Guest Column by Dr. James D. Kirylo

Truth, Love, and Partisanism

 

By Dr. James D. Kirylo
July 3, 2013
Guest Column - 450 words


Last week, Robert Mann, a professor at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, wrote a provocative column in The Times-Picayune.  Titled Louisiana is Walling off School Children From Each Other, Mann challenges the direction of the Louisiana school reform effort.

 

Among other facts, he asserts that 40 percent of the state’s voucher students scored at or above grade level last spring, that 80 schools in the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD) were plagued with allegations of mismanagement, wasteful spending and millions in lost or stolen property, and that the New Orleans’ RSD schools, mostly charters, were the worst performing in the city.  In short, Mann calls out the so-called reformers, making clear that their effort to systematically dismantle public schools is not working, not good for Louisiana, and ultimately undermines the common good.

 

Evidently, Senator Conrad Appel (R-Metairie) took exception to Mann’s piece, provoking him to strike back with a rather long diatribe in a post on his Facebook page.  In more ways than one, Mann brilliantly did his job as a columnist.  Appel was defensive, divisive, and ideological, injecting partisan politics, essentially proclaiming how the Republican Party is saving public education in Louisiana. 

 

Nowhere in his column did Mann mention political party, the left, the right, Republican, Democrat or Independent.  He simply presented a critical point of view that is clearly necessary in the overall conversation regarding the direction of public education in Louisiana.  

 

As for Appel, instead of thoughtfully considering Mann’s assertions as a prompt for constructive reflection, he pounced, taking Mann’s commentary personal, attacking the left, the Democrats, unions, and then somehow thinking he hit a home run with the proclamation, “Out of sheer love of our state, we Republicans have taken on the campaign to free our people from ignorance…Petty attacks by people who seek to destroy what is noble and good will be met with truth.”

 

“Truth” is a funny word and so is “love.”  Evidently, Mann doesn’t speak the truth, nor does he love the state of Louisiana.  Heck, the Democrats, those on the left, and even union people don’t speak the truth or love this state.  But the Republicans do!  The kind of political posturing that Appel injects is incredibly destructive, leaves no room for dialogue, and is an obvious manifestation of the axiom, “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”

 

According to a recently published Bloomberg report, Louisiana has been rated the most miserable state in 2013.  The list goes on and on as to why we were graced with that not-so-flattering label.  Clearly, the partisan divide has exacerbated that misery. Perhaps Senator Appel should meditate on the misery he's caused before his next missive is written.

 

James D. Kirylo is the author of the book Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife, and can be reached at jkirylo@yahoo.com.

Reprinted with permission.  
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Blogger Dayne Sherman lives in Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website at daynesherman.com.
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Louisiana Legislators Destroy Universities

The Death of Higher Learning

 

Dayne Sherman

Column

6/9/13

Published in the Daily Star and elsewhere.

Words: 750

The Louisiana legislative session ended on June 6. Victory was declared by all parties, and Governor Jindal showed up for a photo op once the budget deal passed. Reports have claimed that this was only his second visit to the Legislature since he “parked” his dubious tax swap plan during his address at the opening of the session on April 8.

Despite the high-fives and celebration of alleged legislative independence, the much lauded victory is a fraud, just positive spin to keep the homefolk happy and dumb. Our elected representatives failed us this year, and the state will suffer as a result.

One important example of this failure is the continued attack against colleges and universities. Let me be very clear: your local university is dying, and this session did nothing to revive it or any other suffocating Louisiana university. 

Despite the malarkey you will hear from various well-paid sources in and out of the higher education, Louisiana schools may have been given the final blow with this year’s budget.

The best analysis comes from Jan Moller of the Louisiana Budget Project who said recently that Louisiana higher education was slated to receive $204 million in state funds (2.7 percent of the General Fund) during the coming fiscal year.

Keep in mind that higher education received about $1.5 billion in state funding in 2009 (18 percent of the General Fund).

As Moller points out, we are funding Louisiana higher education at the lowest level since the 1950s.

The legislators are saying they ended the use of one-time money, which has hurt higher education and health care in the past through midyear cuts. But one-time money and creative accounting did not go on vacation under this year’s budget. The budget is full of hoaxes, not the least being the nitwit tax amnesty program that will do little to make funding sustainable or stable.

For higher education, expect a midyear cut. I hope I am wrong, but the budget is full of funny money.

Community colleges were given $250 million to build campuses, and they will get the money separate from the Capital Outlay Budget, an act that may harm the state’s bond rating.

It sounds great on the surface, and I am all for strengthening our anemic community and technical college system. But this is an irresponsible plan that will build “ghost campuses.” Ghost campuses are fancy buildings without adequate faculty to teach students.

Colleges need students and qualified professors. This building boom is a bust without good students and compensated faculty. Though I am sure well-connected building contractors are pleased about the newfound pork, there is no money to hire professors for the new classrooms.

In a death blow to higher education, SB 16, a retirement bill, did not pass. Thus, new higher education employees electing to take the defined contribution plan (the Optional Retirement Program), which about half of the employees choose because of portability, will get a 1.8 percent retirement “match” and no Social Security benefits beginning July 1, 2014 (1).

