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18.2.25

Leftist heave to thwart fiscal reform should fail

You knew the Hail Mary pass was coming from the vested interests that want to thwart Louisiana’s attempt at fiscal reform, and here it is.

This week, a law firm in the past associated with supporting far left-wing political candidacies filed suit to try to kick off Amendment 2 from the March ballot. That came to be from Act 1 of the Third Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature, which passed unanimously in the Senate and with only a few dissenting votes from hard left Democrats in the House.

Leftist extremists oppose the amendment because it reduces taxation on investment and productive activity but raises it on consumption and enhances conditions to right-size state government. That means lower income individuals probably would be more likely to experience an overall tax increase than would higher income individuals, or would see a smaller tax decrease. It also makes more likely curtailment of discretionary transfer payments from government, whether to individuals or groupings of them such as nonprofit organizations, whether in recurring or one-time form.

17.2.25

Case telling more about media, higher education

As the saga of the disposition of the neurotic Louisiana State University law professor continues to drag out, it tells us more about the media and higher education than the actual demerits of the subject in question.

That guy ensconced at the Paul M. Hebert School of Law, Ken Levy, almost a month ago found himself suspended from teaching duties because of some unfortunate remarks of his. Besides insulting a politician or two in a semester-beginning lecture, he also managed to convey the impression that students with different political sensibilities than his needed reeducation that could begin with grading them on that criterion and that he could toss them into the hoosegow if they dared record his lectures (the complex legal question aside, he had no such authority), citing controversy that percolated from somewhat less openly jaundiced recorded remarks by one of his colleagues.

After retaining counsel, Levy alleged his remarks were in jest, which he appeared to mean served as a prophylactic against any unprofessional offense. To which I say, pulling out the old as-I’ve-been-teaching-in-higher-education-nearly-four-decades card, even if joking around it was unprofessional enough to warrant not just his suspension, but dismissal. You don’t even need four decades, not even four minutes, as a higher education instructor to know you don’t levy, even if a joking fashion, threats against assignment of a course grade that don’t have a direct relationship to a student’s demonstration of course mastery. Simply, too much is at stake for a student when it comes to a grade, where even a letter grade difference could mean the difference between staying in or out of school, retaining or not retaining financial aid, eligibility for job recruitment possibilities, and the like.

That noted, since his initial suspension in the course of legal hearings to ascertain whether LSU legally suspended him with pay, even more evidence has surfaced about his competency to teach effectively, in the form of a test question that in previous centuries might be referred to as bawdy. Briefly, the question graphically set up a scenario where students had to determine whether criminal behavior had occurred involving copulation with a jack-o-lantern, followed by recording and disseminating sexual abuse of minors, and with a direct insult to Republicans thrown in.

Demonstrating yet again that sophistry and irrelevancy often rise to the top in legal argumentation and decision-making, his mouthpiece argued nothing was wrong with the material in the question because a lawyer potentially could run into all of this in the profession, to which the judge assented in ruling Levy back into the classroom. A day later, the First Circuit Court of Appeals vetoed that.

Note the red herring shift in force here. The issue isn’t that students may encounter cases involving sexually-oriented criminal behavior, but in the presentation of these kinds of cases by the question material demonstrates a behavior sanctionable by the university. Keep in mind the idea of the university (to paraphrase John Henry Cardinal Newman) is to enlarge and illuminate the mind to view many things at once. But you can’t do that if you alienate your audience from the start by appealing to vulgarity (mistaken for cleverness) and insults (mistaken for virtue signaling).

All too often these days academia ends up the refuge of those who use instruction as a kind of therapy, to allow modes of behavior dressed in the trappings of teaching, making the classroom a playground for indulging in the instructor’s psychological insecurities. For example, undoubtedly one can write a question that more clinically and less floridly, and without partisan slurs (that have nothing to do with the subject), makes the same inquiries. You would want to do that because a more salacious rendering distracts some students of more delicate sensibilities while the political insult distracts others of that partisan stripe. Your job is to help students to learn and express that learning, not to throw up impediments via shock and provocation.

