Da Gov is Marching on, Like Sherman Through Georgia

Da Gov is steamrolling his way through the LA Public Sector. After Katrina, he fired teachers and set up Charter schools to destroy the Public School System.  That system was in bad shape (due to lack of state funds, mostly) but was certainly as good as the Charters, often better.  His next move was to reject Medicare money from the Feds to cause a lack of funding for Public Health. Naturally he had to cut funding to the LSU Public Health System.

Last week the Legislature started to wake up. Maybe they realize that when the Clinics and Public Hospitals restrict access or close, they will have angry villagers railing at their walled communities, perhaps having their political heads. On metaphorical pikes, I hope.

Jindal, of course, will weather this storm off in TeaParty Land, basking in the glory of having cut taxes AND Government spending. The little darlin'.

Jindal tried last year and again this year to make deals to privatize LA prisons. I have no doubt he would like to sell our toll bridges and maybe the highways. It is a quick fix for a stupid budget that has cut taxes, mostly for the rich, but it will come back to roost in a very few years. Selling the Avoyelles Correctional Center would net the state $35 million but would cost 300 jobs and there is no assurance that cost per inmate would not quickly rise.

Jan Brewer did this same thing in Arizona. She went further and sold the State Capitol  in 2010 and leased it back from the purchaser. neither move saved the state money. Earlier this year, she decided that they should buy the capitol buildings back, because leasing it didn't make economic sense, and they would only lose $25 million. Nice deal for Management and Training Corp.; they make a $25 million profit on a 2 year investment, and that is over their profit from operating the prisons,

Think that won't happen here? Jindal won't buy it back, but his successor (Vitter?) will have to, if LA has the money.

While we wait for that to happen, Healthcare in our glum state has been dealt a serious blow. The sick will get sicker and it will be the children who suffer the most.

Bulldozing LSU

I was too dismayed by the foul give away going on in D.C. to write about this Tuesday story in the TiPsy. Mary Landrieu's support of Bernie Sanders 8 1/2 speech this past Friday baffled me because she said she would have a hard time deciding which way to vote, because, you know, a family making $500,000 can be very middle class. I have many well-off friends but I don't know anyone making that much money. Billy Goldring, maybe.
I made my calls and sent my emails and had no impact on my elected officials, so I can move on.

I was dismayed by the Tuesday article because it only presents the pro side of the plan to give LSU autonomy. Jan Moller is a good reporter, so I assume his piece was heavily edited to sell us the idea.
But let me point out a few details of the downside of this odious plan. The plan would eliminate 115 administrative jobs. Does this sound like a good idea with our unemployment already so high? This plan, despite their rosy prediction of saving $85 million over the next 5 years, will likely raise tuition $750 a semester.
The interesting thing about the Louisiana Flagship Coalition (LFC) is that it presents itself as a group working to preserve and improve LSU, but they are really Jindal supporters moving his anti public school agenda through the back door.
This plan would have a domino effect on jobs in Louisiana far exceeding the puny dreams of its creators. Taking LSU out of the State University system and raising tuition would effective limit the options of our high school grads. at this time, any LA High School grad can attend a state university if they can afford it. If LSU opts out of the system, that won't be the case.
The LFC believes that one of LSU's problem is its low graduate percentage, but I firmly assert that a kid getting 1 or 2 or 3 years of university is better off than a kid with only a HS diploma. The LFC would end that by raising admittance standards. That would have a rippling effect though out the LA university system because all the grads denied admittance to LSU would have to go to other schools in the system, placing huge pressure on those schools.
I envision Louisiana sliding downwards into the maelstrom of higher unemployment and lower business investment, both due to the poorly educated youth.
And, education is only one part of the equation of destruction. Jindal wants to kill public health,too. Did you read this? Free clinics in poor neighborhoods do not have a place in Bobby's heart.
Oh, Jindal is going on a fund-raising tour of Texas today--and you thought he was back to rule judiciously.