BobbyJindalissuesexecutiveorderswithdrawingLouisianafrom

Bobby Jindal issues executive orders withdrawing Louisiana from Common Core and federal standardized testing

posted at 7:21 pm on June 18, 2014 by Allahpundit

• Share on Facebook 1
• 1 SHARES

Dude, he’s running.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal issued executive orders Wednesday to withdraw the state from the Common Core standards and federally subsidized standardized tests, defying his state legislature, his superintendent of education and the business community — but endearing himself to tea party activists across the country who could be influential in early primary states if he chooses to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016…

Jindal was once a marquee supporter of the Common Core standards, which lay out the math and language arts concepts children should learn in every grade from kindergarten through high school. The governor helped bring the standards to Louisiana in 2010. As recently as this spring, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation included a quote from Jindal — praising the Common Core as a way to “raise expectations for every child” — in a promotional video for the standards.

But as opposition to the Common Core has mounted on both the left and right — with especially strong pushback from the tea party — Jindal changed his tune.

A likely presidential candidate in 2016, Jindal has seized on the standards as an example of federal meddling in state affairs. The Obama administration didn’t write the standards, but it pushed states hard to adopt them and spent $360 million subsidizing the development of new assessments. Just this week, Duncan publicly took Jindal to task for flip-flopping on the standards, saying the governor’s new stance had everything to do with politics and nothing to do with education.

This is headed to court, of course, as the memorandum of understanding that the state signed when it accepted federal testing says the governor can’t withdraw unilaterally. Jindal claims that state law says that the state can’t adopt testing without a competitive bidding process, which means the memorandum is illegal. Who’s right matters a lot to Louisiana schoolkids but not so much to 2016 politics: Jindal’s happy to lead the charge in court against Common Core even if he ends up losing. It’s an easy way to put him back on conservative radar screens.

Last month I wrote somewhere that his big problem in running for president is that he has no obvious niche. Righties like him, but they don’t seem to love him like they do Ted Cruz. Centrists respect his wonkishness but would prefer a loud-and-proud establishmentarian like Jeb Bush or Christie. Potentially Jindal could be a compromise candidate, acceptable to both sides, but Scott Walker seems to have the advantage there by dint of his big collective bargaining win. Maybe Jindal thinks that Common Core will be a much bigger issue than anyone expects in 2016, in which case he’s now positioned to take advantage. Jeb Bush and Christie both support CC; if it becomes an ideological litmus test among conservatives, the donor class may start looking harder at Jindal as a guy who could unite the party. (Scott Walker has also shown opposition to Common Core lately but not as dramatically as Jindal just has.) Then again, if you believe the new NBC/WSJ poll (the same one that found Obama’s job approval numbers circling the drain), conservatives are split nearly evenly on Common Core, 45/46. Maybe Jindal expects those numbers to move.

Or maybe this is more about neutralizing a liability than exploiting an opening. It hasn’t gone unnoticed among conservatives today that Jindal used to be a big Common Core fan and played a part in mainstreaming the standard nationally. Today is his atonement. Good enough? Exit quotation from CNN: “27% of Americans support the Common Core standards, with 32% saying they are somewhat in support of the program, and 31% opposed.”

• Share on Facebook 1
• 1 SHARES

Tags: 2016, Bobby Jindal, Common Core, Louisiana, President, republican, Tea Party

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

FederaljudgegivesLouisianathego-aheadinDOJ’s

Federal judge gives Louisiana the go-ahead in DOJ’s suit against school vouchers

posted at 2:01 pm on April 11, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

In 2012, Louisiana passed a statewide voucher program that would allow families living below 250% of the poverty line and with children attending ailing and failing public schools to instead send their children to a school of their choice — and it didn’t take too long for the Obama administration, what with their pro-union and anti-school choice proclivities, to try to put a stop to it with a permanent injunction while claiming that the program was “impeding the desegregation process.” …Which seems weird, since the overwhelming majority of the program’s beneficiaries have been poor minority students, but don’t even think about accusing the Obama administration of having “taken a position” on the matter:

Attorney General Eric Holder denied that the Justice Department “took a position” on a Louisiana school choice program that administration officials tried to restrict by asking a federal judge to issue a permanent injunction against issuing vouchers to students in some school districts.

