Complaints filed over mistreatment of teachers

Filipino teachers are victims, LFT alleges

Teachers who could not afford to pay the fees up front were directed to loan companies by Navarro, and were charged exorbitant interest rates.

In addition to collecting the fee from teachers, Navarro was paid $47,500 to recruit twenty five teachers by the State Department of Education to recruit teachers for the Recovery School District in New Orleans.

Many of the teachers say they were required to pay for housing provided by Navarro. Living four to a two-bedroom apartment, they were not allowed to choose their own roommates or to seek alternative living arrangements.

Those who complained were threatened with the loss of their work visas, according to statements provided by the teachers. Some were hit with lawsuits filed in California, where Navarro’s company is housed.

“To be a foreign national living in Louisiana, facing the threat a lawsuit in California, can virtually guarantee acceptance of the reported indignities imposed by Lulu Navarro and UPI,” said Monaghan.

“As soon as the shackles of these illicit contracts are legally voided, we believe that other migrant educators will come forward with additional complaints,” Monaghan said.

The union complaint alleges that Navarro and her company violated Louisiana laws regulating private employment services in the state.

The union is asking for restitution for the teachers, fines and appropriate criminal penalties for principals of UPI, a declaration that all the contracts executed by Universal are void, and attorneys’ fees.

To read the rest of this story, please click here.
To read the full complaint filed by LFT, please click here.

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Ocmand pleads for retirees' health insurance

LFT Legislative Director Alison Ocmand

As the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education began discussions of next year’s budget, LFT Legislative Director Alison Ocmand reminded members that many retired educators cannot afford health insurance. Speaking on behalf of thousands of Orleans Parish teachers and school employees fired after Hurricane Katrina, Ocmand said the state must find a way to pay for their health insurance premiums that more than doubled in July.

The educators are ineligible for Medicare because the school board did not pay into the Social Security System while they were employed.

For the past three years, lawmakers appropriated money to keep retiree insurance premiums at a more reasonable level. This year, though, the legislature and Gov. Jindal balked at helping the educators.

“Many of them have now lost their health insurance because they cannot afford the premiums,” Ocmand said.

State Representative Pat Smith, who persuaded the legislature to pass a resolution urging BESE to come up with a solution to the educators’ dilemma, also spoke to the board on Wednesday. She asked the board to consider including insurance money for retirees in public education’s Minimum Foundation Program.

Most school districts show improvements in state scores

The Department of Education has released state, district and school performance scores for 2009. Statewide school improvement scores are somewhat short of the goal set 10 years ago, but still show marked improvement over past years.

In 1999, the arbitrary goal set by education leaders for this year was 100; this year's composite score came in at 91. In the first year that scores were kept, the state goal reached just 69.4. Last year's score was 86.3, so there has been an upward trend since the beginning.

The top five districts were the Zachary Community School District (116.8), West Feliciana Parish (110.9), St. Tammany Parish (109.6), Ascension Parish (105.9) and Central Community Schools (105.8).

Coming in dead last was the State Recovery School District, with a District Performance Score of 54. At that, the RSD showed a 2.4 point growth over the previous year.

All but three districts showed improvement this year; in 2008, 13 districts did not improve over the year before.

For a complete rundown of district and school performance sores, please click here.

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