LOUISIANA EDUCATION NEWS NOT POSITIVE FOR PRIVATIZERS

One of the most loathsome figures who I met in the course of the school closing battle at Jamaica High School was John White. White was a Deputy Chancellor under Joel Klein who was sent to Jamaica HS in 2009 and again in 2010 to hold a Joint Public Hearing where he basically ignored everything the public had to say. White, Klein and their ilk basically started "public be damned education."

Looking back, I'm astonished at how naive we were to think that we would have a chance to stop the closing of Jamaica by appealing to reason and using accurate statistics to make our case. My friend and I were up in Deputy White's face at our Joint Public Hearing in 2010. We were arguing almost like an angry baseball manager that rules must be followed. Deputy White were not hearing a word we said. They closed Jamaica for the first time after a Panel for Educational Policy meeting that lasted until 3:00 in the morning on January 27, 2010 and then after a lawsuit stopped them temporarily did the same thing a year later. John White was completely deaf to what the people of the Jamaica community said to him. He and Klein had their minds made up and didn't want to be confused by any facts.

It was depressing to see John White become Commissioner of Education for Louisiana. Reverse karma for sure!

However, maybe the karma gods are coming around. (Nobody said karma power would be easy or fast.) Perhaps there is some justice as in the news this past week we learn that the New Orleans, Louisiana miracle, where the profiteers almost completely privatized the schools, has been shown to be a myth.. We also read today that John White's Louisiana has dropped from fourth worst to third worst state in the country when it comes to Advanced Placement passing statistics.

Thanks to Gary Rubinstein for doing the research to get us these statistics:




Yes it would be nice to see John White take the heat for some dismal results.