Headlines
LA: House Democrats blast Jindal’s agenda as unconstitutional
‎MI: Detroit awaits proposed consent agreement
‎MI: In Michigan charter schools, results no better than other public schools
AL: Charter schools: Alabama’s political football
NE: National group takes aim at Nebraska child welfare

LA: House Democrats blast Jindal’s agenda as unconstitutional
‎House Democrats opened fire on nearly every aspect of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s agenda Monday, arguing his plans to overhaul the state’s education and pension systems and his focus on privatization would be disastrous for working families across the state. Though acknowledging they did not have the numbers to outright block most of the administration’s agenda, Democratic leaders said they expected to be able to blunt Jindal’s efforts during the legislative session and suggested lawsuits might overturn those bills that are passed. The Democrat’s rebuttal was a rare, formal response to Jindal’s speech to members of both houses on the opening day of the legislative session. “Never before in the history of Louisiana, as far as I know, has the minority party felt the need to formally address the people of the state after the governor has spoken to legislators,” said Rep. John Bel Edwards, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. “But never before in history have the plans been so destructive to the working people of this great state.” NOLA

MI: Detroit awaits proposed consent agreement
‎A draft of a consent agreement that Gov. Rick Snyder will formally propose today has displeased some City Council members, who say they want changes before they’ll approve the deal…The agreement is expected to include steep cuts, privatization of some city services and other benchmarks to hold the city accountable. But what worries council members, according to an unidentified city official who saw a draft of the proposal Monday, is that council members are removed from the daily operations of the city. The proposal would create a nine-member advisory board and did not include new cash for the city, the official said. The Detroit News

MI: In Michigan charter schools, results no better than other public schools
..The schools, which already educate almost 120,000 students at an average of 470 students per school, play a major role in Gov. Rick Snyder’s education philosophy. But since the charter experiment started in 1993, data collected on both the state and national level suggest they are doing no better at educating students than are traditional K-12 public schools. An analysis of test-score data done for Bridge Magazine by Public Sector Consultants shows charters falling along roughly the same achievement lines as traditional public schools, for both better-off and less-advantaged students…“There have been close to 80 different studies now, and (those results) have been pretty consistent,” said Gary Miron, a Western Michigan University professor..“While I looked favorably upon the original intent of charter schools, I am increasingly concerned that after two decades and substantial growth, the charter school idea has strayed considerably from its original vision. A growing body of research as well as state and federal evaluations conducted by independent researchers continue to find that charter schools are not achieving the goals that were once envisioned for them.”  Miron went on to lay out why he thinks the schools have fallen short of their lofty founding goals of driving educational improvement through innovation and competition: They lack effective oversight and accountability. They’re chained by the current emphasis on testing and specific performance standards. Privatization and profit-seeking drain dollars away from instruction. MLive

AL: Charter schools: Alabama’s political football
Some political leaders, including Governor Robert Bentley, are trying to champion the fight to create charter schools on the state…Bentley’s plan is to initially put charter schools, if approved, in poorer regions of the state….Opponents argue many charter schools perform poorly. They claim if trimming red tape works, it should be done for all schools, rather than for just a few non-profit corporations running charter schools. The AEA says to open charter schools it will cost more. For example the organization estimates charter schools in Anniston would cost $6,933 per pupil to run…Critics argue, although all students are eligible to attend charters, poor performing students are routinely “counseled out” of the system and sent back to attend a public school. For example, Hartford, Connecticut charter schools are accused of stacking the deck with better students. Examiner

NE: National group takes aim at Nebraska child welfare
The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform has long criticized Nebraska’s child welfare system for removing children from the home and placing them in foster care at a rate far above the national average. According to the group, Nebraska is an “extreme outlier” among states, removing children “at a rate more than triple the national average.”…Nebraska lawmakers are currently debating a series of bills to move forward in child welfare, after privatization largely collapsed. Four private agencies dropped out of their contracts with the state, leaving just one private company as a key player in the system. But Wexler said lawmakers are simply rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship. “Privatization, per se, is the great irrelevancy in Nebraska child welfare, or in child welfare everywhere,” Wexler said. “We compare and contrast systems all across the country. Some are heavily privatized, some aren’t. There are a few good and a lot of bad systems in both categories. So it simply doesn’t matter.”“Can you make privatization work for you along with other changes?” he said. “Sure.” Wexler used the state of Florida as an example where privatization has worked. But he said the reforms succeeded because the state provided incentives to those private agencies to keep more children at home.   KWNO