Dive Brief:
- Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White faced scrutiny from Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday regarding small contracts that Jindal's administration alleges have been divided up in order to avoid oversight.
- In July, the Jindal administration made a new requirement that Department of Education contracts over $2,000 receive approval, and state laws establish additional oversight thresholds.
- Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Chas Roemer blasted a letter from the administration to the department, accusing Jindal of harassing state education officials as a result of the state's political battles over Common Core State Standards.
Dive Insight:
The contracts in question, White told the Associated Press, are for educators developing professional development programming, lesson plans, and sample test questions — not necessarily something you'd expect a state's executive office to get too worked up about.
In response to the Jindal administration's letter, Joan Hunt, executive counsel to White, issued a response calling the claims "false," "baseless," and "offensive" given the small amounts the contracted teachers are paid.
Jindal and White have been locked in a back-and-forth struggle over the Common Core State Standards, which Jindal initially supported and is now hell-bent on repealing, for months. In spite of that, the U.S. Department of Education recently praised the state's education efforts when renewing its waiver from the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law.
