Education disciplinary shift moves past woke

Now that peak woke has passed, Louisiana has a better chance of educating its children.

Woke is acquiring belief in the notion that society, with government institutions to match, was irredeemably racist in its present form until interventions created equity in outcomes, meaning that observed differences in outcomes by race unimpeachably indicated racism in action with any other explanation considered invalid. As a corrective measure, treating races differently because of race is blessed; in other words, neo-racism poses as anti-racism.

And as soon as Democrat Pres. Joe Biden assumed office, he embarked on a woke agenda (Vice Pres. Kamala Harris, his attempted heir apparent, already was there well in advance), replicated down the line to other Democrats. It also washed over institutions and people who should have known better, such as Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that had at the time a 6-5 Republican majority.

Welcome to thug left, Bossier juror Parks

For an elected official who labels herself a Republican and calls herself ideologically conservative, Bossier Parish Police Juror Julianna Parks sure acts like she’s a leftist Democrat.

Typically, not a lot of earth-shattering topics come up at Police Jury meetings, so it’s difficult to build up notoriety over the debate and votes that come along with that. The Jury as a whole has had a problem disregarding its following of the law, but that has been a collective failure. Until this year, whatever controversy on her own Parks stirred up came from comments at local Republican Party meetings and through social media that came only to tempests in teapots.

That went onto steroids when her political ally GOP Bossier City Councilor David Montgomery appointed her to the city’s Charter Review Commission, a thinly-disguised – which she eventually publicly would admit – vehicle by which to try to stop a petition for strict term limits on councilors and the mayor that would prevent long-serving councilors like Montgomery from running for reelection next spring. Connected as well to the powerful in city politics as her husband Santi is city judge, she became the most vocal advocate against strict limits, which last month was the subject of a petition process successfully completed to bypass the Council that legally should place the matter on the ballot Dec. 7.

Whiny attitude threatens LA education progress

If you want to understand why Louisiana elementary and secondary education students only haltingly have made progress in achievement from the bottom of the states, look no further than the attitudes expressed by some representatives of those with the task of educating them.

A common myth spread by the public education industry is that Louisiana students do so poorly because there’s not enough money – chiefly in teacher salaries – slung its way. Not only is this a false narrative, it is predicated on a false assumption.

A report earlier this year issued by the Reason Foundation explains why. Reviewing financial and achievement data form 2002-20, it notes that the assumed relationship between resources shoveled to schools and student achievement is essentially nonexistent. It noted that states which hardly budged on per pupil spending notched at least as large, if not larger, gains on the nationally-normed National Assessment of Educational Progress test than did states that increased theirs by around 50 percent. Certainly, resources matter but clearly other factors in fact are more important in spurring better outcomes.

LA needs both fiscal reform and right-sized govt

The decoupling of Louisiana’s fiscal year 2026 budget and tax reform seems to have arrived, reinforcing the idea that the latter isn’t a panacea for the former.

Off-and-on discussions about whether the Legislature should conduct a special session dedicated to tax reform soon, or at least before year’s end, have foundered absent an appetite of legislators to tackle the weighty issue relatively soon. Ideally, by having a session next month any constitutional changes necessary could head for voter approval in the scheduled Dec. 7 election that then would guide budgeting during next year.

But legislative leaders detected that legislators didn’t feel a rush to make changes would work effectively. Nor did Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who could call a session on his own, perceive legislators as ready to embark in that direction. Fiscal reform has drawn plenty of attention over the decades so ideas on how to proceed aren’t new, but the feeling is that if amending the Constitution has to happen, given the experiences particularly since 1990 — failure by Republican former Gov. Buddy Roemer at the ballot box, success on less dramatic shuffling by GOP former Gov. Mike Foster — that lawmakers will get just one shot at it and it has to be right to convince voters.

UNO dilemma illustrates bad policy, management

The University of New Orleans has become the sick man of higher education in Louisiana, providing a lesson of what happens when a school loses focus, faces shoddy political governance around it, and suffers from poor state higher education policy.

My alma mater has received a string of distressing news since the spring as it stares down budget cuts of 15 percent on the academic side and 25 percent on the athletics side. This is in response to a projected $15 million budget deficit for the upcoming year. The symptom of all this is declining enrollment that has plunged nearly 62 percent over the past two decades, going from the second-largest campus in the state in enrollment now to the tenth-highest and in the bottom half of senior institutions.

There are reasons for this, and they don’t reflect well on higher education and UNO leadership, state policy-makers, and governance particularly of New Orleans and to a lesser extent its surrounding areas. Starting at the top with the broadest big picture, policy-makers set up failure by their steadfast refusal to pare the state’s overbuilt system of higher education. When the realization came some three decades ago it was top heavy, partial corrections were made by building up the bottom with community and technical colleges, but the top itself wasn’t reduced (in fact, it was made even bigger with the addition of Louisiana State University of Alexandria as a senior institution).

BC power elite grasping at anti-limits straws

Just how low could certain members of the Bossier City Council go – and just how hypocritically they may act – now that there’s a very real chance city voters will have a term limits proposal before them in December not to the liking of a majority of councilors with no way to counter it?