Holder took a shot at Jindal and Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., during a congressional hearing Friday when Harris said that a Justice Department division had taken the voucher program to court. …

“We were seeking to get from the state of Louisiana information about their voucher program, [we] never ever took the position that we were against vouchers,” Holder told Harris. “It’s a talking point that Gov. Jindal and others — I guess you — think makes good political fodder, but it’s totally inconsistent with the facts.”

Actually, what’s “inconsistent with the facts” is pretending that trying to deny poor families the choice to remove their children from crummy, underperforming public schools is somehow a good or righteous idea, and on Tuesday, a federal judge basically ruled against the DOJ’s attempt at an injunction — although the court did grant some of the administration’s requests in terms of requiring the state to provide the DOJ with its data:

Starting this fall, Louisiana must provide the agency with timely information about the racial background of participating students each year so the Justice Department can monitor the program’s effect on school segregation, a federal judge ruled Tuesday night. …

“We welcome the court’s order, as it rejects the state’s bid to resist providing even the most basic information about how Louisiana’s voucher program will affect school desegregation efforts,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. “This ruling ought to resolve, once and for all, the unnecessary dispute initiated by the state’s refusal to provide data.” …

Under the court order, the state must send a spreadsheet with extensive information on each voucher applicant, including name, address and race; the public school, if any, the child attended the previous year; and the private school he or she would like to attend with the voucher. If the state is planning to award the child a voucher, it must also provide the name of the private school he or she will attend.

The Justice Department may use the information in “federal school desegregation cases in Louisiana,” the judge ruled. That latitude could allow the DOJ to seek to challenge distribution of some vouchers if its lawyers determined that sending the students to private schools would disrupt federal efforts to keep the public schools integrated.

Holder has been perturbed with Jindal for daring to question the administration’s motives in seeking the information, although with this administration’s record, how could anyone not be suspicious of their motives? A.k.a, collecting this data to later make some trumped-up case against the program again? Politico describes this as the DOJ having “prevailed — at least in part,” but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal also said that the decision is a “win for children and parents” and that he’s satisfied that the ruling won’t obstruct the program, at least for now:

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Ivan Lemelle issued an order in the U.S. Department of Justice suit against the Louisiana School Choice Scholarship Program.  The Judge’s order is a win for children and parents in Louisiana who deserve access to an opportunity for a better education.  The order did not grant the request by President Obama’s Department of Justice for veto power over individual scholarship awards as the Justice Department had initially demanded.

Most importantly, the information sharing process ordered by the Judge should not impede the Scholarship Program.  However, the state will remain vigilant to ensure that the information sharing process will not be used by the Department of Justice as a means to impede the Scholarship Program through future litigation.

Governor Jindal said, “Today is great day for school choice and access to an opportunity for a better education for all Louisianians. I am pleased that the court rejected President Obama’s Justice Department’s attempt to establish a review period where bureaucrats in Washington would be able to reject scholarship awards solely because the child is not the ‘right’ skin color.

Tags: Bobby Jindal, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Louisiana, school choice

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

BobbyJindalhitsthetrailinNewHampshire

Bobby Jindal hits the trail in New Hampshire

posted at 8:31 am on March 15, 2014 by Jazz Shaw

I’m up in New Hampshire this weekend, attending the 2014 Northeast Republican Leadership Conference, and thus far it’s been pretty rocking event. One of many dignitaries appearing at the gathering is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has been hitting multiple events here, ranging from a St. Patrick’s day themed breakfast, a cocktail reception and a speaking engagement at dinner. Is he planning a run at the White House? Like every other potential candidate at this point, he’s not coming straight out and saying it, but he certainly has the look. (And why else do you come to New Hampshire?)

I got the chance to talk to the Governor for a bit myself and really enjoyed his dinner speech. One thing I noticed right away is that Jindal seems a lot more comfortable speaking away from his home turf than some of his appearances from a few years ago. He was confident, poised, seemingly at ease with the crowds and demonstrated a great sense of humor. This was evident at the aforementioned breakfast and the media was taking note of it.

From the first line of his speech to the Wild Irish Breakfast in Nashua, New Hampshire on Friday (March 14) morning, Gov. Bobby Jindal has the crowd in stitches.

“I would like to start this morning by congratulating the genius who invited me to speak at a St. Patty’s day event,” Jindal, an Indian-American, said to raucous laughter. “Let me suggest that a quick Google image search would reveal that I’m not Irish. Worse than that I don’t even drink. I am Catholic so we’ll hope that counts for something.”

