[UPDATE: State Superintendent of Education John White and LDOE spokeswoman Rene Greer have yet to respond to numerous phone calls and email inquiries from The Independent over the past 24 hours regarding the department’s NCLB waiver application, despite public record statutes requiring them to do so. They also have failed to respond to Louisiana Press Association attorney Joshua Zelden, who told both White and Greer in an email Wednesday morning that “all documents created, and correspondence entered into, by government agencies in the course of their official business must be made available to all requestors immediately, unless a specific exception to the public records law is cited and clearly relevant and applicable.”
“There is no such exception in this case,” he says in the email. “Further, the burden is on the custodian of the public record to provide such an exception and you have failed to do so. Please provide evidence of an applicable exception or release the requested correspondence ... immediately.”
The Independent contacted the state Attorney General’s Office Wednesday afternoon and is awaiting a response on whether the office will get involved in the records battle. An AG’s office employee said Wednesday that the office cannot accept a formal complaint from the newspaper, as the AG’s office is charged with representing LDOE should The Independent decide to take civil action against the education department.
According to state law, the next available legal recourse is filing a civil lawsuit against LDOE. The Independent is undecided as of mid-day Thursday whether we will pursue legal action against the state agency.]
The 26 states applying for flexibility under the stringent federal No Child Left Behind requirements have been put on notice by the U.S. Department of Education that certain components of their waiver applications must be modified before gaining final approval. It’s a critical part of the process for states seeking to opt out of the law’s cumbersome achievement benchmarks and accountability systems, as the feedback from the feds outlines both strengths and weaknesses in the alternative plans offered up by each state on how to improve the quality of public education without the red tape attached to the signature federal education law.
Louisiana is among the 26 states (plus Washington, D.C.) requesting a waiver from NCLB provisions, and the application submitted by the Louisiana Department of Education is not immune to the federal scrutiny other state applications are receiving. The U.S. Education Department sent critique letters to states April 17, but the contents of Louisiana’s letter — i.e. the deficiencies in our state’s alternative plan for achieving higher academic performance — are still being shielded from the public as of noon Wednesday.
The Independent sent a public records request to LDOE’s public affairs office on April 24, asking for all correspondence the state agency has received from the federal education department regarding Louisiana’s NCLB waiver application. State law requires that such public documents be made available upon request immediately if the records are not in use. If the records are in use or the governing body believes the documents are not public record, the agency “must provide written reasons, including the legal basis, within three working days.”
A few hours after LDOE surpassed the 72-hour legal deadline for meeting our request, the department’s spokeswoman, Rene Greer, told the newspaper via email that “there is no final document to release.”
“We appreciate your previous reporting and ongoing interest in Louisiana’s waiver application process, which represents a crucial opportunity for our state to align our accountability system to college and career ready standards,” Greer says in the email. “And we look forward to providing you with additional information as we finalize this work.”
She also included a note from U.S. DOE’s Libby Witt, who says the federal education department is not making public the states’ peer review feedback until the final applications are approved. When The Independent questioned a U.S. DOE spokeswoman on why a formal letter between two government agencies would not be considered public record, we were told to file a Freedom of Information Act request with U.S. DOE, which the paper has submitted.
In a Monday article appearing on The Washington Post’s website, Virginia’s feedback letter from the feds is published in its entirety. A Virginia Department of Education spokeswoman says in an email to The Ind that the agency released the document to media outlets requesting it, “as it is a FOIA-able document.”
The Independent believes a FOIA request is unnecessary because an official letter — written on federal letterhead — to LDOE from the U.S. Education Department does not fall under any of the exemptions outlined in our state’s public record laws. A Louisiana Press Association attorney agrees with The Independent’s assertions and has notified the LDOE spokeswoman that “if you are aware that the correspondence in question is indeed subject to public records release, yet willfully refuse to release it ... you could be potentially personally liable for damages, attorney’s fees, costs and even possible criminal fines and imprisonment.”
When U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced late last year that states could apply for NCLB relief, he made it clear that the waiver applications would have to meet certain criteria, and The Washington Post notes that “the back-and-forth between state and federal governments is an expected part of the application process.” Eleven states have already applied for — and received — relief from the stringent NCLB provisions. All 11 states received the same type of feedback from the U.S. Education Department as the current round of applicants, forcing the states to alter their proposals before the feds granted waivers.
If Louisiana’s federal letter looks anything like the critique Virginia received April 17, the contents of the document will serve as the backbone for how Louisiana proceeds with improving public education at the state level, free from the federal requirements that many say have held us back on our path to reform. The Independent contends that LDOE is both legally — and morally — bound to share this critical information with the public. We also believe the state agency has been in violation of state public records laws since Friday afternoon, as the department should have known that the document does indeed qualify as a public record.
The newspaper is currently reviewing its legal options. Check back with our website for updates as more details are made available.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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