religion sucketh

For those who haven’t heard, Gov. Bobby Jindal has ramrodded his education reform platform down the throat of the Louisiana state legislature, and anyone in power who shows any form of opposition has been immediately silenced, ignored or even removed from power. For more on that, read Joshua Stockley’s post here and Griffin Scott’s post here. After reading both articles, I definitely have some ranting to do.

Louisiana’s education system does need reform, but reform is defined as “making changes in something in order to bring about improvement”, not completely abolishing a system that could work if administered correctly and replacing it with another that has already been proven as a failure. Jindal’s plan to institute charter schools statewide has already shown to be a failure in New Orleans, where the only thing charter schools have succeeded at is reintroducing segregation, and while performance based pay is idyllic, it has yet to produce results in the areas in which it has been implemented – quite simply, because the “bad teachers” will find ways to keep their jobs. If you don’t believe me, ask my mother, who is in her 19th year as a teacher and is the current Teacher of the Year at her school. She’s dealt with quite a few bad teachers over the years; even when they would get fired, they’d pop up at another school, because not only do we have a local parish school board, we have a city school board, numerous private schools and a couple magnet schools. As my mother has consistently preached for the past 19 years, the biggest problem with education is the lack of parental involvement. I’ve seen this firsthand at schools on both ends of the spectrum; from $5,000 a year private schools to the poorest public school in town, many parents have the attitude that it’s all up to the school to get things done. I’ve seen parents spend tens of thousands every year so all their children can attend private school, just to arrive 15 minutes after the after-school care program had ended to pick up their kids. And it wasn’t because they were working their asses off, because I knew this couple’s schedule – they just didn’t care. As far as they were concerned, their children’s education was not their responsibility, so if any of their children started having problems, it was the fault of the teacher. Oh, how they (and others) hated being told they needed to be more involved, because decades of studies show that parental involvement leads to higher test scores, grades and graduation rates, increased motivation and self-esteem, and fewer discipline problems. According to the National PTA this is especially true when fathers (or another male role model) are involved.

One more thing…

My mother also shared with me something a few teachers at her school suggested. Seeing as how they teach at a school that is in one of the lowest income areas of Monroe, tie parental involvement to government funds. In other words, if that family is on welfare, tie their welfare check to parental involvement in education. If they’re on food stamps, tie that to education. I don’t know if it would work, but it’s an idea. And before anyone cries prejudice or racism (since minorities are the majority where my mother teaches), it was the African-American teachers that my mother works alongside of who suggested this solution.

Traditionally, unions are politically liberal, so one would think rendering the Louisiana Federation of Teachers powerless would actually be a good thing for Jindal’s political aspirations…… except for one thing. Louisiana has voted Republican in the last 3 presidential elections. If teachers are a microcosm of voters, that’s a hell of a lot of teachers who tend to vote Republican. That’s a lot of people you don’t want to piss off, especially if you’re someone with presidential aspirations. Lest we not forget, in the 1992 and 1996 elections, Louisiana swung Democrat – coincidentally, for a president who, as governor of Arkansas, actually had ideas for education reform that worked, taking Arkansas from dead last in education to top 10 in the nation. His methods were simple: provide more funding to schools and the existing system and raise teachers salaries and incentives for those who produced results. I wonder if any of that had anything to do with Louisiana voters, who had voted Reagan and Bush into office, swinging Democrat?

Blocking access to committee meetings, scheduling an entire education package of three bills and 114 amendments into one 33-hour period, sending minions to hijack a press conference are all examples of a lack of tolerance for dissent. You know who else has no tolerance for opposition? North Korea, Syria and Iran.

- Joshua Stockley