Talk About the South: Dayne Sherman's Blog: May 2014

Monday, May 26, 2014

A Unified Front of University Professors

HB 142 for Louisiana Higher Education

Guest Column

May 26, 2014

Posted by Dayne Sherman

Dr. James D. Kirylo

This past week, I, along with professors from LSU, LSU-Shreveport, Southern, and Southeastern, testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee exhorting them to support House Bill 142. Authored by State Rep. Jerome "Dee" Richard, with great support from State Treasurer John Kennedy, the bill calls for a 10% reduction of all state professional, personal, and consulting service contracts. This would result in an estimated savings of approximately $500 million, which would be allocated to support higher education.

As I entered the standing room only senate committee room, I noticed the presence of F. King Alexander, President and Chancellor of LSU and Sandra Woodley, President of the University of Louisiana System. I was prompted to think, great, the big guns are here as well to express their support for HB 142. Indeed, a unified front among faculty and presidents was going to be powerful in persuading the Senate Finance Committee to pass the bill out of committee onto the Senate Floor.

To be sure, the collective voices of the professors were united in their testimony, urging the committee what a boost HB 142 would have for colleges and universities and that at least it would bring some sense of relief and hope in reviving a devastated higher education system in the state.

It is worth reminding readers that in the last six years a whopping 80% of funding to state colleges and universities has been cut, resulting in loss of programs, an exodus of top-talent faculty, and an environment where most faculty and staff have had to endure furloughs, along with no cost of living allowances or merit raises, and where many have been laid of.
Moreover, students have seen an exponential rise in tuition, burdening them to either drop out of school or to nervously scrape around to find additional funds. And for many this burden will be exacerbated in the future when their loan debt comes in the mail. It is no exaggeration to suggest that it will take a generation to recoup the aggregate loss of what has been occurring in higher education over the last half decade. So, truly, HB 142 will be essential in moving higher education in the right direction.

After the other professors and I stated our favorable arguments for HB 142, I waited and waited for Alexander and Woodley to testify on behalf of the bill, too. But they never stood up to speak nor gave any indication of a supportive direction of the bill; their silence was palpable.

In fact, they were there to testify for what the political columnist Dayne Sherman calls the unWISE Plan (HB 1033), which is a $40 million higher education workforce-type bill that comes with many strings attached. Furthermore, the bill is unfunded, meaning legislators are still not sure where the funding will come from. And, finally, how much each university will receive is unclear, but one thing that is clear is that whatever it is will barely have any real impact.

Why would Alexander and Woodley publicly support a HB 1033 that has no guarantee there will be funds available, and not support HB 142, which would guarantee a substantive amount of monies for universities? It was then that the illumination of the politics involved was suddenly crystallized, clearly exposing my own naiveté regarding my ideal of a united front.

HB 1033 is a Jindal-backed bill, and higher education leaders have seen what has happened to those who have stood against the Jindal administration. To put it nicely, they did not have any choice but to move on. And HB 142 does not have the support of Jindal, and he will purportedly veto it if it comes to his desk.

In that light, one can only surmise that Alexander and Woodley were driven by fear to not speak up on behalf of HB 142 because, of both bills, it makes the most logical sense to support; it guarantees better possibilities to help begin the process of universities to dig out of the deep holes they are in.

Nevertheless, despite the position of the Jindal Administration and the lack of voice from university leaders, one can only be proud of the number of professors who openly took a stand to support a bill that can bring genuine hope in reviving our universities.

James D. Kirylo latest book is titled A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance. He can be reached at jkirylo@yahoo.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer & Speaker
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Sunday, May 18, 2014

The Last Hope for Louisiana Higher Ed

Will the Senate Pass HB 142?

Dayne Sherman
May 18, 2014
Column / 500 words

Students are graduating from universities across Louisiana this May, and high school students are heading to college campuses this summer and fall. It's an exciting time of year for students, parents, extended families, professors, and teachers. Nothing could be better.

But we need to be frank. Louisiana colleges and universities have been cut $700 million, 80 % of state funding since 2008. The tuition is increasing at an unsustainable and crippling rate, and many students will be strapped with student loan debt for decades to come.

