| Welcome back. We feel g ood to be back too. Sometimes there are more important things that Louisiana State Politics... Sometimes. Anyway, since we last left our fearless leader, Bobby Jindal, he was basking in a not-exactly-impressive electoral victory against no real opponents. Sure, Tara Hollis was out there, and the comment pages of many blogs and newspapers reflected, she had her partisans. But unfortunately, that didn't really amount to much more than a weak-willed protest vote. Slapping PBJ with a wet sugar-cane stalk isn't exactly a death-blow. Nevertheless, Jindal hardly scored some resounding victory. The whole State seemed to be captured in a "who-cares, politics-is-broken" moment as Jindal received only 673,239 votes, over 100k less than Barack Obama's 780,981 in 2008. Nevertheless, Jindal is now forging his new "mandate" into a headlong push into education reform. In typical fashion, Jindal has shaped his iniatives in the droopy, hollow non-partisan language he is know for. Let us regress for a moment, because we've read a constant stream of missives from conservative authors proclaiming "OBAMA WRAPS HIS RADICAL POLICIES IN TOUCHY FEELY LANGUAGE TOO." The difference here of course, is the truth. Let's give this latest example from PBJ: "There are of course many competing philosophies and agendas when it comes to education," Jindal told the crowd assembled outside the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. "I believe we all need to check our party affiliations, our ideologies, and our political agendas at the door when it comes to improving our schools."
Certainly, governor, let's examine these reasonable, compromise-laden pragmatic proposals you hope to thrust upon the polity with nonpartisan eagerness: Although he didn't promote them during his campaign and hasn't made a public pitch in the months since he was resoundingly re-elected, people who've been in meetings with the governor say he hopes to greatly expand the use of private school vouchers... Vouchers may have fallen off many Louisianians' radar since 2008, when Jindal pushed a small-scale program for low-income Orleans Parish students in failing schools through the Legislature. But they are ever-popular in the national conservative movement, which embraces privatization and -- to the extent that religious schools would receive more taxpayer money now allotted to public schools -- lowering the constitutional wall between church and state.
So, instead of that "reasonable effort to improve education," where we check our "partisan ideologies at the door, we get... radical partisan legislation that is darling of the "national conservative movement," not a pragmatic, homeground approach. Just more luster for that 2016 presidential run through Iowa, of course. What a transparently absurd Governor we have. And, if this is Jindal "checking his political agenda" at the door, god help us if he ever gets truly partisan: The state board of education has scheduled a special meeting tomorrow to vote on Louisiana's next superintendent, all but ensuring that John White, a former New York City schools official and Teach for America leader, will get the nod without any formal search process on the part of the board.
So, with only 24 hours notice, BESE is going to nominate the formerly controversial head of RSD to a post he couldn't have been confirmed to under the last BESE board. That's NON-PARTISAN and TRANSPARENT for you. Jindal rolls merrily along, with the bullshit streaming from his lips at an ever-quickening pace... Welcome to 2012. Good to be back. |
