Teachers’ union head to Jindal: Tone down the rhetoric

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recent education policy speech to the Louisiana Association of Business & Industry was uninformed and insulting to teachers, says Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. For example, in outlining his opposition to the current teacher tenure system, Jindal described a hypothetical business where employees can never be fired “short of selling drugs in the workplace or beating up one of the business’ clients.” Monaghan called Jindal’s rhetoric uninformed, saying ineffective teachers can in fact be removed, and he decried it as ugly. “I would sit down and have a discussion about tenure,” he says. But once the well has been poisoned by insulting rhetoric, Monaghan says, fair-minded people tend to disengage from the discussion. He also took issue with Jindal’s proposal to expand a private school voucher program used in New Orleans statewide to low-income students in public schools that are rated C, D or F. The state does not rate private schools; Monaghan says private schools receiving public money should be held to the same accountability standards as public schools. Jindal’s office says voucher recipients in New Orleans are still tested as if they were in public schools, and argues parental choice is the “highest level of accountability.” Monaghan—who was guest speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club today—says he agrees with Jindal on the importance of early childhood education and that he’s disappointed the governor isn’t making that issue the centerpiece of his education agenda. —David Jacobs