A Roaring Lion or a Stuffed Housecat?

A Problem with the Hammond Chamber of Commerce

Dayne Sherman
Column
5/26/13
Words: 650
Published in the Daily Star & elsewhere

The crisis in Louisiana higher education does not appear to be slowing in the least. With almost every public statement, Governor Bobby Jindal’s well-paid propagandists say that they are protecting higher education and health care—as if saying something over and over again will convince the public to abandon reality and believe their fiction.

My role as a writer is to point out the distance between the spin and the facts. In the process, I have often raked my own tribe, the professoriate, over the coals. I believe charity begins at home.

From my perspective, college and university employees should be marching on the State Capitol and not their respective university administrations. After all, it is the legislators and the governor who send university chancellors, presidents, and provosts buckets of mud instead of buckets of money to run campuses.

The problem with professors is not that they are lazy or that they do not work hard or teach well, it is that they are not involved in the political process as active citizens. I recounted last week that state funding for Louisiana higher education has been cut 80 percent since 2008. This is a shame and a sin.

So far, I have witnessed nothing to change my mind or challenge my assertion that university employees are cowering in a corner afraid of the boogie man. This lack of civic engagement weakens their institutions, harms their students, and threatens their communities.

Having said this, there are some fine examples statewide and locally of faculty members standing up to the powers and principalities, but they are few, the exception and not the rule.

But enough with the criticism of my own profession. Recently, I was driving up Northwest Railroad Avenue in Hammond, and I saw a stuffed lion atop the Chamber of Commerce sign. It is a cute gesture.

I went home and spent a great deal of time scouring the Chamber webpage for position statements decrying the cuts to their local university, and I could find nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. The outrage may be buried there someplace, but it is covered by a thin veneer of happiness.

Forty million dollars in cuts to the local university and they don’t have an image of a balled up fist with the caption saying, “Governor and legislators, stop killing our university!”

How shameful.

With the Chamber, I see the same apathy of the professoriate, which is nothing but acquiesce: “Let’s go along to get along.”

In Louisiana, we are own worst enemies. Failing to pass the Hammond school tax is one example, which was detailed on Friday in this newspaper by Dr. Roman Heleniak. I wish to thank him for his kind words about my old novel, Welcome to the Fallen Paradise. The book does deserve a sequel, but next time the beneficiaries of my fictional wrath should be the business community instead of dirty politicians.

Novels aside, at the end of the day Governor Jindal and the legislators couldn’t care less about university faculty and staff. They are disorganized, Balkanized, and as a group unaware of the political process. Most are just plain scared and with good reason.

Please understand one thing: When the business community starts carrying pitchforks to legislative offices and the Capitol, we will see the destruction of Louisiana higher education come to an immediate halt. The silence of the business community needs to end today.

The only reason I spend time challenging business leaders is that I believe they have the power and the responsibility to turn things around for higher education. The legislative session ends on June 6, and they have less than two weeks to wake up.

If only the business community would act like a roaring lion instead of a stuffed housecat.

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer & Speaker
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All universities cannot survive Jindal

Crisis in Louisiana Higher Education

 

Dayne Sherman

Column
5/20/13
Words: 750
Published in the Daily Star & elsewhere

The Louisiana higher education crisis is so broad and deep that it is difficult to cover in a newspaper column. 

No one sums up the disaster better than Jim Beam of the Lake Charles “American” newspaper. Recently, he opined, “The state spent $1.4 billion for colleges and universities in fiscal year 2007-08. The budget Jindal proposed for the fiscal year starting July 1 contains $284.5 million for higher education. That is an 80 percent reduction in state funding over those years.”

If I thought it would help, I would get this quote tattooed to my forearm in purple and gold letters with tiger paws as accents.

Of course, it would not help at all. I should be clear, however, that an 80 percent cut in state funding is an unmitigated disaster, and we will be three decades fixing the damage. 

Why did it occur? 

Simply put, Governor Jindal and his obedient legislators would rather provide two billion dollars in tax giveaways—mostly to well-connected companies—than to have a functional higher education system in Louisiana.

Constantly, the right-wing attacks the numbers of universities in Louisiana. We have too many, they say. What they never detail is exactly which universities they want to close. 

Indeed, they never mention our lack of a comprehensive community college system or that many of the vo-techs transitioning to community colleges are not accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

I suspect what these folks really want to do is close all of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. But they know this requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, which is impossible. 

Make no mistake, universities will be failing or failed by the end of Jindal’s rule in January 2016. 

