Way to go, Governor Jindal!
posted at 5:35 pm on July 2, 2009 by Laura
[ Politicians ] regular view
I was just thinking this morning that something Louisiana sorely lacks is poorly educated people in the workforce. Now, after Katrina we did bring in – with President Bush’s assistance – about 100,000 illegal aliens to help repopulate the Gulf Coast, with more than 30,000 in the New Orleans area. But I think conservatives will agree that it’s a bad idea to import poorly educated people when we can create them ourselves, here at home. Governor Jindal is doing his part.
Louisiana will now have two options to achieve a high school diploma, in order to encourage children not to drop out of school, and as part of a new vocational education track. The new “diploma-lite” option will have fewer requirements for English and math. Sadly, not everyone’s on board with this:
But opponents objected to a provision that lowers the academic requirements to enter ninth grade for students who choose the career diploma. Under the new law, such students could still pass the eighth-grade LEAP test even if they fail either the English or math portions.
Currently, students must score at least “basic” in one of the subjects, and “approaching basic” in the other to get promoted.
I don’t see a problem with that. It’s not as though carpenters, electricians, auto mechanics or blue collar workers in general have much use for math. And I think we ought to be able to assess a child’s potential pretty adequately by the eighth grade and select his career track accordingly.
The important thing is that in a few years when Governor Jindal runs for President, he’ll be able to brag about Louisiana having one of the lowest dropout rates in the country.
Cross posted at PH.
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It’s not as though carpenters, electricians, auto mechanics or blue collar workers in general have much use for math.
Are you kidding? I guess you don’t realize how much these guys need to know to do their jobs correctly. Our carpenter can do complicated measurements in his head.
Talk about over educated hubris.
erp on July 2, 2009 at 6:21 PM
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erp you are so right. What the he!!?
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Laura, something is wrong with your logic.
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So let us lower the bar so more dummies think their smart?
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Oh yes, this is on par with football stars get the free pass in the short run but end up suffering in the long run.
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If this can be called an ecom 101 course. It would be Keynesianism. Think about that.
Americannodash on July 2, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Sarcasm, guys. My husband is a licensed electrician and I know well how much math he did, back when he was working in that field. Way more than I do as a web programmer.
I thought my sarcasm was way, way, over the top and obvious, but evidently I need to brush up on my writing skills.
As TOTUS might say: Let me be clear. I think this law that Jindal just signed – and which made it past the GOP in our state legislature – is an absolute abomination. I’m mad as hell about it. It’s the kind of “feel good” crap I expect from Democrats – let’s pass these kids through school whether or not they’ve earned it, diplomas for everybody! until diplomas are meaningless. It will create even more of an uneducated underclass which will necessarily rely on the government dole and continued wealth transfers from the 40% of society which are net taxpayers. It’s a terrible idea, and I’m heartily disappointed in Jindal for signing it.
Laura on July 2, 2009 at 6:50 PM
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Add a *snort* or something next time at least okay. You had me wondering there.
Americannodash on July 2, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Good job Laura, I got it, but of course I attended maybe 200 days of school from 7th-12th, so I am not so educated, but I have a lot of common sense.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2009 at 10:56 PM
You know it’s pretty easy to point and laugh but I grew up there and the one constant is the drop-out rate. There is basically a two-tiered public school system in LA. If you have the money, you can send your kids to a State run magnet school where your child will most likely go to an Ivy League Uni after graduation or you can send your kid to a standard Parish public school where he/she can get a decent education as long as they are attending a school in an urban area. The rural schools can only provide a very basic education about on par with what Jindle is proposing. Over the last 10 years LA schools have improved from 49-50th to the high 30’s among States but the drop-out rate has not improved. If you could keep these kids in school and provide a very basic, non-college prep (because not everyone needs it) diploma, you can now graduate kids that are able to go directly into one of the State many vocational schools. Louisiana has a wide range of Vo-Tech Colleges but these require a high school diploma to enroll. If a 15yr-old drops out of school he/she is much less likely to get a GED and then attend Vo-Tech BUT if they graduate with a basic HS degree that has prepared them enough for vocational training, you may now decrease the drop-out rate AND move more young men and women into the workforce via vo-tech training system.
saltyrover on July 3, 2009 at 9:50 AM
saltyrover, I grew up here and I live here NOW. I’m perplexed why you said “If you have the money,” because magnet schools are public schools. As to the benefits of the urban vs. rural schools… wow, I could not disagree more. Non-charter urban schools are a train wreck. That’s why the state had to take so many of them over from local control. That’s why the charter schools are thriving. In any event, look this over for more on how we’re failing these kids. The problem is NOT standards which are too high. The standards for a basic diploma are just fine. The problem is that we’re not teaching them even the basics. Nearly half the state’s 8th graders can’t pass the LEAP. That’s a disgrace. But not a reason to write them off.
