From left, Louisiana School Boards Association Executive Director Nolton Senegal, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan and Louisiana Association of Educators President Joyce Haynes urge lawmakers to reject Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget and fully fund education.
Coalition urges lawmakers to fund public education
As the Louisiana Legislature opened its regular session, thousands of teachers, school employees, students and friends of education across Louisiana were in mourning for public schools.
Around the state, "Black Monday" was observed by the wearing of black clothing. In Baton Rouge, a coalition of education organizations kicked off the session with a press conference urging lawmakers to reconsider drastic education cuts proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Louisiana Association of Educators and Louisiana School Boards Association, sponsors of Black Monday, put aside organizational differences and pledged solidarity in their fight to save public education.
They were joined on the steps of the capitol by a number of college students, who brought with them a giant papier-mache shark emblazoned with the words, "Stop Eating Education."
If the governor's budget is approved as written, elementary and secondary education will be cut by nearly $200 million; higher education will lose $219 million in funding.
LFT president addresses news media at press conference
Here is a transcript of LFT President Steve Monaghan's prepared remarks at Monday's press conference:
Thank you for joining us today. Legislative sessions are always exercises in choices, and this short fiscal session is no different. Lawmakers will make choices over the next few weeks that have a permanent impact on our schools, from the earliest childhood education program to the loftiest doctoral degrees at our universities. From what we see today, we believe that peril lies in the choices facing us this session.
As we enter this session, we are all the victims of choices made in the recent past. In the last six years, more than $2.4 billion dollars has been lost to the state treasury because of tax abatements, tax incentives, tax cuts and tax rebates of every stripe.
A few years ago, our state had adopted a progressive tax policy that freed us from our long-time dependence on the price of oil. Last year, that was undone when the price of oil was nearly $150 per barrel. Now oil is back in the $45 per barrel range, and our state is facing a $1.3 billion deficit. It is as if we learned nothing from the oil bust of the 1980s, and are doomed to repeat our past failures. The fiscal crisis facing lawmakers is partly the result of the national recession, and is also due to our own bad choices.
The governor's proposed budget will cause irreversible damage to all of public education. We are demanding a more rigorous curriculum for our students. But at the same time we are slashing, or supplanting with temporary stimulus dollars, the programs that help students achieve their goals. The result will be an appearance that our schools are failing, when in fact we are failing our schools.
This budget proposes to spend more money on religious school vouchers in one city, while failing to fund the Minimum Foundation Program for children all around the state. Hundreds of millions of dollars will keep flowing to private consultants for everything from standardized tests to public relations. But salaries for nationally certified professionals will be cut, as will salaries for the support staff who are vital to the running of our schools.
By cutting $200 million from elementary and secondary education, and $219 million from higher education, this budget puts public education at all levels on the wrong side of a clearly drawn line. We urge the legislature to adopt a budget that recognizes education as the key to a better future for our state.