to Louisiana, it is not because of "underfunding." Source for TX per-pupil: << http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/02/texas-drops- close-to-bottom-in-student-spending.html/ >> or << http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20130222- texas-drops-close-to-bottom-among-states-in-student- spending.ece >> or search "dallasnews texas drops close bottom student spending."

5) Comment by bourbon-soda - 02/03/2013

"Underfunded" surfaces again in the 3/2 news story about Rice students spending their spring break in primitive Jackson, Louisiana, but no comments permitted there at the moment. East Feliciana in a recent year spent $11,300 (2011 dollars) per pupil. What is this "underfunded"? $11,300 does not sound "underfunded" for a low living expense area. Source: << http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/Rankings.aspx? state=LA&ind=1457 >> or search "datecenter kidscount louisiana per pupil."

6) Comment by ScotB - 01/03/2013

Companies look at a potential site's ability to fullfill adequate workforce needs. Education, as it is measured statistically, is not important at all to the functioning of the business. Most of the executives are going to send their kids to private schools in any case. Louisiana has the nation's #1 workforce training program, which helps business recruit, interview/screen, and train workers for full readiness. Many CEOs of businesses that have expanded or relocated here have attested to LED's great program for providing the needed workers. So, sorry to disappoint you Russ, but Jindal & Moret have found an extremely effective workaround that fully compensates for poor K-12 results.

7) Comment by swinham - 01/03/2013

I think most people would agree it is difficult to correlate the quality of education with its funding for a lot of reasons, including some of those brought out by Mr. Hammatt, a person with substantial experience in the field. Russ has focused on education, but there are real studies that show quality of life issues, including education, environment, political climate, along with workforce productivity, general economic climate, good roads and other public infrastructure, responsiveness of government to public needs (not just financial incentives), etc. play a large role in a company's interest in locating in a state, particularly if its intent is long-range. Sure, finaancial inducements (essentially bribing companies to locate here) are important, but Louisiana is in that chicken-or-egg situation where we want quality businesses to locate here so we can become a quality state while many quality businesses want us to have that quality before they are willing to locate here. As James Carville said, "It's the economy, stupid." How can we foster a good economy if we are not willing to invest in our people and in our state's infrastructure in a consistent way, rather than in the ad hoc way we attempt to lure business.

8) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

As a public service to teachers of critical thinking looking for material, a ludicrously bad paper purporting to show benefits of laptops in the classroom: << http://www.educ.msu.edu/epfp/meet/01-24- 05files/when%20each%20one%20has%20one.pdf >> or search "each one has one teaching strategies student achievement laptops classroom." I would appreciate any leads to a more reasoned conclusion.

9) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

The previous was the result of looking around for a mechanism by which increased funding would augment achievement. Class size does not appear to be much a determinant. Some countries testing better than the US have larger class sizes. Some states testing better than LA have larger class sizes. Sources: << http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size- around-the-world/ >> or search "nytimes economix class size around world," << http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/SASS/tables/sass0708_2009324_t1s _08.asp >> or search "public school class size by state." Would someone tell me the criterion for "underfunded"? I feel "underfunded."

10) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

A paper out of Duke, at a Harvard website, suggests that home computer access - bridging the "digital divide" - for students may have the effect of broadening, rather than narrowing the gap: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/PDF/events/colloquia/Vigdor_Sca lingtheDigitalDivide.pdf or search "school internet access student achievement". I am not able at the moment to find anything on the effect of computer technology in the classroom. My anecdotal experience is that computers in the hands of students during the school day are a distraction and subversive of education, but I would be interested in any more objective information.

11) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 01/03/2013

@tradewins, actually, the studies you seem to be cirting are worthless. Most of them, by Hanuchek, fail to account for such basics as the differential costs of ANY services in higher cost areas, and the cost for certain types of students requiring more services. ANY school serving high-needs populations would of course have higher spending, and lower scores, on average. Doesn't mean that "money doesn't matter." As far as overall scores, they are going up foir every single group in the country, on virtually every standardized test. See "Simpson's Paradox" when the number do not go up, or at least appear to not go up.