This under the table attack never ends. For example, HB 68, which re-establishes a Cash Balance Retirement Plan for Higher Education employees, as well as rank and file state workers, will help destroy recruiting of new faculty and administrators. (This bill has morphed into a substitute bill, HB 729.)

The bill was sponsored by Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell) and voted out of committee on May 15. It had failed to pass two weeks prior, but Paul Hollis (R-Mandeville) rolled over and switched his vote.

HB 68/729, the “Cat Food” Retirement Plan, is far worse than Social Security alone for many participants. A much better plan was passed last year, but it was found unconstitutional. Now it is before the Louisiana Supreme Court. It added retirement debt, an Unfunded Accrued Liability, and needed a two-thirds vote, which it did not get in 2012. The law that passed last year didn’t meet muster.

So what did Jindal lackey Kevin Pearson do? He made the retirement plan so paltry—again, far less than Social Security—so that it would not need a two-thirds vote of his colleagues to pass. 

It’ll give Jindal a victory to brag about as he runs for POTUS. That’s the goal for Jindal’s corrupt retirement legislation.

A dozen college leaders spoke out against the bill on May 15, which will, in part, make Louisiana higher education have a “bird seed” retirement program, something far worse than last year’s cat food plan. No one with any other career possibilities will come to work in Louisiana higher education if the bill becomes law. [See video by date - Retirement Committee: http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Video/2013/May2013.htm]

New faculty coming under HB 68/729 will get a 1.8 to less than 1 percent retirement match if they elect an Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) instead of the new state plan. Recently, I heard Jim Purcell of the Board of Regents indicate that neither he nor anyone else would be coming to Louisiana to work in higher education. Remember that Louisiana state employees do not pay into or receive Social Security benefits. Defending the plan at the hearing was one person, Steven Procopio, a loyal Jindal hack. 

One stooge is more important than a dozen faculty leaders in Representative Hollis’s weird little world. In other words, the testimony of one Jindal boot licker is more significant than statewide higher education leaders representing faculty senates, unions, and the American Association of University Professors.

Procopio was just doing his job. But next time you see a member of the Northshore legislative delegation, thank him for being instrumental in killing Southeastern Louisiana University and other state colleges and universities. They deserve to be thanked.

Again, Pearson and Hollis, as well as many local representatives are destroying higher education. I am simply letting you know what they are doing. Don’t forget this during the next election.

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer & Speaker
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It’s Karma, Bobby

An Open Letter to Governor Jindal

Dayne Sherman

Column
5/12/13
Words: 750
Published in the Daily Star and eleswhere

Dear Bobby,

We haven’t talked in a long time, almost a year. We need to catch up. In August, I wrote you a letter titled “Bobby, can you hear me in the bunker?” I predicated your downfall. Don’t blame me for not warning you. I tried. Now the party is over.

I heard screaming the other day outside our little house in Ponchatoula. When I went into the backyard, I could tell it was coming from the general direction of Baton Rouge some 50 miles away. I later learned that the squalling was old “Green Beans,” your Department of Health and Hospital leader wailing from under the tires of a big bus at the Governor’s Mansion. I didn’t even know you could drive a car much less a bus.

The Medicaid contract fraud investigation must be keeping you awake at night. You have no real friends, man, and when the indictments start falling, folks are going to “squeal like a pig,” to use an apt line from the movie “Deliverance.”

The school voucher thing has been nothing but trouble, and the Supremes pistol-whipped you over it. When Representative Stephen Carter played pack mule for your signature legislation, I could tell he wasn’t a Rhodes Scholar, not that it would have helped. But what were you thinking? Haven’t you read the Louisiana Constitution?

Your retirement law was a disaster, too. Senator Elbert Guillory and Representative Kevin Pearson were your champions. Do you ever talk to those guys? Guillory just said that he consulted a witch doctor instead of a real doctor for an illness, and he thinks it’s legitimate science for Louisiana classrooms. Pearson has all of the gravitas of a vacuum cleaner salesman. And the Supremes are going to stomp your retirement law into the gumbo mud. 

But back to those unconstitutional vouchers. Here’s a tip to help you with those sinkhole approval numbers: Fire Superintendent of Education John White. Blame all of the school legislation on him and then appoint Steve Monaghan, that intimidating-looking union boss, as the new Super. The public school teachers will leave you alone for a change.

Dude, stop trying to pay for vouchers with K-12 money. Many of these schools have DVD teachers and textbooks that say the KKK was good and the Loch Ness monster real. Instead, take the money out of the university budgets. More than a few professors brag that they don’t even vote. Higher ed is easy pickings. Most college professors are too dumb to miss the money in their paychecks anyhow.

