The Hidden Facts About Cuts to Public Education
As usual, the Advocate education writer omits important facts about education funding and avoids telling the truth about forces that are aligned against public education and proper funding for our children's education. Please help me inform the taxpayers, parents, and public educators about the critical facts on the continued defunding of public education at the same time that many wasteful privatization schemes are being promoted for our public school dollars. I hope my readers will share these little known facts with your Facebook friends, twitter followers, as well as in your direct contacts with educators and parents.
The important fact that is being omitted in this article, is that the legislature has chosen to saddle our local school boards with paying for another 38 million dollars in unfunded liability to our teacher retirement system. This is an extra liability that was created by the legislature itself because of benefits and costs that were never voted upon by local school boards or citizens. If the state freezes the MFP, all of the burden of this state mandated cost will have to be produced by reducing educational services to children and/or benefits to educators. But to add insult to injury, the legislature has provided an exemption from these costs to charter schools and voucher schools. You see, charter schools are not required by the legislature to participate in the teacher retirement system, so they are also exempted from making these payments to the unfunded liability. As more and more charter schools are added by BESE, the cost of the unfunded liability assessed to our local school boards grows and grows, and our teacher retirement system is endangered.
That's why I am happy that the Louisiana Association of educators has sued to prohibit these state approved charter schools being funded using the MFP. So far the district court has ruled in favor of the LAE and local school boards, but the case is being appealed to the state supreme court and BESE continues to approve more charters.
That's why I am happy that the Louisiana Association of educators has sued to prohibit these state approved charter schools being funded using the MFP. So far the district court has ruled in favor of the LAE and local school boards, but the case is being appealed to the state supreme court and BESE continues to approve more charters.
Another insult to the real public schools is that charter schools that are approved by BESE over the objection of our local school boards are still allowed to get their full proportion of both sate Louisiana Educator: The Hidden Facts About Cuts to Public Education:
