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Your Legal Moment: Davis v. Henry, 1990, Louisiana

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In 1990, several school employees filed suit against the Terrebonne Parish School Board. The employees won; among other things the Davis v. Henry case established that public employees have "the same right to engage in collective bargaining as held by their counterparts in the private sector."

This has been Your Legal Moment with UFCT!

Sources:

1. Davis v. Henry, Supreme Court of Louisiana, 555 So. 2d 457 (1990)

2. Public Sector Labor Law: An Update, John Lund and Cheryl L. Maranto,1996.

Students Protest Cuts

BY ELIZABETH CRISP| ECRISP@THEADVOCATE.COM

APRIL 15, 2015; 1:52 P.M.

Louisiana college students shouted Wednesday from the State Capitol steps and took turns pleading with members of a key legislative budget panel to avoid potentially catastrophic cuts to higher education funding in the coming year.

“We’re sending a message today that we’re taking notice of this,” said Jesse Elliott, Student Government president at LSU-Alexandria.

About 150 students took part in the rally against cuts to higher education funding on the third day of the state Legislature’s 2015 session.

Lawmakers are working to

Governor Bobby Jindal has signed a $24.6 billion state budget that includes an additional $36 million for public education, but vetoed a 1.5% cost of living adjustment for retired teachers, school employees and other public servants.

Resolution by Rep. John Bel Edwards pumps money into education budget

Just as he did two years ago, Rep. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) found a way to increase funding for schools even after public education’s Minimum Foundation Program formula had been rejected.
As the session drew to a close, the Senate finally approved Rep. Edwards’ HCR 231, which calls for an additional 1.375%, or $36 million, to be included in the budget for public education. It had been held up while waiting for the House to take a crucial vote on the controversial SAVE plan.

To read more, please click here.

System Failure: State lacks oversight of charter schools

A new report finds five fundamental flaws with the financial and academic oversight of Louisiana’s charter schools.

For the third straight year, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry has made eliminating payroll deduction of union dues one of their primary goals. Like well-heeled extremists in other states, LABI hopes to get rid of any organized resistance by making union membership as inconvenient as possible.

Although the final decisions will be up to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, steps were taken this week to make Louisiana’s teacher evaluation system fairer and more accurate. The biggest of these is a recommendation to suspend Value Added Model component of teacher evaluations for another year.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has ranked Louisiana as the second highest of all the states, based on how our state’s charter school law aligns with the organization’s model law. Their rankings reward states for making charter schools less accountable to local voters and taxpayers.

In a recent editorial, The Advocate noted that the Supreme Court’s reversal of a lower court ruling that Act 1 of 2012 violated the constitutional prohibition on bundling multiple objects into a single bill is troubling.

Camron T. Cheeks, a sixth-grade student at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School of Literature and Technology in New Orleans, is the designer of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers’ 2014 holiday greeting card. Camron’s teacher is William Jones.

Your Legal Moment: Davis v. Henry, 1990, Louisiana

Students Protest Cuts

Jindal vetoes COLA, signs state budget

Schools get last-minute $36 million bump

System Failure: State lacks oversight of charter schools

Big business wants to tell teachers: SHUT UP!

Changes may be in store for teacher evaluations

LA charters praised for lack of accountability

Advocate editorial is partially right

Happy Holidays from the LFT!