Why would an instructor do this? (For readers with college experience, think about these archetypes you may have encountered in the course of your studies.) Maybe he fancies himself a rebel who believes untraditional discourse signifies he is more creative and imaginative than the herd. Or sees himself as a provocateur who to change academia must thumb his nose at it through attention-grabbing rhetoric and actions. Or maybe he views himself as an academic Übermensch, to whom the rules don’t apply and he can take this power trip that disparages the beliefs of many of his students with impunity. Or perhaps he conceives of himself as the “cool” professor, who imagines such discourse increases his popularity among the students as it has him climb down from the ivory tower to become more relatable to their supposedly more earthy lives. There are others unrelated to the conceit that lies behind those so far explicated, even less salutary, that deal with neuroses.

The point is posturing in these forms detracts from effective teaching. And when these have the effect of denigrating students for reasons beyond academic performance, if not creating a hostile learning environment, that is something for which a university can bounce from its hallowed halls even a tenured professor.

Yet reading much of the media coverage of this protracted case frames it in free expression terms that in reality don’t form the basis for his suspension, implying if not asserting that LSU is trying to punish the cretin for his political opinions, which included in class vulgar exhortations about conservative elected officials. Some, like the Baton Rouge Advocate, at least mention that LSU’s disciplinary attempts involve comportment, while other like the far left-funded Louisiana Illuminator web site entirely and dishonestly ignores the basis for LSU’s action. This all is done as a method to advance a false narrative that somehow the rise of conservative elected officials that now dominate Louisiana government and hold majorities in the federal government threatens free expression and cows what should be the bastions of that, higher education.

Quite the opposite. For this guy is but the tip of the iceberg. His insecurities may have been such that he too openly and stupidly displayed them, but there are plenty of others more circumspect populating academia, both in Louisiana and across the nation. And as academia has sympathy for their political views, ordinarily it won’t bother with them no matter how much they may invest in indoctrination instead of (see Newman above) education. This creates an echo chamber of orthodoxy that experiences excavation only when its excesses become illuminated to the larger world, which introduces the real heroes of it all, the students whose recording and revelation of class materials exposed the poverty of Levy’s approach to instruction. It takes courage to enter into conflict with a guy who holds tremendous power over your future, and that is fortified by knowing in government you have elected officials that will hear you out and will apply pressure for a fair resolution of the conflict. Knowing that greater capacity exists to expose idiocy in the classroom has the effect of exposing more of that idiocy, which then at least drives more of that idiocy underground and away from interfering with genuine education.

In other words, maybe having a Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who appoints members of the LSU Board of Supervisors confirmed by a state Senate with a GOP supermajority, makes LSU (who like most higher education institutions otherwise practices “don’t ask/don’t tell” in this regard) pursue more aggressively punishment of faculty stupidity in the classroom. In that respect, the real story the media is missing is how conservatives controlling elective offices instead of threatening free expression are restoring the idea of free inquiry thereby enhancing the mission of superior education within academia.

16.2.25

LA should forbid planned virtual learning days

The Ouachita Parish School Board made a bad precedent worse, and alerts the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and/or the Louisiana Legislature they might want to counter this.

This past week the Board ratified its academic year 2026 calendar. Included in it are three virtual learning days, up from two at present. Virtual leaning days are those where students don’t report to class but are responsible for completing school work due that day from another location.

The concept originated around a decade ago when, with the increased technological capacity to deliver coursework remotely and the spread of devices among students to perform it led some districts that experience chronic bad weather to use these days to supplement “snow days.” While calendars could work in a few days where schools would close because of inclement weather, in too many cases that allocation would be exhausted and then some, causing loss of learning potential. With this option, snow days could be converted into virtual learning days with less erosion of learning. Adoption spread when the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic closed schools for an extended period of time.

13.2.25

Marvin credibility increasingly on thin ice

Subsequent to a puzzling exchange at a community meeting, Republican 26th District Atty. Schuyler Marvin finds himself with a growing no-win political situation in the context of what has happened to a slew of elected officials in Bossier City over the past four years

The parish’s political insiders in the city have had a rough time of it in recent years. First came the 2021 elections, where voters dumped GOP former Mayor Lo Walker and two city councilors, all part of the same cabal with Marvin. And just from qualifying for this year’s round, three others – Republicans David Montgomery and Jeff Free and Democrat Bubba Williams – removed themselves from reelection consideration as public antipathy towards their high-handed style of governance grew, mainly over the issue of their illegally blocking the sending to voters of a petition installing term limits on city elected officials. Two others, Republican Vince Maggio and independent Jeff Darby who also voted on multiple occasions to engage in that illegal action, have drawn opposition to their reelection bids.