You’ve got to get out in front of these disasters. I have an idea. Why not tell your staff that you are canoeing the Atchafalaya with three college buddies, and then go to the Chicken Ranch in Nevada, the big brothel. You’ve got to get caught with a woman on purpose. Then pull a David Vitter and do a press conference with your wife. You’ll gain in the polls. 

Better yet, marry the prostitute and you’ll come back stronger than Mark Sanford of South Carolina. Louisiana people will eat it up. It’ll be like Earl Long and Blaze Starr. You’ll get a reality TV show as big as Duck Dynasty.

I’m ashamed to admit that you had me hoodwinked, Bobby. I thought you had the Midas touch. Everything turned to gold for a long while. Lately, though, you have the manure touch. I won’t even try to explain it to you.

Wait, I might have the answer. I know you have done exorcisms in college, but can you perform a real life resurrection from the dead? I mean like Lazarus in the Bible. That could change everything overnight. Fast. People will believe again.

No, it won’t work. Did anyone tell you Willie Nelson, my hero, just turned 80? He’s got a song that you should download on your iPod. It’s real catchy. It goes something like this: “There's just a little old fashioned karma coming down / Just a little old fashioned justice going round / A little bit of sowing and a little bit of reaping / A little bit of laughing and a little bit of weeping / Just a little old fashioned karma coming down.”

Yeah, Bobby, that’s your new theme song. Perhaps it’s time to resign from the governorship and take a little vacation. It’s all downhill from here on out. And I’d never lie to a friend.

Your pal,

Dayne

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer, Speaker, Scholar
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Citizenship

Reflections on the Enough is Enough! Rally 

By Dayne Sherman
Column

5/6/13
Words: 500

  

On Tuesday, April 30, I went to the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge for the Enough is Enough! rally. Though I had been planning to go for weeks, several days before the event I was asked to speak on the Capitol steps.

The nine hours of annual leave I requested from my job were some of the most productive vacation hours I have had in my life. Not just because I had the privilege to be a featured speaker, delivering a spirited speech titled “The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost for Governor Jindal,” but because I was able to act on my rights as a citizen.

What was so inspiring about the event were the people. I met cab drivers, professors, teachers, social workers, students, medical doctors, activists, young people, and old people. White, black, brown, and yellow.

The rally, which was swarming with news media and about 400 activists, was a peaceful gathering in every way. I felt tremendous camaraderie and a sense of good will. Attendees were very supportive of one another and speaking with one voice that Bobby Jindal’s attack on education and health care must stop.  Indeed, enough is enough!

And unlike the last legislative session, a time when teachers were treated like farm animals and corralled like beasts, I saw no hostility or lack of respect by security workers or staff.

Also encouraging to me were the many Tangipahoa Parish residents at the Capitol. You couldn’t swing a rubber chicken by the foot and not hit someone from Tangipahoa. Ponchatoula High School teacher Kevin Crovetto was there, as were a number of other teachers.

What’s great about Crovetto is that no one knows more about state K-12 education policies than he does. Hearing him talk is to dispense with all of the bureaucratic compost so loved in Baton Rouge by Jindal and his diminishing band of misguided followers.

One of the interesting aspects of spending time at the State Capitol is witnessing all of the lobbyists. They wear these yellowish-brown IDs that say “Lobbyist.”

I can’t fault them for doing their jobs for their clients. But I sure do wish our local representatives (Edwards, White, Broadwater, and Pugh) would sponsor a bill to give citizens a similar tag of prestige when they visit. It should read, “Citizen.” The colors? Red, white, and blue.

Let me repeat what citizens around Hammond and Ponchatoula are saying. Any local legislator who fails to fight tooth and nail for my alma mater Southeastern Louisiana University to be fully funded is no representative of the people of this parish.

Until such a time when we get those little “Citizen” badges, perhaps we should act as though we already have the right to walk the halls of the Capitol.

Thanks to the sacrifices of countless Americans past and present, it is our right to do just that.

 

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer, Speaker, Scholar
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The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost for Gov. Jindal

Speech in Baton Rouge

By Dayne Sherman
Speech at the Enough is Enough! Rally
Steps of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge
4/30/13
Words: 675

The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost for Gov. Jindal

See video here and clips at WAFB. Media coverage here, here, and here.

I was born in the great state of Louisiana. I dropped out of high school and took my GED, and I enrolled in one of Louisiana’s fine universities, Southeastern in Hammond. They gave me an emergency loan and then a Pell grant and I was on my way. That was almost 25 years ago.

