YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER LAROSE, LA thelafourchegazette.com
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Common Core critics allege conflicts, seek ethics changes
SERVING: MATHEWS • GHEENS • LOCKPORT • VALENTINE • LAROSE CUT OFF • GALLIANO • GOLDEN MEADOW • LEEVILLE • GRAND ISLE
Colleges funded, but health care short in reworked budget
Crafters invited …
MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The bitter feud over the Common Core education standards has grown increasingly personal, with critics of the standards raising conflict-of-interest allegations against state education leaders and seeking new ethics restrictions for them. Unable so far to force an end to Louisiana’s use of Common Core, opponents of the multistate standards are targeting Superintendent of Education John White directly, asking lawmakers to enact tougher ethics limits for White and members of the state education board. The suggestion is that White has had improper influence from outside groups pushing Common Core and that’s why he’s such a staunch supporter of the English and math standards adopted by more than 40 states. He denies any improprieties — and the state ethics board cleared him after a complaint was filed. The toughened ethics proposals, backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, were scheduled for their first hearing Tuesday in the House and Governmental Affairs Committee. They are the latest salvo in a fight that has grown increasingly nasty since Jindal — once an ardent supporter of Common See Common Core Page 7-A
CORRECTION
Due to misinformation given for the article, COYC partnering with Saints, Chevron for renovations, that was published in the Sunday, May 10 edition of the Lafourche Gazette, Offshore Logistics was inadvertently named as a partner in the project. It should have read that the Saints are partnering with Chevron and Offshore Liftboats, LLC in the endeavor.
INSIDE
Arrests...........................12-A Calendar of Events.........2-A
Classifieds.............10-A/11-A Letters and Opinions.......2-A
Lottery.............................2-A News In Brief.................14-A Obituaries.....................11-A
Public Notices...............12-A
Puzzle Page....................6-A
Surfin The Net................8-A
VOLUME 49 NUMBER 35
MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
Staff photo by Babs
The Lockport American Legion and Auxiliary will host a “Craft Show/Garage Sale” at the Legion home at 921 Veterans Street (behind Capital One Bank). The event will be held this Saturday, May 16th, rain or shine. Refreshments and concessions will be available. Crafters, reserve your space now for only $25 per booth by calling 532-6786, 532-0445, or 232-1483. Pictured are some of the crafters who were busy selling their wares at last weekend’s Bayou Cajun Fest held in Larose.
Kids In Aviation program offers youth a chance to fly Ulysses Gisclair Contributing Writer
“We already had a program that let kids fly for free but we wanted something that we could reach more children in our schools and bring them out and let them experience aviation,” said Rochel. “We took what was just a tour around the base and turned it into an educational program,” said Boudreaux. The program consists of one part lecture based and one part real world experience. Lectures take place at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport Commission, where the kids learn the physics behind the aviation, along with other crucial aspects of becoming a pilot such as learning to make flight plans. There is a mural of the history of the Houma airport painted all around the top of the meeting room, which helps when it comes to the aviation history lessons. “We also do lectures out here in the field, then we take them around the airplanes and show them how to do a preflight on an airplane, how an airplane works. We take the information that we give them in the classroom and then demonstrate it on an actual real-live airplane,” said Boudreaux. Like all of the public programs the EAA offers the Kids in Aviation is a free of charge, non-profit program. The program is funded through the generosity of the EAA members who give their time and equipment to further the education of our youth. The members have reached out to the Lafourche Parish schools to spread the program here, however, it appears that it will be too difficult for the Lafourche Parish schools to transport their students to the airport. The Kids in Aviation program is designed to promote the See Aviation Page 7-A fascinating world of aviation to area youth. The Experimental Aviation Association or EAA is excited to promote the fascinating world of aviation to our youth. The local chapter of EAA, located at the Houma airport, has been implementing a program called Kids In Aviation, to teach kids the ins and outs of flight. The architects of this program are a couple of EAA members, Director Tim Rochel and Assistant Director/Historian Newton Boudreaux. The pair were looking for ways to get kids more hands on experience in aviation which eventually led them to working together with the Terrebonne Parish school system to develop a lesson plan for 5th and 6th graders to take class trips to the Houma airport. Over the years the program has grown to include the Terrebonne Parish School for Exceptional Children along with high school students.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s public colleges would be spared cuts, but health care services for the poor would remain on the chopping block next year under a more than $24 billion budget proposal advanced Monday to the full House for debate. The House Appropriations Committee plugged the $615 million estimated to be raised by a series of tax changes backed by the House last week into the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. They also reduced spending on state contracts, cut money for vacant jobs and made other modest changes to drum up a few million more to shift to other programs. Although that money was enough to offset planned higher education cuts, it wasn’t enough to close all the gaps in health care programs. About $180 million more in state financing would be needed to fill those holes. “We leave higher ed intact; we keep on working on health care,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin, R-Jonesboro. Dollars sought by House leaders to reverse planned cuts across other government agencies, including for state parks, museums and agricultural services, also weren’t available. The full House is expected to debate the budget May 21, with lawmakers hoping they’ll have found more ways to decrease cuts before then, either with additional tax votes or an improved revenue forecast. “We’re still short,” Fannin said. “We needed about $950 million. We got about 70 percent of that” with the House tax votes. The tax measures already passed face strong resistance from business organizations, and they don’t match Gov. Bobby Jindal’s guidelines for what tax changes he’d support, raising questions about whether the money used by the House to balance next year’s budget will win final legislative passage. See Budget Page 7-A
Culinary king …
Staff photo by Babs
Chef Randy Cheramie, of the John Folse Culinary School at Nicholls State University, shows off his famous gumbo with Civic Center volunteer Mary Ann Guidry in the background at last weekend’s Bayou Cajun Fest held on the Larose Civic Center grounds.