After multiple courts chastised the five who broke their oaths of office with these votes, with one panel deeming their actions construable as malfeasance in office which is a felony, perturbed parish residents began petitioning Marvin to investigate the matter or to call in the state to do so. Not that reformers should have much confidence that Marvin should do either, for Marvin – son of a former district attorney – is among the most insider of parish insiders and has a history of protecting allies when his office is put in a situation where it may wade into legal controversy.

12.2.25

Tate tries con job on opposing new NIH cost rule

When you’re playing the big con, your mark can’t know he’s been taken even after he’s been taken. If a recent communiqué by Louisiana State University System Pres. William Tate IV about changing federal regulations about National Institutes of Health grants indicates anything, Tate shows he would excel at utilizing information asymmetrically to score a big payday for his organization.

Last week, the NIH issued new guidelines about how awardees could utilize its grants. It said, barring unusual circumstances to be worked out between NIH and the awardee, that it would typically set indirect costs awarded at a ceiling of 15 percent. Indirect costs are for facilities, or depreciation on buildings, equipment and capital improvements, interest on debt associated with certain buildings, equipment and capital improvements, and operations and maintenance expenses; and administration, or general administration and general expenses such as the director’s office, accounting, personnel, and all other types of expenditures not listed specifically under one of the subcategories of “facilities.”

Typically, past NIH awards to university researchers averaged 27-28 percent in indirect costs, but the new policy impacts all current grants for expenses henceforth starting this week and forward as well as for all new grants issued. And from the reaction from higher education, you would have thought the Earth had stopped turning on its axis.

11.2.25

Cantrell doesn't enjoy last laugh as NO declines

Between the two of them, singer Lauren Daigle is laughing last and loudest compared to Democrat New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell as another visible decline of the city under recent mayors.

This past weekend, Daigle performed, in well-received fashion, at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. She saw this as vindication for events of over three years ago, when Cantrell made a play to cancel Daigle appearing on the television show Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve that was set to have a satellite location in New Orleans.

Daigle said she was in talks with the production to appear in the hours before 2021 rolled in around Jackson Square, but before anything concrete formed a couple of months prior Daigle on a whim had participated in a concert by a friend there. At the time, orders issued by Cantrell through emergency Wuhan coronavirus pandemic powers limited outdoors gatherings to 50 people with masks (despite that already evidence had accumulated that mandates to wear face coverings outdoors didn’t do a thing to prevent virus spread, and subsequently more confirmation came). The size of the crowd was considerably larger and many didn’t cover their faces.

10.2.25

Make LA civil service panel reform priority

While all of the attention has gone to what control the governor would have over the State Civil Service Commission, ignored has been perhaps a more important change over establishing job classifications that came to light last week, reminding of the necessity of that alteration.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry wanted to have the SCSC at its last meeting to change 21 positions, totaling 900 current jobs, in state government from the classified to unclassified service as hired after Jul. 1. Classified positions provide their holders more job security and a defined schedule of compensation, while unclassified employees can be more easily hired and fired and be paid in a greater compensation range.

Landry Administration officials testified that these positions, attorneys and engineers, as classified disallowed offerings of competitive salaries that created shortages and inability into inducing continuity into the workforce. Additionally, compared to public sector employment nationally, Louisiana state government has among the highest per capita number of attorneys and engineers employed, so the plan would be to have the flexibility to pay more and maneuver the number of positions according to market conditions, which almost certainly would mean fewer total jobs than at present.

Yet the Commission, which has a history of trying to preserve state employment jobs and circumscribing merit-based solutions to boost employee productivity, rejected the move, with commissioners in the majority claiming doing this would create more instability in times of budgetary stress. With one commissioner absent, only two of six voted to approve, perhaps not coincidentally the two appointees of Landry wanting to approve and three appointees of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards plus the elected state classified employee representative disapproving.

While the concept of civil service is valuable, in that it tries to minimize politics in personnel decisions that threatens to diminish performance, the way it’s structured in Louisiana gives too much power to the unelected Commission. Aside from the employee representative, each of the six private college leaders gives the governor a list of three individuals to choose from for the rolling six-year fixed terms representing all congressional districts. While this insulates selection from political pressures by elected officials, it makes it susceptible to pressure from employee special interests and no other state uses such a walled-off procedure.

