A Mess in Louisiana

With the dynamic duo of Governor Bobby Jindal and Broadie John White, another unqualified individual in charge of education, students, families, and teachers in that state are doomed.

ALL teachers in the other 49 states should pay close attention to what is happening down there.

Diane Ravitch:

This plan will benefit the haves while harming the have-nots. It is an affront to the legacy of Dr. King. It will be implemented by people elected with the support of economic royalists. It is the work of elitists who shamelessly call themselves reformers as they grind the faces of the neediest into the dirt.

The Jindal plan includes vouchers, charters, for-profit online schools, and for-profit vendors, as well as a teacher evaluation that assures that few teachers will get or keep tenure. They will never have the protection of academic freedom, a concept unknown to corporate reformers.

Jindal’s state commissioner John White, who taught for two years as part of Teach for America and has never evaluated a teacher, says that the his standards will make it very difficult for teachers in Louisiana to win tenure.

And where are the lawsuits? There is nothing but silence down there.