It bears repeating,
in a little different way: the Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards
Administration and Democrat legislators are from Mars, Republican legislators
are from Venus.
That became painfully obvious in yesterday’s special
session meeting
of the House of Representatives’ Appropriations
Committee in questioning and testimony by members of Edwards Administration
officials. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne stumped
for Edwards’ plan to use nearly $120 million from the Budget Stabilization
Fund. He conceived this as a bridge to further fiscal reform that Legislature
intends to investigate during its regular session in two months.
Dardenne bases this strategy on the
recommendations forwarded by the Task
Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy, which looks at how
Louisiana collects revenues. To him, “structural deficit” describes the
inability to gather as much revenue as necessary to fund what Edwards wants to
spend.
It’s time for Louisiana’s Department of Education
to intervene more forcefully with struggling Caddo Parish schools.
After some period of treading water, CPSD as a whole took a
step backwards last year as it slid solidly
into ‘C’ territory (in absolute terms; for years "grading" of schools has occurred on a curve) according to the state’s district accountability measure.
What comfort came from its overall performance as not absolutely dismal hides
the fact that a majority
of its schools rank as ‘D’ or ‘F’ and these enroll over half of all district
students.
Yet despite a history of having a significant portion
of its school performing below par, unlike the other two major metropolitan districts
in the state little educational choice developed in the parish. The state
oversees only one charter school there, Linwood, and only three charters
operate independently (one with two campuses). Several other schools operate
under a memorandum of understanding model that leaves the district in charge of
these but having to meet certain objectives negotiated by the state.
Louisiana Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards is from
Mars, legislative Republicans are from Venus. I chose the ordering since
Edwards once served as a professional warrior and some GOP legislators are
women. I chose the metaphor to illustrate the completely incompatible mindset
of the two that threatens to launch fireworks during the state’s whirlwind special
session.
Edwards pulled the starting gun trigger on it last
night by speaking
mainly to the virtues of using Budget Stabilization Fund Money. As
policy-makers grapple with a $304 million deficit fighting a ticking clock registering
just four-and-a-half months remaining in the fiscal year, use of the Fund has emerged
as the biggest point of contention between the governor and Republican-led
Legislature to solve for the shortfall.
In the speech, Edwards noted the short time frame and
his belief that a straitjacketed fiscal structure begging for reform presented
few options other than use of $119.6 million in Fund money. Citing its creation
as a means to address short-term budgetary crunches and past use in what he saw
as less critical times, failure to dip into it he alleged would force
undesirable cuts into areas his current plan using Fund money to close the gap
would avoid. He argued that, past this hurdle, soon the state could start
attending to fiscal reform that should alleviate such problems in the future.
A day after my last post
came out, which analyzed a column written by Mark Lorando that discussed and
denied the presence of liberal bias at the newspaper he edits, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, he followed
up with another on the topic that in some ways addressed points I had made.
Yet accompanying his that day was a piece that served to subvert his mission.
My post pointed out the ways that the T-P transmitted
liberal bias, largely in story selection, while Lorando defended against that mainly
along the lines that content remained neutral, at least on the news pages. I
demonstrated that’s not necessarily the case, more because of the liberal smog
enveloping the industry of journalism than in any intent. He also pledged for
greater balance in the opinion pages, where one may expect biased commentary.
But the one thing that he did not, and could not,
promise in trying to divest the T-P of liberal bias that he at least conceded
was perceived was to provide more informed commentary. Liberalism often festers
and grows because its
adherents tend to be less informed about politics (which carries
over into partisan differences as well with the typical Republican more
informed and open-minded than his Democrat counterpart). Liberals also more likely
mythologize and caricature conservatism than vice versa, a logical consequence
as liberalism relies more on emotive referents to sustain belief in it while
conservativism places greater emphasis on fact and logic.