Poison pill threatens beneficial higher education reform

The seemingly contradictory actions within the Louisiana House of Representatives continue a disappointing session for higher education reform, highlighting a poison pill that threatens to negate otherwise far-reaching beneficial changes.

This week, the House turned down state Rep. Thomas Carmody’s HB 66, the companion legislation to a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed different higher education systems to set their own tuition rates and to delink these from Taylor Opportunity Program for Students awards. With the amendment, these would have allowed schools to increase tuition without requiring two-thirds approval of both chambers of the Legislature, wiping away the ability of system to increase it for each school as much as 10 percent a year if these individually met performance targets, without requiring the state to pay out more in TOPS money.

Enacting these into law and the Constitution would address a higher education delivery system that is overbuilt and inefficient. While alarmist rhetoric incessantly issues forth from higher education policy-makers and sympathizers inside and outside the Legislature that crisis would erupt if taxpayer funding levels for it this upcoming year at least do not match this year’s, the truth is in a comparative sense state subsidies should be more than adequate to meet genuine needs. If funded around last year’s level, that would put the state compared to its peers (plus the District of Columbia) all the way down to 28^th in per capita taxpayer spending on higher education. Which is appropriate, being that the state’s personal per capita income is ranked 30^th.

Jindal order protecting liberty good policy, politics

Producing both good politics and policy, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order essentially promulgating the contents of HB 707, the Marriage and Conscience Act, also leaves some legislators a bit exposed and less comfortable in this fall’s elections.

It’s odd how a bill that prevents the state from taking punitive actions against individuals and non-public corporations in the conduct of business who refuse to engage in commerce where that action would violate their sincere religious beliefs on the subject of marriage could strike such terror that it does not even get a full hearing and up-or-down vote. State Rep. Mike Johnson’s bill got some discussion and proponents and opponents got a chance to testify, but before he even could ask to have some amendments put on it, the House’s Civil Law and Procedure Committee voted to return it to the calendar. Only Johnson and fellow Republican state Rep. Ray Garafalo objected to short-circuiting the debate (another, state Rep. Cameron Henry, did not show up for the vote).

But it’s common in human history when an oppressive majority, finding compelling argumentation lacking against an idea, suppresses that idea as it cannot defeat it in debate, and the committee’s action only echoes that sad history. No doubt the motivating force for this almost unheard-of maneuver stemmed from the nature of the amendments, which placated any remote chance that the law could be twisted to allow discrimination for constitutionally-unjustifiable reasons.

Common Core supporters win in LA by TKO

In the parlance of the recent fight between Evander Holyfield and Mitt Romney, in Louisiana the winner by technical knockout was pro-Common Core State Standards Initiatives advocates, creating two distinct losers in the bargain.

Last week, after two years of wrangling, legislators from both chambers and both sides of the issue agreed to a set of bills establishing a framework by which the set of standards meets with review, and even possible elimination. Essentially, a large group of people appointed by the various factions involved through three panels will forward, as part of the slightly-accelerated periodic review of curricula by the Department of Education, recommendations about changing what exists to a committee, which then sends it to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which then sends it to each of the two education committees in the Legislature’s separate chambers, which then sends it to the governor. All must agree to the changes or nothing happens.

Importantly, the present CCSSI standards stay in effect if there is not agreement on changes, if any, or on their scrapping. Being as at this time all of BESE and each chamber have majorities supportive of the set of standards, that means no substantial move away from these would be expected at this time. However, it would not be until 2016 that these chances to vet occur, and possibly elections in the interim could send anti-Common Core BESE members and legislators into majorities in their respective bodies.

End special union privilege with paycheck protection

As there is no intellectually defensible reason why labor unions should receive special privileges from taxpayers, hopefully enough legislators will come to see why paycheck protection promotes the public good over non-public greed and to act accordingly.

The bill, HB 418 by Rep. Stuart Bishop, replicates laws in many other states by simply removes a unique advantage given to unions that no other entity in Louisiana that is not a charity, financial institution with government employees as members, or government agency has: the ability to have siphoned money from employees’ paychecks directly to their own coffers, not using their resources to do so but governments’. Unions also have the unique advantage in that for school districts this is the only kind of deduction permitted under state law, and the union dues collected do not even have to go to organizations recognized as bargaining units with the local authority in question. At present, the bill appears to lack a majority in the House of Representative to move forward.

Argumentation in favor of retaining the practice typically involves heaping servings of red herrings and straw men. For state employees, payroll deduction at taxpayer expense in addition to union dues includes mandated federal or state income withholdings, credit unions, garnishments, liens, savings bonds programs, qualified United Way entities, health and life insurance products offered through the Office of Group Benefits, and products having state participating contributions, sponsored by the Office of Group Benefits, as part of a cafeteria plan.

Democrat tactical voting appearing in race for gov

Presented with a quandary about whether to support their party in this year’s gubernatorial contest, Democrats are responding in a way forecasting that if the front-runner doesn’t win there won’t be a Democrat winner either in 2015.

Previous polls made Republican Sen. David Vitter the favorite, followed not too far away by Democrat state Rep. John Bel Edwards, with Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne somewhat farther back, and Republican Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle lagging the field in the single digits. The most recent of the bunch confirmed this pecking order but gave Vitter a larger lead at 38 percent, with Edwards at 25 percent falling back towards Dardenne’s 16 percent, and Angelle still dragging the rear considerably with 5 percent.

Those older ones raised some questions about their sampling frames and the relatively low number of undecided votes. This one, by Southern Media and Opinion Research, had a better sampling frame and came up with roughly the same proportion undecided. Given that it happened two months later, that roughly equivalent proportion appears more reasonably valid and thereby shows a firming of support driven not so much by party label and name recognition.