Jindal continued to draw big laughs from the assembled crowd of businesspeople, policymakers and local politicians, joking about former Gov. Edwin Edwards, Louisianians’ penchant for hunting and even rumors of his intention to run for the White House in 2016.

“A lot of people are asking me if I intend to run for president in 2016. The answer is I have no plans at this time to run. I’ve made that clear. And I will come here again and again to the state of New Hampshire to say that over and over,” said Jindal.

During dinner, Jindal spent a lot of time talking about education in a far more serious tone, and the crowd was completely behind him, interrupting the Governor with standing ovations multiple times during his remarks. He touched on the glaring difference between conservative states and liberal ones when it comes to options in education. (It’s rather funny that Democrats are all about “choice” until you mention schools, isn’t it?) He was able to speak to the subject by relating it to his own experiences, being particularly grateful for the choices available to him in getting a good American education and the opportunities it afforded him and his family.

I should have some more hits with other speakers later this weekend, and there is plenty going on. I’ve had the chance to speak with a number of the state party officials, and thus far they all live up to the feisty, independent attitude that New Hampshire Republicans are famous for. They’ve also been exceedingly courteous to their visitors and seem ready to jump right back into the political mix. But we’ll have more on that later.

Tags: 2016 election, Bobby Jindal, education, Louisiana, New Hampshire

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

BobbyJindalatCPAC:Wehavelongsaid

Bobby Jindal at CPAC: We have long said this president is a smart man. It may be time to revisit that assumption.

posted at 5:21 pm on March 6, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

To my mind, the front of public education is one of the most absolutely fundamental battles conservatives need to be fighting from the local level on up, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has made it his signature mission to reform Louisiana’s failing public school system into a workable model that presents equal opportunities to children from all incomes and backgrounds — much to the chagrin of Big Labor, the Obama administration, and Democrats in general. The Obama DOJ has been hypocritically employing the justice system to get in the way of the state’s school voucher program, but Jindal is having none of it:

Who could be against giving choices to parents? Eric Holder and President Obama, that’s who could be against giving parents choices. The Department of Justice has taken us to federal court to try to impede this program. Now, I want you to think about this. We’ve got Eric Holder and the Department of Justice trying to stand in the schoolhouse door to prevent minority kids, low-income kids, kids who haven’t had access to a great education the chance to go better schools. Over 90 percent of these kids are minority children. Over 100 percent of these kids are in low-income families who would otherwise go to C, D, or F schools. … I think it is cynical, immoral, and hypocritical for the attorney general and the president to deny these children the same choices and chances they would want for their own children. … It’s especially cynical to try to use those same rules designed to protect these children to trap them in failing schools. But I’ve got a message for Eric Holder and I’ve got a message for the president: We’re going to fight them every step of the way, even at the United States Supreme Court, to defend these children’s rights.

Incidentally, Reason has a great new video out today about a similar charter-school battle taking place in New York City, definitely worth the watch:

Tags: Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, CPAC, economics, Jimmy Carter, ObamaCare

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

McCain:I’mthinkingChrisChristiein2016

McCain: I’m thinking Chris Christie in 2016

posted at 4:41 pm on January 7, 2014 by Allahpundit

Can I resist a clip of the Hot Air faithful’s least favorite Republican kinda sorta endorsing their second-least favorite Republican? No, my friends, I cannot. An opportunity like this to troll one’s own audience comes, at most, once a year. It’s a rare alignment of the RINO stars, like, say, Mike Huckabee endorsing Lindsey Graham. Which, come to think of it, also almost just happened — until Huck declared it a false alarm. Go figure that a guy who’s thinking of running in 2016 doesn’t want to get ahead of the curve in backing Grahamnesty.

In fairness to Maverick, he also mentions Jindal as someone he likes. The point here isn’t to quasi-endorse Christie — although, given Christie’s softness on immigration and antagonism towards Paul on national security, it’s a cinch that McCain will end up backing him. The point is to emphasize that he wants the next nominee to be a governor, not a senator. There are good reasons to agree with him on that, but what’s driving ol’ Mav isn’t some philosophical judgment about the comparative merits of executives versus legislators. (How could it be when he won the nomination himself as a senator?) The point is that he disdains his “wacko bird” colleagues in the Senate who are likely to run — Paul first and foremost and, of course, Cruz. Interestingly, that would also rule out Rubio, who’s as hawkish as the new generation of Republicans gets and who famously sided with McCain in championing amnesty last year. You would think he’d be a natural target for Maverick’s support. Is McCain sore at him for inching away from immigration reform over the last few months or is this more a product of Rubio having stolen his thunder as the great Republican hope on immigration earlier?