Louisiana higher education will have the least attractive benefits package in North America. I challenge any person to find a more paltry retirement plan at any legitimate university in the United States or Canada. This legislative failure will grossly limit recruitment of new faculty. Simply put, men and women with any intelligence will find another place to work—a place outside of the Bayou State.

The legislative session is over but the damage to higher education continues. Thank your senator and representative next time you see him or her. Both Democrats and Republicans failed to give a legitimate effort to help higher education survive.

However, Jerome “Dee” Richard, an Independent from Thibodaux, made an effort again this year to reduce state contracts by 10 percent. It failed in the Senate. In my view, only by limiting these bloated contracts and cutting back on billions in corporate welfare and tax loopholes will higher education make a comeback.

Unfortunately, we have a legislative body, a governor, and perhaps a general populace with more interest in funding foolishness than higher learning.

On positive note for many of my readers, I plan to take a break from writing newspaper columns this summer in order to prepare several fiction projects for publication. That is if I can help myself. The Louisiana political landscape is rich and tempting for any observant writer.

I think it was novelist Tom Clancy who once said the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.

In Louisiana, truth is more bizarre that fiction.

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

(1) After being contacted by two Louisiana higher education advocates about SB 16, I am adding "2014" above. As it turns out, HCR 2 will stall the cut to a 1.8 percent match for a year. However, as the ORP stands right now, I challenge anyone to find a worse retirement program than the ORP at any legitimate university in North America.

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Snakes at the Capitol

The Real Threat in Baton Rouge 

Dayne Sherman

Column published in the Daily Star and elsewhere.
6/1/13
Words: 650

Recent reports have detailed a dangerous snake infestation at the Louisiana State Capitol. This has been the fodder for jokes, but the fact remains that the slithering serpents of the Garden of Eden have invaded Huey Long’s Art Deco skyscraper (1).

On Memorial Day, my day off, I decided to go to the Capitol. My goal was to say a few words related to HB 1, the state budget bill, which will destroy universities in Louisiana by cutting funding to levels somewhere just north of zero. The Senate Finance Committee had the bill on the agenda.

As I waited in the hallway for the room to open, I heard many comments and backslaps about the snakes, but I never saw a single reptile that moved without feet. All of the reptiles I saw wore loafers.

Inside the committee room, Chair Senator Jack “I’ve Always Got Bobby Jindal’s Back” Donahue (R-Mandeville) called for a moment of silence for the MEN who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country. Obviously, he does not know that women bleed and die for our country.

After another senator corrected him about the women who did indeed die in war, he quickly said HB 1 would not be heard until later in the week.

I immediately realized my trip was a goose chase. Thanks, Senator Donahue.

For my little drive to Baton Rouge, I did get to see the Senate committee kamikaze Representative Kenny Havard’s (R-St. Francisville) HB 240, a bill that would have required legislative oversight for privatization of state services over $5 million dollars. It had passed the House with 93 votes in favor. Not bad.

But it became clear from the senators' questions that the bill was dead on arrival.

During the testimony for and against the bill, I saw Steven Procopio, a Jindal administration lackey, bloviating about the governor’s wishes. In short, he called Havard’s fiscally responsible bill a Massachusetts-based liberal union-loving leftist agenda sent from Karl Marx himself.

I was waiting for Procopio to use the words Benghazi, IRS, Solyndra, and Nancy Pelosi, but I’m certain he knew he didn’t need to bring out the big guns to defeat the bill.

Havard’s good government proposal was shot down with only two senators voting for it. I should note that Senator Mack “Bodi” White (R-Central) offered a courtesy vote in favor of his neighboring legislator’s bill—after he saw that it was dead in the roll call. How charitable of him, and Havard noted this in his banter with White.

I learned something from my Memorial Day goose chase at the Capitol. Our greatest problem is not a few snakes sliding through the building. No, our real problem is a Senate full of men and women who are invertebrates, backbones optional for all but a few.

Speaking of invertebrates, Senator Elbert Guillory (R-Opelousas) changed his party affiliation on Friday from Democrat to Republican. Guillory, a man who recently said he consulted a witch doctor for an ailment, is perhaps the American Legislative Exchange Council’s most valuable member. ALEC thinks he’s grand, so much so that they gave him plenty of campaign cash. According to reporter Tom Aswell, Guillory received “$45,200 from ALEC member corporations, $7500 from Jindal.” 

Several reports confirm that he switched from Republican to Democrat, and now he’s back to the GOP. I had a Republican House member tell me off the record that Guillory became a Democrat just to win office. 

I should start an annual award for legislative sorriness. During this session there are many good examples of breath-taking awfulness, but I think Senator Guillory deserves a lifetime achievement award.

Are there snakes at the Capitol? Maybe. But watch out for the ones wearing suits. There is no antivenom for their bite. Our only hope is to throw them out of office as soon as possible.


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

1.  Yes, I know water snakes aren't venomous, but stay with me.

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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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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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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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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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