12) Comment by DMJ - 01/03/2013

Well said, Russ.

13) Comment by SuzanneMS - 01/03/2013

Show us those statistics, tradewinns. No, I didn't think you could. Tell us how increased parental concern and participation will substitute for lack of basic supplies such as paper and pencils, lack of textbooks, lack of computers for access to online resources, lack of high-speed internet, lack of a library for access to materials for reading and research, lack of a librarian to select materials to support the curriculum and provide instruction in their use, lack of classroom space which results in classes being held in hallways and lunchrooms, lack of maintenance which results in buildings which are too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. And explain why you think that children should be punished for the sins of their parents. Why children should suffer for their parents' lack of concern, participation, or simple ability to help them. Many of those parents are the product of Louisiana public schools; when will we break the cycle?

14) Comment by tradewinns - 01/03/2013

funding is not the prime reason for the poor quality of public education here or in any other state. more money has been thrown at public ed in the last 20 years than before, yet there has been no improvement. in fact the statistics show the reverse is true. the prime reason is the lack of parental concern or participation in their children's education.

15) Comment by Scrooge - 01/03/2013

Putting Louisiana's Dept of education in the hands of amateurs will do nothing to improve "business climate" either, the logic of eliminating the Dept of Ed is apparent now given the amateurish, political buffoonery and nepotism which characterizes the Louisiana Dept of education. There are now many persons "working" at the La, DoE who have little or no educational experience and training but are making paradigm changing policy decisions, verifying and continuing the tradition of Louisiana stupidity.

16) Comment by Scrooge - 01/03/2013

Wouldn't businesses be clamoring to come to Louisiana already given the multitude of corporate giveaways already in place? Why isn't that working? One might think that Mr. Wise has a point.

17) Comment by [e-mail] - 01/03/2013

Russ, you have it just about backwards; corporations first want to make money; everything is secondary to that. Education levels of prospective ordinary workers is very important, and they know that they'll have to train new workers but they want to start as high up on the scale as they can. Highly skilled workers are usually already working.

18) Comment by swinham - 01/03/2013

Amen, Russ, and there are plenty of studies to back you up.

19) Comment by prbeav - 01/03/2013

Excellent point. And we must consider the content of that education. It must be focused on the objective truth and discourage attention to imaginary concepts such as creationism. Jindal has dealt Louisiana treble shame: creationism in biology class, public money for Christian schools, and disregard for educators at all levels.

20) Comment by Bighug - 01/03/2013

Another reason the school system may cause a company to shun Louisiana is the reluctance of qualified employees to move to a state with such a poor record. What other state has a public school system that is ridiculed in nationally syndicated comic strips?

21) Comment by teacherguy - 01/03/2013

My biggest problem with the sales taxes are...it hurts the poor the most. Their checks aren't going to increase, but their tax at the register WILL. But I see a pattern...public schools service the poverty stricken the most...vouchers/charters take money away from the poor left behind. Rural parishes have state run hospitals to provide jobs and health services to the poor...look at how much money has been refused to these hospitals by our governor and upcoming legislation. Prisons, too. I must say...our legislators wanted to be remembered for reforming LA's education system...and there may be short term growth (even if it is manufactured with gerrymandering achievement levels)...but when public education runs out of cash and these vouchers/charters haven't fulfilled the "hopes and dreams" of the reformers...what we had for pubilc education before the reformation will become the standard everyone wishes we could get back up to. Think this through people...we have lowered requirements to become a certified classroom teacher, we have driven out our experienced personnel with reforms that have stretched the limits of human ability to a snapping point, made education such an unattractive profession fewer than 50% are willing to commit to it for more than 5 years, and our public schools will have given up much of their cash to online course providers, tutors, and charters/vouchers that can close down and not reopen. Wisdom is apparently not a requirement to be a legislator that is more willing to vote party lines than vote WITH lifelong educator legislators (Pope, for one). God, please give us a reliable independent the people of LA can get behind!!!! This national party posturing is for the birds!