Today, I stand before you with three college degrees all earned at Louisiana universities. I stand before you today as a writer and a professor and a librarian at one of our great Louisiana universities. I stand before you today as a family man and a productive member of society, and I thank Louisiana higher education for it.

But I am fearful today. I am fearful that our governor does not believe in educational opportunity for Louisiana citizens like me and like you. I am fearful today that he would have us turn back the clock to a time when only the elite could attend a university in Louisiana.

Today is a day when we must double down on Louisiana higher education. Today is a day when we must fully fund higher education, which has been cut $650 million under Governor Jindal. Though I am here to represent higher education, we are not alone. Colleges are not alone. We are a part of the great tapestry that makes Louisiana a great state.

But our governor has his eyes on the White House and not on the state house. He cares about Washington, DC, and not about the Bayou State.

By his actions we know it’s all about “Bobby” and not about Louisiana. But I have good news today. The chickens are coming home to roost, and Governor Jindal is about as popular as a pulled pork sandwich at a vegetarian picnic.

Many wonder how long it will be until federal indictments come down over the Medicaid contract fraud case, and how close the probe will get to the governor’s office on the fourth floor of this building.

Many wonder about BESE, that foul group that runs Louisiana education policy. Have you heard that one of its long-time members is under investigation by the FBI?

Oh, how the chickens are coming home to roost.

We’re seeing a legislative session this spring nothing like the one last spring. Legislators are starting to listen to their constituents, and old Bobby Jindal hardly has a friend anywhere in Baton Rouge.

But listen closely, we’re not out of the woods yet. I believe there are five serious issues that the legislators have to deal with during this session in order for us to survive Jindal’s assault on Louisiana.

First, we have to repeal the tax giveaways passed under Jindal. We now give away an extra $2 billion a year since Jindal took office. This is unsustainable, it’s immoral, and just plain crazy. Make no mistake, if we don’t address the corporate welfare in this state, we are toast.

Second, the federal Medicaid expansion has to begin sooner rather than later. If we don’t accept the Medicaid expansion, your local hospital will struggle or fail, and the state will be in the red for decades to come.

And shame on us if we let Jindal and Greenstein close the Charity Hospitals. Wait, Greenstein or Greenbeans, whatever his name is, the man is on a permanent vacation.

Third, we have to stop selling the state piece by piece. We have to stop giving away state assets at fire sale prices, and it needs to stop now.

Fourth, if we don’t fully fund higher education we will hamstring the Louisiana economy and harm our children and our children’s children.

My last point is this: Governor Jindal, stop waging an attack on public school teachers and college professors. We’re not the enemy of Louisiana, you are.

Please listen everyone. It’s important. We can create the change we need. The chickens are coming home to roost for this governor. It’s time to be bold and it’s time to be courageous, my friends.

Let’s take back this great state for the people of Louisiana once and for all.

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcometo the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer, Speaker, Scholar
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Enough is Enough!

How to Survive Jindal's Attack on Louisiana

 

By Dayne Sherman

Column
4/27/13 - Words: 600
Published in the Daily Star and other newspapers. 

Over the past several years, I have argued in newspaper columns, letters to the editor, and through numerous correspondences with state legislators that Louisiana was headed to disaster under Governor Bobby Jindal’s policies and plans. My contention then and now is that his actions are all about Bobby and not about Louisiana.

It is unfortunate that I feel vindicated daily. The chickens are coming home to roost, and Jindal is about as popular as a pulled pork sandwich at a vegetarian picnic.

Many wonder how long it will be until federal indictments come down over the Medicaid contract fraud case, and how close the probe will get to the governor’s office. Time will tell.

When I started my quest to point out the insanity of Jindal’s policies, our governor was soaring high. His approval rating was higher than an old goat drunk on Tennessee sour mash. But now his approval rating is somewhere near cockroaches and pneumonia, and it’s a lot cooler now being a part of the opposition movement than it used to be.

Jindal not getting a break is good for Louisiana. We’re seeing a legislative session this spring nothing like the one last spring. And now, predictably, yet not ironically, most legislators are listening to their constituents, and Jindal hardly has a friend in Baton Rouge.

But we’re not out of the woods yet. I believe there are four serious issues that the legislators have to deal with in order for us to survive Jindal’s assault on Louisiana.

First, we have to repeal the tax giveaways passed under Jindal. Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) has a bill to do this very thing. We now give away an extra 2 billion dollars a year since Jindal took office. This is unsustainable, immoral, and just plain crazy. Make no mistake, if we don’t address the tax credits and corporate welfare, our state is toast.

