LOUISIANA IS IN THE BOTTOM FIVE STATES NATIONALLY

Louisiana’s standards are relatively low when compared nationally. While 71% of students are proficient in 4th grade reading by Louisiana standards, only 18% are proficient by national standards on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

While 64% of students are proficient in 4th grade math by Louisiana standards, only 23% are proficient by national standards (NAEP).

According to the 2012 “Quality Counts” report, Louisiana was ranked 48th with an F for “student achievement” and 46th with a C- for a student’s “chance for success.”

Louisiana ranks 41st for student scores on the ACT with only two districts in the entire state scoring above the national average. Louisiana ranks 10th in the south for student scores on the ACT.

Louisiana’s graduation rate is 70.9%, which means that nearly 30% of our students are still not making it to a high school diploma on time. The national graduation rate is 71.7%.

MONEY IS NOT THE ISSUE

Between Fiscal Year 2008 and today, the state has increased funding to K-12 education—through the state formula, or MFP—by $289 million or 9.3%. Meanwhile, the state’s budget as a whole has decreased by 26%.

If 44% of schools are receiving a D or F and the state pays on average 65% of the MFP, annually we are spending nearly $1 billion per year on failing schools.

Districts on average spend 7% of per pupil spending on central office overhead.

Nationally, Louisiana ranks 22nd for school finances but 48th for student achievement according to the 2012 “Quality Counts” report.

WE’VE SPENT ENOUGH TIME

Louisiana’s average score in fourth grade reading has increased by just three points since 1992. Since 2005, Louisiana’s average ACT score has increased by only four-tenths of a point, from 19.8 in 2005 to 20.2 in 2011.

Governor Jindal’s Reform Plan Empowers Teachers and School Leaders

THE SITUATION

All teachers are treated the same by the system regardless of performance.

Superintendents and principals are disempowered to actually manage their school buildings.

Districts are burdened with red tape and bureaucracy that takes time and money away from the classroom. Tenure is awarded automatically after three years in the classroom with little to no performance review; 99% of teachers receive satisfactory evaluations under this system.

In 2010, Louisiana created a “value-added” evaluation system for teachers, principals, and superintendents that compares how much a student knew at the end of the year versus the beginning of the year, putting all teachers on a level playing field.

• The state board of education created three designations based on the new evaluation system: highly effective (top 10%), effective (middle 80%) and ineffective (bottom 10%).

• Based on these ratings, after two years of being rated ineffective, districts must start dismissal proceedings; after three years, certification is removed by the state.

HB 974 by Representative Carter and SB 603 by Senator Appel empower effective teachers, support ineffective teachers who want to improve, and rethink district management to prioritize kids, not adults.

Personnel Decisions—Superintendents should be district CEOs.

• Requires performance targets in the contracts of superintendents in C, D, and F districts; this provision would take effect when contracts are renegotiated and does not make void current contracts.

• Requires school boards to delegate to the superintendent and principals hiring, firing, and teacher placement power and authority to make reductions in force (RIFs) primarily based on effectiveness.

Compensation—Effective Teachers should be rewarded.

• Gives districts the ability to construct their own salary schedules for new employees based on what they need—such as math teachers, teachers to work at high poverty schools, or performance.

• Gives districts the ability to modify salary schedules for current employees at or above each teacher’ s current salary based on the things they need. Districts can start rewarding current teachers based on performance and demand if they so choose. Teachers will not receive a pay cut.

• Freezes pay for ineffective teachers to the same salary they received the year prior. Districts should not be forced to give automatic pay increases to the bottom 10% of teachers in the state. Districts can start rewarding effective teachers instead.

Tenure—Protected job status should be earned, not automatic.

• Teachers earn tenure after five years of highly effective ratings.

• Teachers lose tenure after one year of ineffectiveness.

• Teachers are granted due process on their evaluations through a grievance process to superintendents; principals cannot arbitrarily fire teachers or give them low scores without review.
• If an evaluation is overturned, a teacher regains tenure.

• Creates dismissal process that still requires documentation and a public hearing but facilitates a productive review of employee performance rather than a political showdown. Superintendent tenure decisions are reviewed by a panel made up of the superintendent, the principal of the school where the teacher had taught, and a peer selected by the teacher.