I’m actually way okay with the concept that not every student should go to college. But we’re talking about lowering basic standards that, as I sarcastically tried to point out, you do need even for blue collar jobs. Nor should we be assessing 8th graders and shunting them into a track that’s going to be very hard for them to get out of later. Nor should we be lowering the standards for english and math. The students are no more or less stupid than previous generations. The problem is with the schools, not with the students.
Laura on July 3, 2009 at 4:44 PM
Laura, do you think he should be cracking down on union protection of bad teachers instead?
winteryknight on July 3, 2009 at 4:55 PM
saltyrover on July 3, 2009 at 6:54 PM
Possibly more depressing than the implications of this post: the implications of folks not getting the irony of it.
spmat on July 3, 2009 at 8:13 PM
This is a flippant treatment of a difficult, important issue, and it’s an insulting treatment of one of the American conservatives’ more worthy leaders.
Kralizec on July 4, 2009 at 12:18 PM
This is not only a “difficult, important issue” — this is probably the most critical problem that faces the United States. That being the case, trying to use bureaucratic sleight-of-hand to sweep it under the rug is worthy only of scorn, no matter who proposes it. Approbation or condemnation of an idea based on the political status and alignment of the author as opposed to its merits is a technique that we deplore on the other side; we should deplore it even more on our side since we should know better.
loneloc on July 4, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Still, we need to quit educating our children like they all have to go to college.
As i noted on my website today, 80% of the jobs here in Texas do not require a 4-year degree — including 44% that pay more than the average salary in the state.
As a teacher, I’ve been a part of too many conversations that revolve around how we miseducate too many of our kids by pretending that they need to go to college rather than learning a trade by which they will make a living. And in the process, we’ve not only devalued the high school diploma, we’ve also devalued the college degree.
Should we give every kid who wants one a college prep education? Yes, we should — but we need to recognize that this isn’t what all of them want or need and educate them accordingly.
RhymesWithRight on July 4, 2009 at 3:31 PM
I agree with you. Nonetheless, if you read the article quoted by Laura, the current standards are “basic” in either reading or math and “approaching basic” in the other. To put it plainly, the Founders felt illiteracy, especially on a massive scale, to be inimical to democracy, and innumeracy is inimical to function in the modern economy. To advance children to high school that don’t even approach basic competency in reading or math is to give up, not only on our children, but on our nation.
loneloc on July 4, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Kralizec, Jindal has had my support since he was my Congressman, but he has gone seriously off the rails as governor on a number of important issues, particularly ethics, healthcare and education – all things he continues to brag about. If you still think he’s a worthy leader for conservatives, you haven’t been paying close attention. He can still pull it together, and I hope he does, but uncritical adoration from the right will do him no favors.
Laura on July 4, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Winteryknight – yes, I think it would probably help to get bad teachers out of the schools. Saltyrover… you obviously know more about the rural schools than I do. But I’d like to point out that for generations, children received a solid education even in one-room schoolhouses. I think you hit the nail on the head with “proper expectations,” but that’s not a problem any government can solve, whether state or federal.
The question is, is a dumbed-down diploma the right solution to the dropout problem? Again, I’m not against a vo-tech track. But I’m strongly against lowering standards for math and english. That’s an outrage. Not every graduate goes through a college prep curriculum now. It’s not a requirement. We’re talking about reducing basic skills stuff, not just eliminating calculus and trig which are already not required.
I didn’t graduate from college myself. In fact, I got my first formal computer training via the welfare system. But dumbed-down diploma cheats the kids who “earn” it, and it also devalues the diplomas of the kids who worked harder to get the real thing.
Laura on July 4, 2009 at 10:38 PM