Yesterday, the House Appropriations
Committee heard testimony regarding the education budget, minus higher
education, much of it featuring Superintendent John White. He argued that the
reduction in money given the administrative activities from the general fund,
which Gov. Bobby
Jindal recommended going from $48 million to $25 million, would prevent the
Department of Education from administering standard testing as required by
state law. He said with an extra $10 million boost he could manage to contract
for the tests, aligned with the Partnership
for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
White believes the nearly-halved
general fund allotment continues an attempt by Jindal to prevent the state from
administering the PARCC tests – the budget identifies a reduction of $13.9
million in professional services – and with good reason as the governor went to
court to try to negate the current contract. That
has yet to succeed, and less than a year ago Jindal had not expressed
opposition to CCSSI but then turned against it, saying his thinking had evolved
on the matter that made it appear to him that use of the PARCC tests promoted
too much imposition of national standards dictated by Washington.
The Jindal Administration responded
to White’s plea in noting that, given the shakiness of the state’s finances,
government as a whole had to make choices in what to fund. But even with the
huge, $3.5
billion portion of the education budget funded through the general fund,
over 90 percent of it the Legislature has only veto power regarding its Minimum
Foundation Program, which is formulaic, not discretionary. And of the
remainder, about a quarter goes into other instructional or obligated spending.
In other words, the $10 million White seeks comes from a pot of only $150
million of other priorities also facing pressure, hence his anxiety.
If this cut is a power play Jindal,
which would appear related
to presidential ambitions as signs increasingly point in this direction for
Jindal can use demonstration of anti-Common Core credential as a selling point
to national voters, then whatever decisions White and the Legislature would make
on this request could reverberate through his presumed quest. How that plays
out depends upon how much Jindal cares to invest in the issue.
If the Legislature decides to
reroute $10 million from somewhere else, there’s really nothing Jindal can do
about it. He can wield only a line item veto as a potential response, but that
would wipe out a lot more than just PARCC tests as it is an item that would
appear in the budget as part of the roughly $100 million spent in both state
and federal money for the “District Support Program.” And the Legislature would
not carve out a line item for him to take a swing at if it wants to transfer
the money. Thus, he endures another defeat on the issue and renders it unusable
for weaving into a campaign narrative, for the outcome makes him look
ineffective.
If it doesn’t go along with White
wanting the money to be added to the entire education budget, then it has to
decide where from in that budget to transfer the money, and by doing so could
degrade Jindal’s campaign story. For example, it could decide to take the money
out of general funding that goes to early childhood education or to the Student
Scholarships for Education Excellence Program that provides vouchers to enable
students that would attend schools in low-performing districts to attend
private schools instead. That cutbacks in these areas would occur, areas that
Jindal has emphasized as part of his achievements in office, cannot help raise
his profile to the national electorate.
Because state law requires the
administration of exams comparable to those of other states, and the threat of
loss of federal funding looms if that is not done (as happened in Oklahoma
temporarily when it withdrew from the PARCC consortium), if the Legislature
believes White can find no other way of having the exams paid for, they have to
choose one of these options. If not and the budget goes through as submitted in
this area, he later in the budget year can ask a legislative panel for a
supplemental appropriation if he can identify a revenue source, such as cutting
another item in that function area, for transfer for this purpose if, again,
these legislators think it’s the only way the tests can come off, assuming they
want those to. Again, this would have the effect of robbing Jindal of the
ability to claim any victory or effectiveness against PARCC testing in the
state and would publicize service reductions in education that likely would
garner more negative than positive publicity.
Finally, if for whatever reason no
additional monetary help comes White’s way and therefore he cannot contract for
the tests, Jindal wins but with an asterisk because he contributed to the
breaking of Louisiana law, and he could not escape responsibility for that because
he cannot argue that White should have found money elsewhere to give the exams
when he has been arguing against giving them in the first place. Further, this
would attract attention to a counterargument that the money wasn’t there in the
first place because of alleged Jindal mismanagement on the economy. Worst of
all, attempts by the federal government to claw back past and cut future aid
would generate publicity that, on balance, likely would not be positive.
So, once again, Jindal has boxed
himself into a highly risky political corner by expressing such strident
opposition to CCSSI. Had he limited himself to more symbolic efforts, such as
voicing displeasure and then accepting defeat when the White, his employer the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education,
and the Legislature in the past refused to accede to his opposition, it could
make him look sufficiently concerned and riled about the issue, but graceful in
understanding that he did all he could but could not carry the day. It’s a
message that would resonate with national voters.
The problem has come in that he
also has made this perhaps his highest-profile issue and one on which he stakes
his effectiveness as an executive. And he is correct if that he were, almost
singlehandedly, able to get the state to reject Common Core and its ancillary testing,
that would make him appear as somebody who really could get the job done. But
if he fails after creating so much conflict and fuss that seemed needless, it
makes him appear weak and injudicious in the use of power, which would end
effectively any elected ambitions beyond his current office.
So how this matter’s resolution
plays out has implications far beyond whether a certain test gets used next
year in Louisiana. It could make or break Jindal’s national political future.
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