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BESE member Louella Givens just got the Alliance for Good Government endorsement for reelection to BESE.

According to the piece by Allen Johnson in this week’s Gambit Weekly, Givens owes the Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Board over $14,000 in fines for failure to timely file campaign finance disclosure reports dating back to her 2003 election to BESE.

Actually, but for the failure of the Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Board staff to even attempt to get a legal judgment in the last 4 years against her, Givens should not have even been allowed to qualify for this election. See LA R.S. 18:436 (2)(a).

Perhaps the term “good government” needs to be redefined. And we wonder why we have a reputation for corruption in LA. We not only tolerate violations of the law by our elected officials, we support it.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 12:48 pm

We often wonder why people are leaving this state for economic opportunities. The story in today’s Monroe paper helps explain why.

A point-of-sale program developed by a computer firm in Tennessee and purchased by the LA Department of Wildlife and Fisheries wasn’t functioning properly. As a result the tagging of deer and turkeys for the 2007-08 hunting season has been suspended.

Tags have been issued in LA for decades without a glitch.

It seems that nobody in LA has the ability to computerize the issuance of deer and turkey hunting tags. Surely there must be a computer firm somewhere in LA capable of developing a computer program that will not even be used.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:59 am

According to a story by the Associated Press:

Most Louisiana public schools showed little or no improvement in academic performance scores or did worse than last year.

Fewer schools met their improvement targets than in the previous eight years of the accountability program…

How that can be?

Governors Big Daddy and Blanco have been shoveling billions of NEW dollars into public elementary and secondary education in LA for the last almost 12 years. At the same time, the public schools enrollment has continued to decline. During that same period teacher salaries have not only grown closer, but this year made it to the “Southern Average.” Pay for the school support workers has climbed also.

Yet, there is no overall improvement in the quality of the “product” being produced.

If one had a factory producing defective “widgets” because of some design flaw, it doesn’t make sense to pay the assembly line workers more in lieu of finding and correcting the design flaw.

The accountability testing program has proven its worth by exposing the poor quality of education in LA. Now, it is time to fix the problem. All anecdotal evidence points to more money not being the solution.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am