Louisiana Educator: Political Priorities Involved in State Contracts

Louisiana Educator: Political Priorities Involved in State Contracts:

Political Priorities Involved in State Contracts

Louisiana Voice blogger Tom Aswell in this blog exposes some of the wasteful excesses found in many of the Jindal consulting contracts.

It does not seem to matter how financially strapped our Louisiana State budget seems to be, there always seems to be room for lavish, politically motivated consulting contracts.

I must admit that I voted for Bobby Jindal the first time he ran for Governor because I thought he would be the kind of public official who would do his job with the highest ethics in true service to the citizens of Louisiana. I was greatly disappointed just like many others that he turned out to be the worst kind of politician.

Some of the abuse of office by Jindal and his lieutenants is created by dozens of unnecessary consulting contracts with various firms. State Treasurer John Kennedy has been calling these contracts to the attention of the legislature and the public for the past two years. Kennedy has suggested legislation that would cut all state contracts by 10%. According to Kennedy, even such a small cut would save the state millions.

It seems the department with some of the most lavish and questionable consulting contracts is the Department of Education managed by Superintendent John White. Last week Kennedy blew the whistle on a $250,000 consulting contract that is supposed to help parents make good choices using the new school voucher