This was done because Gov. Bobby Jindal doesn't care about higher education for Louisiana residents and because his minions in the Legislature allowed him to steal from higher education in order to fund patronage from Shreveport to Port Sulfur. In fact, much of this patronage was devised as a way to pay off his cronies—often out of state—and garner future political favors. It doesn't take an Albert Einstein to figure this out. Just read the newspapers.

The primary avenue to pay off the campaign favors and buy votes is through bloated consulting contracts. They keep Jindal's as well as legislators' supporters and campaign contributors happy, happy, happy.

But it's time to stop the stupidity and fund higher education. We have students to educate and no funding to do so. Higher education has been starved while consulting contracts have been fed like meat hogs headed to market.

The only hope I see on the horizon is HB 142, a bill filed by Jerome “Dee” Richard of Thibodaux and championed by Treasurer John Neely Kennedy. It calls for state agencies to cut 10 % from their contracting budgets and the $500 million saved to go to fund higher education. It's a fair and fiscally conservative plan. The bill has sailed through the House, and now faces the big challenge: Gov. Jindal's handpicked laptogs on the Senate Finance Committee. The committee meets on Monday, May 19 at 9:30 AM.

I believe passage of this bill is utterly essential to save public higher education in Louisiana.

There have been ongoing foes fighting Louisiana higher education. Sen. Jack Donahue, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is one example of someone who has done nothing for higher education. How he can play like he's a supporter of the educational institutions in and around his district is a real mystery. It's time for him to put up or shut up, and HB 142 is the test.

He is not alone. Sen.Mack “Bodi” White should be ashamed of his acquiescence to Jindal's destruction of higher education. It's time for him to man up on HB 142 as well. He's on the committee.

We have a chance to save higher education. Will Donahue and White stand with the people of his district or with Jindal and his cronies? We will know soon enough.

Dayne Sherman resides in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. He covers the South like kudzu and promises that he never burned Atlanta. He is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel and expects the publication of Zion: A Novel in October. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Jindal Disaster Continues

A New Hole in the State Budget

Dayne Sherman

May 4, 2014

Column / 400 words

It was bound to happen. The legislative session is barely beyond the mid-point, and Gov. Bobby Jindal's smoke and mirrors budget has gone up like a Roman candle on the Fourth of July, the sparks falling downward after a rapid rise.

On Friday evening, the customary time for public relations flacks to “take out the trash,” we learned that Jindal's plan to fund former LSU hospital privatizations through a financial scheme worthy of Bernie Madoff was rightly rejected by the United States government.

In other words, Gov. Jindal, an alleged healthcare expert, set up financial arrangements for Louisiana hospital privatization that many commentators said were doomed from the start. Now Louisiana taxpayers are holding a bag that gets heavier by the hour.

This coupled with the giant disaster of CNSI, which is, as far as I can tell, still the subject of federal and state investigations, as well as civil suits, provides Jindal with zero wins on the healthcare front during his two terms as Governor.

As I study the $300 million hole left by the hospital collapse, I have three questions. How will the legislators respond to Jindal's corruption? How will the citizens respond? And how will higher education become the fall guy to Jindal's budgetary incompetence?

The legislators can rarely be counted on to show backbone. One or two here, three or four there show a pulse, but something terrible must invade their spines and turn them into Jell-O the moment they are sworn in as representatives or senators. It remains to be seen if the current scandal will raise an eyebrow of the average Jindal loyalist in the Louisiana Legislature. This kind of fiasco happens so often, a real budget buster. The event should be no surprise.

Louisiana citizens aren't inclined to protest in the streets, so I doubt there will be much change from the bottom up. Gandhi said, “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.” That's how real change works, but I don't see much energy from the people here in the Pelican State.

The late Friday news leads me to question the status of higher education funding now with a state budget holding a brand new $300 million chasm.

Expect cuts, deep ones.

Louisiana has the government that reflects our wishes. People voted Jindal and his cronies into office. Now we must deal with the pain.

Dayne Sherman resides in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. He covers the South like kudzu and promises that he never burned Atlanta. He is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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