Monday, November 28, 2011

BESE Runoff Elections

On November 19th runoff elections were held for three districts of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Voter turnout was less than 21%. Kira Orange-Jones won 57% of the vote in District 2, Chas Roemer won 57% of the vote in District 6, and Carolyn Hill won 58% of the vote in District 8. All three are considered supportive of the education agenda of Governor Jindal, who will now have a supermajority of supporters on the board. The first meeting of the new board will be Jan 17th, 2012. One of the board’s first tasks will be to appoint a state superintendent. The governor is recommending John White, the superintendent of the Recovery School District, for the position.

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RSD and OPSB Agree to Share Katrina Insurance Payout

At the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) meeting on November 15th, the board members announced a settlement over the payout from insurance claims related to Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit was over the distribution of the payout between the Recovery School District (RSD) and OPSB. The districts agreed to contribute all of the money from the payout to the School Facilities Master Plan , including claims yet to be collected. This is an important improvement in cooperation between the districts. The settlement announced on the 15th was over $24 million.  However, the districts are eligible for $150 million more from claims related to Katrina and are in pursuit of collecting them. The money from such claims could be an important revenue source for the School Facilities Master Plan.

Click here to read more in the Times-Picayune.

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Advance Baton Rouge Will Be Replaced With Other Charter Operators

The largest charter management organization in Baton Rouge, Advance Baton Rouge (ABR), plans to seek other charter operators to take over its five schools. The Recovery School District (RSD) and ABR agreed to the plan through a memorandum of understanding. However, the plan will need to be approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and will be presented to the board on December 6th. If approved, the transition to new operators is expected to take 19 months, but will be quicker for some schools than others. Some of the schools will be directly operated by the RSD as soon as the 2012-13 school year before a new charter operator is found. All five of the schools operated by ABR earned an “F” on the Louisiana Department of Education’s grading scale, with school performance scores ranging from 40.2 to 50.4 out of over 200 possible points. The state average is 93.9.

The Cowen Institute will keep a close watch on any other plans by charter operators and the RSD to transition poorly performing charter schools to new charter operators. 

Click here to read more in The Advocate.

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Louisiana Did Not Apply for First Round of NCLB Waivers

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) did not apply for the first round of waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Bush Administration’s version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). However, the LDE plans to apply in the second round of waivers scheduled for February 2012. If granted, the NCLB waivers will conditionally relieve states of many of the act’s most punitive provisions.

Click here to read more in the Times-Picayune and here to learn more about the waivers.

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Department of Education Investigating Record Number of Civil Rights Complaints

As we wrote about last summer in a blog post about desegregation orders in Louisiana school districts, the Obama administration announced plans to reinvigorate the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).  The DOE has launched 30 investigations since Obama took office. For comparison, the Bush Administration launched 22 over two terms. The purpose of civil rights investigations is to determine if school districts are providing more services and resources to schools with a majority of white students, and to resolve any such practices. For example, in October, DOE announced that it resolved an investigation of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Click here to read the article in Louisiana Weekly about ED’s civil rights investigations.

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Supercommittee Deficit Deal Fails

The congressional supercommittee, set up to resolve $1.2 trillion in federal deficit over ten years, failed to make a deal. To follow, starting in January 2013, is a process called sequestration, which will cut 7.8% of most federal programs. The cuts could reduce much needed federal education funding, including various Title funds and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds, among others.  It remains to be seen whether Congress will take action in the future to change the automatic cuts under sequestration.

Click here to read more in Education Week.

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