Louisiana officials try to curb authority of school boards
By Del Stover
Fall '09 -- Not everyone is convinced that Paul Vallas has the best credentials to advise school board members about school reform. In fact, for some board members in Louisiana, Vallas is seen as standing on the wrong side of the political fence.
That’s partly because of his vocal support for charter schools, but also due to his perceived close association with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Paul Pastorek, the state’s superintendent of education.
Both men are strong proponents of charter schools, occasional critics of public education, and most recently, earned the ire of many school board members in the state by supporting legislation to curb the authority of local school boards.
This spring, Pastorek called Louisiana’s 69 school boards “screwed up” and complained they spent “too much time micromanaging” their school districts.
He asked lawmakers for tough new rules on the qualifications of future board members, a cut in state-funded stipends for board service, and legislation requiring a “supermajority” vote by any school board seeking to fire its superintendent.
Another measure would have denied school boards any oversight of hiring and firing decisions by the superintendent.
Supporters of Jindal and Pastorek mobilized formidable political influence to this legislative effort, says Nolton Senegal, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA).
“This was an extremely difficult fight,” he says. “We were fighting the governor and his supporters, including a U.S. senator and Louisiana business and industry groups.”
Backing LSBA’s position were the state’s two teachers unions, as well as other local government associations concerned about state encroachment on local control.
Jindal and Pastorek have their supporters, who argue both men are tired of excuses for the poor academic achievement of some public schools and want to experiment with new approaches.
But LSBA and other education groups pointed out that the proposed legislation targeted high-performing school boards as well as so-called troubled boards that were cited as evidence that legislation was needed. That prompted some to question whether the proposals were fueled mostly by political ideology and supported by business leaders who saw financial opportunities in a more decentralized education system.
“That agenda was to dismantle public education as we know it, to set up charters,” Senegal says. “A lot of folks don’t realize that they want to take public funds in the state and turn over as much as possible to private dollars, to try to do privatization.”
Certainly the state has seen a dramatic expansion of privately managed charter schools since Hurricane Katrina demolished the New Orleans school system in 2005.
Just months earlier, the state had placed most of the troubled system’s schools into a newly created Recovery School District, and under that umbrella agency, turned to charter schools as a model to quickly reopen schools and serve as a proving ground for the model.
This summer, the state legislature voted to eliminate its cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in the state.
For now, the threat to local school control has abated in Louisiana. After a spirited statewide debate, several of the more questionable legislative proposals were pulled from consideration, and the only legislation brought before the state House was defeated by a 51-46 vote.
LSBA -- and local school boards statewide -- are grateful to those lawmakers that saw the danger in undermining local control of education, Senegal says.
But no one is declaring the battle over, and Senegal says LSBA intends to strengthen its network of political allies to combat any future effort to curb school board authority.
“We’re not going to be caught sleeping,” he says. “We’re ready. We know our work is cut out for us.”
Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2009, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.