• Teachers still retain the right to appeal a superintendent’s decision in court.

Governor Jindal’s Plan Empowers Parents and Students in a Total Choice System

THE SITUATION

We have many types of educational options today in Louisiana: traditional public schools, charter public schools, private schools, virtual education, higher education dual enrollment, and business and industry coursework.

These choices are funded separately and often on top of the $3.31 billion going to K-12 education through the MFP. The system doesn’t leverage dollars effectively or make it easy for parents to take advantage of all the options.

Parents can’t choose a better school. They have three unacceptable options: they can move, they can vote, or they can pay for private school.

The MFP is a weighted per pupil formula where low income and special education students, for example, receive additional dollars. Once those dollars leave Baton Rouge, however, there is little way to know that they have been spent on the students for whom they were allocated and no consequences when they are not.

With 44% of schools rated D or F, far too many students are stuck in failing schools today.

HB 976 by Representative Carter and SB 597 by Senator Appel expand choices and empower parents in FOUR key ways.

1.  Parent Trigger—Parents should have more levers to affect change.

CURRENT LAW. A school becomes eligible for state intervention by the Recovery School District after four years of failing. An F grade today means that at least two-thirds of students are below grade level.

OUR PROPOSAL. A school could become eligible for RSD intervention after three years of failing if at least 51% of parents at the school sign a petition to do so.

• The school’s status would still be reviewed by BESE before it was transferred to the RSD.

2.   Supporting High Quality Charter Schools—High quality charter schools should be supported.

CURRENT LAW. There is only one way to become a charter school; application processes vary from parish to parish to BESE; timelines for applications overlap; and high quality applicants have to apply one school at a time, pushing paper and process rather than being awarded for success.

OUR PROPOSAL. Creates three additional pathways to becoming a charter school and streamlines and improves the charter application process for all charter authorizers.

• It creates a new Type 1B charter authorizer, which could be a philanthropy, policy nonprofit, university, or nonprofit board started by a municipal or parish government, which applied to receive the authority from BESE to authorize local charter schools. It holds the authorizer accountable if the schools they authorize are rated C or lower after 3 years. These schools would be held to the same standards as other charter schools by BESE, including administering state tests.

• It allows applicants in districts receiving a D or F to apply directly to BESE as a Type 2.

• It provides that applicants in districts without charter application processes or that have repeatedly failed to comply with charter law to apply directly to BESE as a Type 2.

• It creates a common charter application and streamlines application procedures for school boards and BESE, creating a more seamless process for Type 1, 1B, 2, 3, and 4 applications.

• It instructs BESE to actively recruit charter operators with a technical, vocational, or career focus, to ensure that every child has an option that meets their needs.

• It provides for BESE to create a process for charter operators with demonstrated track records of success.

• It shortens the contract period for BESE approved charter schools from 5 to 4 years, ensuring that charters are held accountable for results. BESE would still conduct a rigorous review after 3 years.

3. Course Providers—Students should have access to more courses regardless of zip code.

CURRENT LAW. Students are generally funded on a per pupil basis to attend one school full time. If the school they attend does not have the courses they need or want, such as Advanced Placement courses, credit recovery, career and technical education courses, or access to dual enrollment with postsecondary education, the student doesn’t have many options for accessing these courses.

• There are a small number of course providers in Louisiana: the Louisiana Virtual School, a program run by DOE, provides virtual education to schools across the state; postsecondary institutions offer dual enrollment in academic credit granting and career and technical education courses. These programs are funded on top of the MFP and access has been restricted by limited dollars.

OUR PROPOSAL. Creates a new type of entity that can offer individual courses to students. All students at public and private schools have access to these courses, but only certain students are funded.

