As expected, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education rammed through, with very little debate, a new teacher evaluation system heavily skewed toward a Value Added Model on Tuesday.

Not that there wasn't objection. As this Associated Press article points out, there were plenty of reasonable objections made by expert teachers and their organizations. The lack of debate was on BESE's side - like obedient children, they did as they were told and approved the new model.

(Baton Rouge – October 7, 2011) Saying that the recent release of letter grades for Louisiana public schools is an exercise in intellectual dishonesty, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan called on the state’s leaders to stop playing politics, engage in an honest dialogue concerning our the health of our schools, our communities, and our families, and then provide the resources needed to provide every child an equal opportunity to succeed.

The 47th annual convention of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers will convene at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, November 20, at Diamond Jacks Resort Hotel in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Services will be held on Friday, September 9, for longtime AFL-CIO President Victor Bussie, who passed away in his sleep on Sunday, September 4.

(Baton Rouge – August 16, 2011) Even though thousands of public employees are wondering how they will be affected by the proposed privatization of a state health insurance plan, Gov. Bobby Jindal and his advisors skipped a League of Women Voters forum on the subject Tuesday.

That left only opponents of the privatization scheme, including Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan, to talk about the issue.

Please click here and ask Gov. Jindal to sign SB 6 into law!

SB 6 by Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) deserves to be signed into law on its own merits. But its passage became even more urgent when three bills allowing retirees to return to work without losing their whole retirement benefit were tied to SB 6 in the waning days of the legislative session.

“We understand that Gov. Jindal has drawn a line in the sand with his no new taxes pledge,” Monaghan said. But on one side of this line are cheaper cigarettes, addiction, cancer and death. On the other side is better health. There ought to be no political downside for the governor to allow the extension of this existing tax.”
- LFT President Steve Monaghan

Click here to tell your senator and representative to override Governor Jindal's veto!

(Baton Rouge – May 25, 2011) As Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion budget deficit, the Legislature has advanced bills that would eliminate Louisiana's corporate and personal income taxes. Another would make it even more difficult to pass budget bills in the House of Representatives. This is apparently being done without significant opposition from the governor’s office.

(Baton Rouge – May 12, 2011) Governor Bobby Jindal and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should be in no hurry to appoint an interim state superintendent of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

In a series of press conferences around the state, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state, and announced that the coalition will have a lobby day on Wednesday, May 4.