Two Democrats are facing off in BESE’s District 2 race: incumbent Kira Orange Jones versus political newcomer Kara Washington. Orange Jones, who lives in New Orleans, leads Teach For America’s work in the region. Since unseating Louella Givens in 2011, Orange Jones has emerged as a champion of common sense education reform policies on BESE, […] More
BESE’s District 1 race is a no-brainer. The contest is a rematch of the 2011 election, once again pitting incumbent Jim Garvey, an attorney from Metairie first elected to the board in 2007, against Lee Barrios, a former St. Tammany Parish middle school teacher. Four years ago, Garvey easily won reelection in the first round with […] More
There’s a difference, of course, between ambition and naked ambition. The former is a quality we admire in an individual who is willing to push themselves to the heights that their talents can take them. The latter is much less flattering; it denotes a gracelessness in pursuit of those ends, a willingness to jettison principles […] More
Update – 9/15/15: Lottie Beebe sent the following tweet in response to this piece: @petercook The date error has been corrected (human error) and no campaign funds were raised/spent in that time. — Lottie P. Beebe (@beebeforbese) September 15, 2015 Lottie Beebe, who is running for reelection as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s […] More
With all of the attention given to New Orleans this summer around the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, you may have missed the good news that’s come out about the performance of students from across Louisiana. The positive results released over the past several months show that the policies advocated by Superintendent John White and […] More
On Wednesday, the Recovery School District (RSD) released data showing that expulsions fell 14% across the city’s schools between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. In total, 199 students were expelled last year out of 45,803 enrolled in New Orleans schools; in S.Y. 2013-14, 231 students out of 44,306 were expelled. In 2012, the RSD […] More
Bobby Jindal wanted to be a contender. He wanted to be somebody… …specifically, President of the United States. And for a while, at least – back in the days before his disastrous State of the Union response – everyone thought Jindal was the next big thing. However, over the course of his tenure as Governor, […] More
On Tuesday, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) released a scathing report detailing the findings from an investigation into Lagniappe Academies by LDOE and Recovery School District (RSD) officials. The accusations in the report [see full report below] include: Failing to provide legally-mandated services to special education students, then doctoring forms to make it appear […] More
Last week, Will Sentell at The Advocate reported that a panel appointed by the Legislature to review Louisiana’s teacher evaluation system is gearing up to recommend a series of changes that could seriously undermine efforts to ensure every child has an effective teacher. The 17-member School Accountability Commission began its review back in October and […] More
On Halloween, the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed a class-action lawsuit arising from the layoffs of over 7,600 New Orleans school employees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The 5-2 decision represented a “stunning, wholesale reversal” for the plaintiffs, who prevailed both at trial and before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal; those rulings had found […] More
The website of the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) went down Monday morning after the state Department of Administration (DOA) failed to pay the site’s annual $280 domain fee. By midday, LDOE’s website was back online after DOA officials scrambled to make payment on the past-due bill. While DOA Communications Director Meghan Parrish attributed the […] More
Peter Cook