Using ALEC Playbook, Bobby Jindal Radically Reshapes Public Education
http://www.alternet.org/story/155128/using_alec_playbook%2C_bobby_jindal_radically_reshapes_public_education/
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looking oh so 'concerned'
Gov. Bobby Jindal has remade the Louisiana public schools system with impressive speed over the past legislative session. Last week, he signed into law a suite of landmark reform bills that will likely change the direction of public education in Louisiana forever. But not all change is good, and critics say both Jindals agenda and the strategy to move it come right from the playbook of conservative advocacy group ALEC, in an effort to revive Jindals national political profile.
Louisiana is now home to the nations most expansive school voucher program. Charter school authorization powers have been broadened. And teacher tenure policies have been radically transformed. Louisiana already had something of a reputation as a radical-reform state, thanks to the post-Katrina educational climate in New Orleans. But not all change is good, and education advocates have deep concerns about the efficacy of Jindals overhaul, and the interests that have push it.
With these laws Gov. Bobby Jindal has sold our kids out for his political aspirations, said Karran Royal Harper, a Louisiana parent activist and education advocate.
The bills all sprinted through the state legislature. Committee hearings were conducted at a breakneck speed, Democratic lawmakers complained, and members were asked to vote on amendments they didnt actually understand. When the House took up a bill changing teacher-tenure rules, it ran the session past midnight, refusing to break until they called for a vote.