This week, a citizen petition for two of four items to appear on the Dec. 7 ballot was certified, that would establish a retroactive three-term limit for mayor and city councilors. By city charter, as certified now it must be presented to the City Council, where at that point the Council must approve it within 90 days or the next scheduled election, which would be Oct. 23 but no scheduled election is before then and the deadline for the next, Nov. 5 has passed, so that would be Dec. 7. If it does not, it is required within 30 days, or Aug. 24, to add the items as an ordinance automatically amending the charter, meaning that if for whatever reason the Council fails to forward it at any regular meeting or any special meeting before Aug. 24 it must by then vote to amend the charter with the item. Failure to do either puts it in violation of the charter and sets up a slam dunk declaratory judicial judgment that essentially goes over its head.

Expect there to be resistance by the five councilors who have voted against efforts to put a previous similar term limits amendment on the ballot which was ruled out judicially by a technicality – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio; Democrat Bubba Williams; and no party Jeff Darby, of whom all but Maggio would be disqualified from running for office this spring or ever again – that will take two forms. The first will be to refuse to follow the charter in passing any enabling ordinance, instruments which any of GOP Mayor Tommy Chandler or Republican Councilors Chris Smith and Brian Hammons who have advocated for term limits since their elections, can introduce.

Edwards cheerleaders silenced by report

The warnings went unheeded, and the silence from those who claim to speak for Louisianans with disabilities speaks volumes about their enabling.

Recently, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor issued a scathing report about care of the disabled in congregate settings. At least 3,500 incidents of abuse or neglect occurred in the state’s care facilities over the past five years. Further, in that span the Louisiana Department of Health discovered nearly 5,000 deficiencies, of which a few hundred escalated into noncompliance issues.

Most disturbingly, the numbers grew from 2020 through 2023 (reporting requirements being implemented in 2019 made those numbers less reliable for analysis). And, LDH didn’t have the investigatory resources to compel a better reporting rate by facilities of critical incidents within 48 hours of occurrence (about a quarter missed the deadline) and it only conducted an independent full-scale investigation in fewer than one percent of instances.

Democrat ticket switch won't impact LA contests

What does the revolt against the electorate by Democrat powerbrokers that chased Democrat Pres. Joe Biden from another term in the White House, almost certain to be replaced by Democrat Vice Pres. Kamala Harris, mean to Louisiana electoral politics? Absolutely nothing.

Much of the party’s leadership and activist cadres turned against Biden not because they were concerned he couldn’t lead the country, not because they feared for his health, but because they saw an electoral landslide for Republican former Pres. Donald Trump and the GOP in the offing should he have remained at the top of the ticket. The move came from purely political calculations as an exercise in attempting to hold the maximal power possible starting in 2025.

For them, ideally that would include reversing the existing campaign momentum and promoting Harris. Yet realistically they and the political left know this to be a long shot with Harris as perhaps the weakest possible replacement. It’s telling that all her presumed competitors quickly assented to her elevation, because they see this election likely as doomed for their party’s nominee and they don’t want to have that around their neck. Such is their aversion to potential damage to their political careers that some even are summarily turning down the job as vice presidential running mate.

BPSB accountability void expanding

As if on cue, a reinforcement of insularity led to a consequence of that insularity, which for the Bossier Parish School District breeds contempt for families seeking the best education for their children.

Last week, qualifying for a special election for District 5 of the School Board came and went with no one challenging Republican Logan McConathy, who had been appointed earlier this year to replace Republican Adam Bass, who had been elected to the state Senate. Logan McConathy is the son of Mike McConathy, who at one time taught in the school system but gained fame mainly after he moved on from coaching basketball at Bossier Parish Community College to Northwestern State University (where Logan was one of his players), and who last year ran unsuccessfully against the other state senator representing the parish, the GOP’s Alan Seabaugh. Logan is the grandson of and Mike the son of John McConathy, who after a professional basketball career eventually became superintendent of Bossier schools.

If all of this legacy made Logan McConathy’s layup into completing a term inevitable, it also fit the pattern. In 2022 elections, nine of the returning incumbents running faced no opposition, and neither did newcomer independent Craton Cochran (although his father sits on the Police Jury) for an open seat. The other two incumbents, both of whom had gained seats through special elections, easily defeated challengers.

New maps provide only Democrat electoral hopes

Although there might be a couple of interesting intraparty matchups ahead in Louisiana’s last round of blanket primary elections for Congress before 2026, the Public Service Commission, and the Supreme Court, partisan outcomes are almost certainly already secured after qualifying for these offices ended last week for the 2024 cycle.

With a new and almost certainly one-off congressional map for this cycle, all GOP incumbents will defeat, and handily, the political unknowns and lightweight retreads of all parties up against them. As testimony to the disarray state Democrats find their party, they couldn’t find someone of their label to run against Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who drew only another of his party as an opponent. Typically, the party out of power in a chamber of Congress makes it a priority to run someone to run against the body’s leader of the other party just to create national talking points, but that didn’t work against Johnson (who at least this time will have competition, having run unopposed in 2022 before he became speaker).

The only serious competition will come in the new and transient Sixth District, whose boundaries were declared unconstitutionally gerrymandered to elect a black candidate by the federal judiciary, that to prevent election administration difficulties will be allowed to stand for this election. It spanning from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, Democrat state Sen. Cleo Fields hopes for the third time to win in an unconstitutional district – his previous two successful elections to Congress in 1992 and 1994 came under maps also declared unconstitutional – whose main challenger should prove to be GOP former state Sen. Elbert Guillory. Both are black.