Bobby Jindal is helping fix education by destroying the bureaucracy. Jindal triumphed this past Thursday in his bid to embark on an historic overhaul of public

Bobby Jindal is helping fix education by destroying the bureaucracy. Jindal triumphed this past Thursday in his bid to embark on an historic overhaul of public education in Louisiana, receiving final House passage of his centerpiece proposals. In a state where student performance lags the nation, the complex bills will make it harder for teachers to gain tenure while establishing a statewide voucher program for private school tuition and multiplying the ways to create charter schools. The bills also lessen local school board authority in hiring and firing decisions, expand online schools and restructure public financing of education. The measure also creates new paths to start up charter schools, which are publicly funded but run with broad autonomy from state and local education officials. Nonprofit corporations with an "educational mission" will be allowed to authorize charter schools, rather than just the state or local school boards. It also will be easier for the state to take over a failing school. Local school board authority will be lessened, strengthening the hand of superintendents and principals in issues of hiring and firing and giving the state education superintendent more review of local school board contracts with their own district leaders. Current teacher tenure practice will end. Those with tenure now — or who are poised to receive it before the fall school year begins — will maintain the job protection as long as they aren't rated ineffective under a new evaluation system tied partly to student performance on standardized tests. Anyone without tenure or who loses it because of an ineffective rating would need to be rated "highly effective" for five of six consecutive years in order to reach the job protection. Statewide salary schedules for teachers will be scrapped. Teachers won't lose any of their current pay, but raises will be tied to decisions by individual principals and school leaders. Seniority won't be a primary factor in layoff decisions. Source: http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/final-passage-for-historic-jindal-education-reform/83852fea976348dd811494da06d738cd http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/final-passage-...