Second, the federal Medicaid expansion has to begin sooner rather than later. According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, the expansion of Medicaid will grant 577,000 Louisiana citizens insurance coverage.

What if we don’t accept the Medicaid expansion? Your local hospital will struggle or fail, and the state will be in the red for decades to come.

Third, we have to stop selling the state piece by piece. We can’t keep giving away state assets at fire sale prices to plug budget holes. It’s ridiculous, downright goofy.

Fourth, higher education must be fully funded in Fiscal Year 2014. Colleges and universities have been cut $625 million since 2008. More cuts are planned for next year. It has to stop now or we will hamstring the Louisiana economy and harm our children.

What can we do to create the change we need? Rally.

On Tuesday, April 30, many different contingencies from clergy to professors to healthcare workers are going to rally at the State Capitol. It starts at 11:00 AM. If God’s willing and the creek doesn’t rise, I’m going to attend the rally. I'll be a speaker.

In fact, I’ve already planned to wear my old cowboy boots. Why? As you walk up the majestic steps of the Louisiana State Capitol staring up to the stately edifice built by Huey Long, it’s a good idea to wear boots.

Once inside the House and Senate chambers, the fertilizer is so deep, any wise country boy knows that boots are a must.

I hope I see you in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, and wear some boots.

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcometo the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

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Dayne Sherman, Writer, Speaker, Scholar
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Time to Scrap Blueprint for Disaster

A Response to Blueprint Louisiana

 

By Dayne Sherman

Column
4/22/13 - Words: 600
Published in the Daily Star

Jimmy Maurin’s recent letter, “Legislators should re-enactschool reforms,” says Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education “reforms” were bold, his education plans great for Louisiana, and legislators need to redo what the courts, educators, and public opinion have labeled a failure.

Maurin is a successful Hammond businessman, the head of Stirling Properties, which owns Hammond Square Mall. He’s also the Chairman of Blueprint Louisiana, a Bayou State equivalent to the AmericanLegislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

If Blueprint members truly cared about improving Louisiana education outcomes instead of privatizing, they would scrap Jindal’s unconstitutional education reforms and start over. We have been there and done that. It’s time to move on. 

Rather than doubling down on “The Stupid Party,” Blueprint should push for several changes that would make a positive difference to Louisiana education.

First, class size is the biggest change needed. Cap class sizes at 15 for struggling schools and 20 for schools on solid footing. We’ll see major improvements overnight with this needed change.

Second, disband the so-called education reformers’ model school system, the failed Recovery School District. It’s the second worst district in Louisiana, and one of the worst school districts in the developed world. It is full of fiscal mismanagement and abuse. The RSD has lost millions of dollars, according to recent reports, and it’s doing PR spin and damage control 24/7. Because the RSD is the model for reform, nothing will be done about the scandalous fraud and lost tax dollars.

Third, there should be no waivers of credentials for unqualified superintendents. This practice has been a total flop. Let’s consider State Superintendent John White. He has been in way over his head since his first day on the job—after he left as superintendent of the RSD. He is unqualified to serve as an assistant principal in Tangipahoa Parish. How on earth can he be allowed to serve as the head of the entire state education establishment? Let him go back home to New York and drive a cab.

Fourth, the Louisiana Department of Education has scrubbed key data from its new website. When White and LDOE claim graduation rates have improved, it is impossible to verify. This should lead to the termination of decision-makers. 

Last, repeal Jindal’s 2008 creationist education law, the Louisiana Science Education Act. Seventy-eight Nobel Prize-winning scientists have signed on asking for its repeal. The LSEA makes Louisiana education a 19th century model instead of a 21st century learning environment. Bottom line, the LSEA kills jobs. Let’s get rid of it.

Much of so-called education reform is nothing but a ruse intended to steal local, state, and federal dollars. Jindalesque reform is unconstitutional, and legislation passed in 2012 fixed none of the real problems Louisiana schools face. 

As business leaders, Maurin and Blueprint know it is disastrous to make decisions based on bad information. A real fix for what ails Louisiana is possible, but Jindal’s reforms were little more than a con job designed to help his delusional presidential bid.

Blueprint and its cadre of businessmen have hitched their wagon to our governor’s self-serving vision for Louisiana. Bobby Jindal’s heart is the size of a butterbean. He’s no one to follow.

It’s about time to unhitch the wagon. Jindal has steered the state into a deep ditch.

And I have news for Blueprint Louisiana: The common people of this state have wised up. The country club set should do the same.

Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcometo the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.

==========================

Dayne Sherman, Writer, Speaker, Scholar
Web & Social Media: http://daynesherman.com/
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