Note how he frames the 2016 contest too, as a battle of isolationists and internationalists. Paul’s the only one in the field who even arguably qualifies as an isolationist, and Jindal’s foreign-policy views are sufficiently low key that I couldn’t give you even a one-sentence summary of where he stands. He is, I assume, reliably hawkish, but he’s a guy who made his bones on domestic policy. Weird that McCain would go out of his way to name him as an attractive candidate when he’s imagining the election as some sort of referendum on hawks versus doves.

Tags: 2016, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, GOP, governors, John McCain, louis ck, republican

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

TheDOJdropsitssuitagainstLouisiana’sschool-voucher

The DOJ drops its suit against Louisiana’s school-voucher program, kind of. Not really.

posted at 3:21 pm on November 19, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice sued the state of Louisiana and thus began an egregiously counterproductive crusade against the state’s school-voucher program, which was itself designed to provide alternate opportunities to low- and middle-income families whose children would otherwise be stuck in failing public schools. The Obama administration claimed that the program was somehow walking back the progress of a federal desegregation order of yore (1975, to be exact) — which seemed strange, because the overwhelming majority of the program’s beneficiaries have in fact been minorities. Even the Washington Post’s editors came out swinging against the DOJ’s embarrassment of a lawsuit, and pointed out the situation smacks much more of a reinforcement of the Obama administration’s pro-union, anti-school choice leanings than a legitimate effort to put a stop to an ostensibly discriminatory voucher program.

On Friday, however, a ruling in a U.S. district court in Louisiana said that Eric Holder’s department was “abandoning its previous request” to seek a permanent injunction against the scholarship program, which seemed like pretty good news at first — until it became clear that the DOJ is merely switching up their tactics and will instead be seeking to require Louisiana to undergo a lengthy review process that submits information on every voucher application to the feds for approval before it can be awarded to the student. The Weekly Standard reports on the ruling and the DOJ’s renewed approach:

On Friday, Judge Ivan Lemelle of the U.S. district court of the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled the parents could not intervene in the case because the feds are “no longer seeking injunctive relief at this time.” Lemelle explained that in the intervening months since the Justice Department filed suit, it had made clear both in a supplemental filing and in its opposition to the parent group’s motion to intervene that it was not seeking in its suit to end the voucher program or take away vouchers from students.

Lemelle continued: “The Court reads these two statements as the United States abandoning its previous request that the Court ‘permanently enjoin the State from issuing any future voucher awards to students unless and until it obtains authorization from the federal court overseeing the applicable desegregation case.’”

Lemelle will hold an oral hearing on Friday, November 22, during which Justice will make its case for the federal review process of the voucher program.

Louisiana governor and school-choice champion Bobby Jindal applauded the DOJ’s dropped injunction in his statement, but made it clear that he’s perfectly well aware of what the Justice Department is really trying to do here, emphasis mine:

Governor Jindal said, “We are pleased that the Obama Administration has given up its attempt to end the Louisiana Scholarship Program with this absurd lawsuit. It is great the Department of Justice has realized, at least for the time being, it has no authority to end equal opportunity of education for Louisiana children.

“However, we will continue to fight, at every step, the Department of Justice’s new Washington strategy to red tape and regulate the program to death.

“The Department of Justice’s new position is that it wants bureaucrats in Washington to have the authority to decide where Louisiana children get an education.

“The centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s ‘process’ is a requirement that the state may not tell parents, for 45 days, that their child has been awarded a scholarship while the department decides whether to object to the scholarship award. The obvious purpose of this gag order would be to prevent parents from learning that the Department of Justice might try to take their child’s scholarship away if it decides that the child is the wrong race.

So, in a nutshell, the Obama administration is ditching their attempt to put a permanent stop to the program and is instead looking to require Louisiana to submit to a federal review process before handing out its scholarships. How very magnanimous of them.

Tags: Bobby Jindal, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Louisiana, school choice, segregation

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair