Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards converted on an eleventh-hour chance to roll back education reform in Louisiana in one respect, after a long eight years of playing defense.
Coming into office with the support of special interests opposed to the reforms which emphasized choice, accountability, and standards, Edwards made little legislative headway in turning back any of these implemented earlier in the decade. His presence in the Governor’s Mansion, however, did block continued reform such as creating a money-follows-the-student funding distribution which probably could have drawn legislative majorities or, which happened twice, preventing state aid for students with disabilities to attend schools of their choice.
He had help from pliable Republicans House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and Senate Pres. Page Cortez, who tried to bottle up such bills, but he had little luck in reversing reform in any meaningful way. Except for now with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which this week forced the most significant retreat over the past eight years.
That came in the form of adopting a new policy that subverts academic rigor behind awarding a high school diploma. To earn one, a student had to score from 10 to 38 percent (yes, that low) in areas on standardized tests. Failure to do so meant no diploma, but starting now an appeal process to bypass this requirement approved this week has created a nebulous, subjective review process with little accountability.
Districts have wanted this because some have been embarrassed by the discordance between worse student performance on tests but higher average course grades handed out, which indicates lax instruction that lowers their district performance scores which become a political talking point for elected school board members seeking additional terms. And poorer performances truly are a matter of individual district performance, because many flailing districts have their students do much worse than others with similar demographic traits, so it’s not a matter of alleged inherent unfairness in testing that is producing such differences.
Until now, unlike most states Louisiana didn’t have an appeal process, but this new edition is almost a get-a-diploma-for-free card. Performed at the district level with no oversight, there is next to no incentive to prevent abuse of the process to increase district prestige and score political points by inflating graduation rates. Further, it will encourage some students to put forth less effort in seeing a backstop in place. Superintendent Cade Brumley on behalf of the Department of Education, who echoed the concerns of a number of people and interest groups that lowering standards will reduce quality of life for those credentialed yet essentially unprepared for the modern work force as well as will hinder employers seeking qualified workers, also pointed out the process sidestepped several legal requirements in its making.
Yet, largely because of Edwards’ position that gave him three appointments to BESE, the measure squeaked through a pair of narrowly-affirmative votes to become policy. One alternative to prevent this would be suing over the legal questions raised by Brumley.
Absent that, a political solution can come by the election of a Republican as governor this week, along with a mix of Republican incumbents and newcomers. This would produce in all likelihood at least a 9-2 reform majority on BESE and the ability to alter severely, if not reverse, the change within the next two years, as well as to help kickstart reform measures from their moribund state.
But, for now revanchists, whose policies that looked out more for the interest of adults than of children which had shaped Louisiana education over the decades, have won their only significant clawback for the past decade. Let’s hope the resulting damage is minimal.