That was a problem GOP state Sen. Jay Morris tried to solve with a bill last year to amend Constitution for the selection process. It would have allowed the governor three unmediated selections with the other three from the aggregated list of three nominations by six leaders. This would have inculcated more responsiveness from appointees to overcome the over-insulation of commissioners that leads them to listen more to the special interest of 34,000 or so state employees than to 4.6 million state residents.

Predictably, the mainstream media spun a narrative that this was a power grab by Landry and confined its reporting almost exclusively to the appointment issue. But the amendment also would have removed exclusive power to make such a change as had been petitioned last week from the Commission and given the Legislature the ability to make these changes by statute.

This also would have helped to rebalance the scales and even possibly obviate the need to change the appointment process, maybe in combination with term limits. As increasingly government becomes less immune to market forces, the Legislature is a much nimbler institution to address job classification issues to maintain efficiency and effectiveness in running a properly-sized government.

Last year, the Senate gave the required two-thirds majority to the bill, but the measure came up a couple of votes short in the House likely due to absences in the crush of business at session’s end, so it didn’t make it to the people for their approval. Morris or somebody else needs to try again this year, as this reform will aid Landry’s salutary goal of paring unnecessary spending in state government and make it work better.

9.2.25

LA wind energy grifters bray about permit halt

As Republican Pres. Donald Trump enters the third week of his second term in office, Louisiana grifters – including a state representative – aggrieved at Trump’s turning off the firehose of taxpayer benefits to them have started complaining.

Perhaps taking a cue from a recent Associated Press article about Trump’s suspension and review of wind energy permits, the Baton Rouge Advocate pounded out a Louisiana version. Both discussed the presumed economic benefits from allowing wind power construction and generation, while the AP piece added this constituted a rebranded strategy from hyping the alleged threat of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming to stressing jobs and economic development from wind power.

The Advocate article echoes the development angle. It parades several individuals involved in or advocating for support industries, including Republican state Rep. Joseph Orgeron, to complain how not only would am embargo on wind power development curtail a nascent Louisiana industry but also in doing so potentially cost the state tax revenues from it.

6.2.25

Risky for LA GOP to endorse for 2026 Senate

Louisiana state Republicans need to acclimate themselves to the new reality of partially closed primaries by making endorsements prior to the primary election rare.

Party leaders have begun an internal debate over whether to follow the strategy of endorsement before the initial election of the 2023 governor’s race as applied 2026 U.S. Senate campaign. It has at this time only two declared candidates, Republican incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy and GOP state Treas. John Fleming, but Fleming has asked the state party – whether through the state central committee that meets quarterly or by an interim decision by its much smaller executive committee – to endorse him along the lines of what the executive committee did almost a year prior to the 2023 race by tabbing Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.

The rest is history – other GOP candidates entered, but Landry waxed the field, raising record amounts of cash. This certainly avoided the disastrous repeat of 2015 when two other quality Republicans joined in against the favorite Republican former Sen. David Vitter; while they didn’t prevent him from making the blanket primary runoff, they did fray him around the edges and one, Jay Dardenne, threw his support to eventual winner Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards and was rewarded with the second-ranked job in the executive branch. Neither did the party endorse businessman Eddie Rispone nor former Rep. Ralph Abraham in 2019 and another intermural tussle ensued, with Rispone going through to lose narrowly to Edwards.

5.2.25

Media not taking well Landry's devaluing them

Poor Tyler Bridges, he’s not one of the cool kids anymore and he doesn’t like it. Assuredly, he’s not the only one in Louisiana’s legacy print media.

Bridges, a longtime reporter now working for The Advocate newspaper chain, recently gave readers an idea of how upset he was with Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. For anybody who reads his stuff, if not generally his outlet, or any of (what’s left of) the Gannett outlets in the state, or the only major daily outside of these two combines the Lake Charles American Press, it becomes clear they aren’t fans of the governor.

That their ideological leanings differ from his was something Landry recognized long ago, and as have many conservative politicians around the country he built campaigns and governance around direct communication with people rather than try to cajole a hostile intermediary into saying nice things about him. Indeed, part of this strategy has been to marginalize that conduit of indirect communication.