Amid a push-back from special-education advocates, State Rep. Nancy Landry has scuttled a bill that would have established special-ed schools in eight regions around the state. Landry announced in a press release late Thursday that she would not move House Bill 642, which she pre-filed in late March.
Ostensibly, Landry?s bill would have established a scholarship program to allow parents of children with learning disabilities to help cover the cost of tuition at the proposed special-education schools headquartered in the eight metropolitan areas of the state including Lafayette. But opposition to the plan sprang up within days, with opponents of the plan arguing the bill would effectively segregate special-ed students and slap the parents of those students with added costs while skirting federal laws requiring public schools to offer students with learning disabilities ?free and appropriate? instruction.
Leading the charge against the bill was Families Helping Families of Acadiana, a Lafayette-based nonprofit advocacy group whose mission, according to the group, ?is to assist and strengthen individuals with disabilities and their families through a coordinated network of resources, services and supports.? On April 5, a week after Landry filed the bill, FHFA issued an ?action alert? via social media urging parents to contact the Lafayette Republican and express their opposition to the legislation, arguing that the schools established by HB 642 would:
*Not have to provide services needed by a student if those services were not already offered by the school;The pressure from FHFA and its allies clearly worked, as Landry acknowledges in her statement Thursday:*Become segregated educational settings without any requirement to educate students in the least restrictive environment;
*Be able to remove students for violating disciplinary policies or for ?good cause? (Note: Federal law requires public schools to not remove students with disabilities from instruction for more than 10 days);
*Be allowed to charge parents tuition (in addition to receiving 200 percent of the amount of funding per student in public schools); and,
*Be allowed to continue receiving funding even after found to not comply with law.
I am committed to finding the right solution within education reform to allow all parents, including those of students with learning disabilities, to choose the best school for their children.I want to thank the passionate and concerned parents who have contacted me concerning HB 642.
My conversations with those parents have led me to the decision not to move HB 642. I will look for a more effective means within education reform to give all parents the choice they deserve to provide the best education possible for their children.
Read the full bill here.
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- Dr. Gray takes his annual shot in the dark
APR 12 Here's a link to the Picayune's story about the annual predictions by William Gray and his forecasting compadres at a Colorado university. He says it will be busy. No kidding. There's a lot of blah blah about El Nino and La Nina and as usual, absolutely no statistics (although they are readily available) on how accurate last year's predictions were. One wonders if it might just be easier to find some handy tea leaves to read.
- Something you don't see every day
APR 12 This story in the Advocate is a little bizarre. Imagine you're a police officer, you roll up to a fender-bender, and all of a sudden a naked guy jumps in your car and attacks you. That's what happened to a St. Landry Sheriff's Deputy. A State Trooper provided back-up, eventually stunning the suspect. Apparently the naked guy also caused the accident, then punched the man whose car he hit. No word on when he disrobed.
- Mary's raising a whole lot of money
APR 12 Sen. Mary Landrieu has been raking in the bucks in anticipation of her re-election campaign, which promises to be an expensive one as the GOP views her as vulnerable. (Maybe not so much after that last poll showing Obama more popular than Jindal.) The Daily Kingfish (predictably) posts a glowing report about Mary's fund-raising here. But some of those donors are Republicans, who understand that the senate is all about seniority, and Mary has it, Lamar Parmentel writes.
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APR 12 Here's a very interesting opinion piece in The Lens about the issue of gentrification in NOLA. It's a discussion that happens a lot among natives in the city; they are fiercely protective of the uniqueness of it, and some feel that gentrification is in some way a homogenizing of the culture that makes New Orleans so beautiful. C.W. Cannon covers the two sides of the discussion thoroughly here.
- McGibboney looks at the Accidental Racists
APR 12 Facebook wasn't impressed with the weird, maybe even bizarre, "Accidental Racist" song put together by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J, and blogger Ian McGibboney wasn't a fan either. He provides a link to the lyrics, and as confusing as a combination country/rap song is, the lyrics are perhaps even more puzzling. Maybe the best way to look at it is that it's the thought that counts, McGibboney writes.
- Do states with no income tax fare better?
APR 12 Tom Swain is the guest poster on Robert Mann's blog here, analyzing the assumption that eliminating income tax will improve the economic health of our state and cause the exodus to cease. Swain provides a lot of statistics here, but he does explain them. Bottom line, there is no exodus, since Louisiana ranks highest in the nation for native residents, and eliminating income tax will not create economic growth.
- Jim Brown says NOLA's in a meltdown
APR Jim Brown blogs about corruption this week. Sublimely oblivious to the irony of the subject matter, Brown writes about the corruption recently revealed in the New Orleans jail. Couple that with the shenanigans in the US Attorney's Office, and you've got a "meltdown," he says. To cover the rhetorical aspect, he quotes Bill O'Reilly.
- City slicker analysis of Duck Dynasty
APR 12 Here's an interesting look on AV Club at the success of Duck Dynasty, the 'reality' show that follows a group of duck call makers from West Monroe, within the larger context of television and pop culture. This redneck reality program, and its brothers, read more like sitcoms than reality, Scott Von Doviak writes, and he gives us a history lesson in country-themed television. (Apparently, Hee Haw was the 'cornpone version of Laugh In.' Who knew?)
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Questions need to be answered by Mark Allen Babineaux of the Lafayette Parish School Board and former Superintendent Burnell Lemoine, say several surprised board members who want answers on why a contract provision guaranteeing CSRS a multi-million cut off the Lafayette Parish School Systems? failed 2011 tax vote was signed four days after the election, without board approval.
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Sources are telling The Ind that Gov. Bobby Jindal?s controversial proposal to eliminate the state?s corporate and individual income taxes and replace the lost revenue with a sharp spike and expansion of the state sales tax is finally ? and deservedly ? dead.
in case you missed it
- COOL TOWN 2013
This year?s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
- A curious compact
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
- Pooyie 2012
It's good, it's bad and it's just plain crazy.
- Saving Saturday Night
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
- Posthaste vs. HART FORTENBERY
Lafayette?s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Source: http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/13516-facing-oppo-landry-abandons-special-ed-bill
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