The LFT president urged the governor to display the same openness to ideas that characterized the discussions surrounding the state’s application for federal Race to the Top funds.
To read LFT President Steve Monaghan's letter to Gov. Jindal, please click here.
(Baton Rouge – February 9, 2010) Instead of imposing even more top-down regulations that suggest little concern for the perspective or expertise of classroom educators, Gov. Bobby Jindal should work with educators as he crafts his legislative agenda for the coming session, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.
The plan recently released by the governor, called the Red Tape Reduction Act, “fails to recognize the expertise, voice and value of classroom educators,” Monaghan said.
In a letter to Jindal, the LFT president urged the governor to display the same openness to ideas that characterized the discussions surrounding the state’s application for federal Race to the Top funds.
“We came to the (Race to the Top) table because we firmly believed that for many of our state’s poorest children the need was simply too great to do otherwise,” Monaghan wrote. “We stayed at the table because of the consensus apparently shared by all parties that the reforms outlined in the application were ‘organic’ and not driven by politics or dogma”
In contrast, said Monaghan, the governor’s agenda “seems to reflect a predilection for ‘reforms’ that spring more from ideology than from research-driven policy.”
"The last thing our state needs is another contentious legislative session," said Monaghan.
The governor’s education plan would allow school boards to apply for waivers of what Jindal called “burdensome regulations currently placed on schools that may hinder academic growth.” He specifically mentioned teacher tenure, the teacher salary schedule, performance based pay, teacher certification, and pupil-teacher ratios as examples of waivers that could be sought.
“None of these have been identified by teachers as impediments to student achievement,” Monaghan wrote in his letter to the governor. “Each carries with it a highly charged debate replete with ‘evidence’ on all sides, and virtually guarantees the polarization of parties that need to be at the table.”
The governor’s press release accurately states that “educators spend an inordinate amount of time filling out paperwork, writing reports, and navigating through the bureaucratic maze of regulations and red tape.”
Unfortunately, Monaghan wrote, “nothing in the proposal would reduce paperwork for classroom teachers. Nothing would provide classroom educators with greater autonomy or more professional discretion.”
Instead of pursuing an agenda that guarantees confrontation during the upcoming session, Monaghan urged the governor to “embrace the philosophy that marked our Race to the Top discussions.”
“Together, we can find ways to increase respect for and value in tenure as the ‘meaningful and active process’ described in the application,” Monaghan wrote. “We can have an honest discussion of R2T’s ‘learning environment index,’ and provide teachers with the power to identify impediments to achievement at the site level and to trigger corrective action. We can debate ways to reward teachers for excellence or for additional contributions without appearing to attack teacher salary schedules.”
“Our recent experience with Superintendent Pastorek and his team in the creation of the state’s R2T application demonstrated that engagement is far better than disengagement,” Monaghan’s letter concluded. “We hope that we can look forward to working with you in the interest of our children in the coming legislative session.