• Funded students include students who attend a public school a) receiving a C, D, or F; or b) where the course is not offered; OR is c) a BESE approved home study program; or d) is a BESE approved nonpublic school participating in the Scholarship Program.
• These students would have their MFP dollars follow them to the course provider of their choice and the credit they earned would translate back to the school at which they are currently enrolled.
• Participating students include students who attend a school a) receiving an A or B where the course is already offered; b) is a BESE approved nonpublic school.
• These students could pay the same price charged to funded students to participate in the course.
• Course providers would be held to the same accountability provisions as public schools. They would be reviewed every three years by BESE and their courses would have to be approved as granting credit for one of Louisiana’s diplomas. Applicable enrolled students would still take state tests.
• Course providers would be paid for performance—50% when a student enrolls and 50% when a student completes the course.
• School districts where the enrolled student is full time would receive 10% of the MFP off the top to cover sunk costs.

4. Expanding the Scholarship Program—Students should have more choices now. We can’t wait.

CURRENT LAW. Only students who reside in Orleans Parish, whose parents make up to 250% of Federal Poverty, and attend a failing school may participate in the Scholarship Program. Non-failing public and private schools may receive these students and the students must take state tests.

OUR PROPOSAL. Expands access to the Scholarship Program to students in C, D, and F schools or who are entering Kindergarten statewide whose parents make up to 250% of Federal Poverty. C schools have up to one third of students below grade level.

• Participating students would still have to take state tests and these results would be reported back to the state and to the parents of participating students.

• Participating private schools would have to be approved BESE nonpublic schools andmeeting the nondiscriminatory criteria of Brumfield v. Dodd. Registered nonpublic schools are not eligible.
• Participating public schools would have to be receiving an A or a B and have opted to participate in the program. Principals would choose whether to participate, with the approval of the superintendent, but the superintendent could not force a principal to participate. No public school will be forced to accept scholarship students.
• All participating schools would be subject to a third party audit to ensure that there are no fraudulent schools or diploma mills participating in the program. Schools that fail to comply or have audit findings would be frozen in the program for one year. Failure to improve would result in being removed from the program.
• Students would be placed in schools by random lottery; students would not be cherry picked or selectively chosen.
• Participating schools will receive the full weighted MFP amount for the parish in which the student resides or, if they charge tuition, an amount equal to actual tuition, whichever is lower.
• Private schools that meet special education criteria equivalency to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) may offer special education services to scholarship students and charge an additional special education tuition amount up to the maximum MFP amount for that parish.

HB 969 by Representative Talbot creates a dollar for dollar rebate for donations made to designated non profit “school tuition organizations” that grant scholarships to low income students to attend nonpublic schools.

CURRENT LAW. Individuals that make donations to any nonprofit may receive a tax deduction for their donation, but there is no specific incentive for organizations that grant scholarships for students to attend nonpublic school.

OUR PROPOSAL. Creates a dollar for dollar rebate for individual or corporate donations to a new designation of nonprofit, a “school tuition organization” or STO, to be expended on scholarships for students whose parents make up to 250% of Federal Poverty to attend a nonpublic school.

• STOs would have to spend 95% of the donations they receive on scholarships, assigning only 5% for administrative costs. They can only carry forward 25% of donations each fiscal year, ensuring that dollars are expended in a timely manner.
• Scholarships would be equal to 80% of the state average portion of the MFP for students in K-8 and 90% for students in 9-12. Students who receive these scholarships would take state tests and these results would be reported.
• STOs would notify the Department of Education (DOE) within 30 days of expending any donation on a scholarship; DOE would send a receipt to the donor that may be used to access a rebate from the Department of Revenue (LDR). This ensures that rebates are tied to scholarships actually being allocated and the proposal remains cost neutral to the state. As a result, there is no cap on the amount of donations or rebates that may be made in any given year.
• STOs would submit an audit of their expenditures to DOE and LDR to ensure that dollars are being spent appropriately. This ensures that no fraudulent organizations are abusing the rebate.
• Nonpublic schools that are BESE approved and compliant with the nondiscriminatory criteria of Brumfield v. Dodd would be eligible to accept students on scholarships paid for by donations that qualify for a rebate. Schools that receive more than $50,000 per year in scholarships would obtain a surety bond to insure the value of the scholarships.
• Donors who receive a rebate would still be able to get a federal tax deduction on their donation, but they would not be able to receive both the rebate and a deduction against their Louisiana state taxes. This prevents “double-dipping,” or rewarding donors twice for the same donation.