So NOW it’s time to think?

When some politicians do the right thing you have to wonder if it may be for the wrong reason.

Case in point: The move by the state legislature to table discussion of merging all of the state’s higher education boards into a single “superboard” that would take over all the state’s colleges and universities. This new board would be known as the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Board of Trustees. It would have 15 members, all appointed by the governor except for one student member. That alone should be cause for alarm.

However, House Bill 588 was pulled from consideration last week by its author, Representative Thomas Carmody, Jr. of Shreveport after the House Education Committee deadlocked on a motion to report the bill favorably.

It seems like a sign of intelligent life in that body that someone would declare a need to study the implications of such a move before moving forward.

“But didn’t we pay for a study already?”

Yes, you paid a lot of money to an out-of-state firm (so much for re-investing) to study the merger. The study you paid for did not support a merger at all. Predictably the governor and legislature began to run at full speed in the opposite direction of both common sense and the expensive study’s recommendations. (Next time Republicans talk about government waste…)

Now, even the governor’s own party members are saying that the merger has problems and needs a careful second thought. Rep. Hollis Downs of Ruston and Rep. John Schroder of Covington, both Republicans, have openly expressed their opposition to moving forward without further “study.”

Is the legislature learning? Or is this further proof that the SUNO/UNO merger was purely racial in its intent? There was no careful thinking when it came to destroying the New Orleans Public School System. No careful study preceded the destruction of the city’s public housing. The move to close Charity Hospital goes against all fiscal logic. In fact there is never a need to “study” a policy that will bring obvious harm or disenfranchise the Black community.

So why is it time to think and study now?

Perhaps now it’s time to study the merger (again) because having one board would eliminate many people who currently occupy higher education boards and their access to perks. Jindal has overtly rewarded his major campaign donors with seats on the state’s boards and commissions. Merging and reducing the boards will eliminate many of the favors he can give out in the future and will actually retract some of the favors he has already done.

Perhaps the entire matter has less to do with improving education than with racism and campaign politics. That would be both typical and unacceptable.

The Black community needs to “study” how we are going to change this system…and then do something about it.

This article originally published in the June 13, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.