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25-Mar-09
Louisiana’s Dropout Problem
The dropout rate in some Louisiana high schools is above 40 percent. Nearly 16 thousand students dropped out of school in 2007. Their unemployment rate may be as high as 30 percent. The price for society: lost tax revenue higher welfare costs and higher risk of incarceration. What can Louisiana do to improve its high school graduation rate? Watch “Louisiana’s Dropout Problem” on Louisiana Public Square. March 25 at 7 pm.
You can also continue the discussion about our state’s high school dropout problem during a live online chat, Thursday, March 26th from 2 – 3 p.m. Donna Nola-Ganey, Assistant Superintendent, Louisiana Department of Education; and Mr. Henry “Richey” Jackson, Director of the internationally recognized Bossier Truancy Center will be answering your questions.Click Here
Click here to take survey.
View current results here.
Panel:
- Henry “Richey” Jackson, Director of the Bossier/Webster Parish Truancy Center
- Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan
- Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary Kristy Nichols
- Louisiana’s State Superintendent of Education, Paul G. Pastorek
Chat Panel:
- Henry “Richey” Jackson, Director of the Bossier/Webster Parish Truancy Center
- Alison Neustrom, Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Family Support
- Donna Nola-Ganey, Assistant Superintendent, Louisiana Department of Education
View a related clip: Community Teams Tackling the Dropout Problem
Windows Media • iPod 7:25, 30.4 MBThis video was produced for Louisiana’s Promise, and extension of America’s Promise Alliance – created by Colin and Alma Powell. This video was shown at the Community Teams Tackling the Dropout Problem Summit that was held on October 28, 2008. The trt is 7:30. The video was designed to clarify the problem of dropouts in Louisiana and intended to stimulate discussion by the nearly 1,000 governmental, community and educational leaders who attended from every parish in the state. It features remarks from Tim Barfield of the Executive Director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Robert Burgess - CEO of EATEL & Education’s Next Horizon Board Member, Judge Bob Downing – 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, and GED students Sean Saunders, Rodnique Holmes, Hayley Deville & Samona Brown.
BACKGROUND“The number one predictor of a child’s future success is whether he or she graduates from high school.” Alma J. Powell, wife of Retired General Colin Powell and co-founder of America’s Promise AllianceNationwide, nearly one in three high school students drops out before graduating. In Louisiana, the statistics are even more disheartening. A 2008 study conducted by the Louisiana Department of Education of the 2006-07 school term found that only 65.9% of students who had entered the 9th grade four years earlier actually graduated. That means slightly more than a third - 34.1% -of the nearly 190,000 students that annually enroll in public high schools in Louisiana end up leaving prematurely.
Henry R. “Richey” Jackson,
Director of the Bossier/Webster Parish Truancy CenterMr. Jackson is the Director of Truancy with the 26th Judicial District Court in Bossier City. In 2000, Richey was instrumental in establishing the Bossier/Webster Parish Truancy Center and has served as the director from its inception. In 2007, the International Association for Truancy & Dropout Prevention recognized the Center with its Outstanding Program of the Year award for its efforts to address truancy as well as the school dropout problem.
A native of Bossier City and graduate of Northwestern State University, Richey taught and coached at Bossier High School for thirty-three years. During this time he was heavily involved with the football team; directed the weight-lifting activities at the Downtown YMCA for ten (10) years; and was the Director of Bossier Parish Community College's Fitness Center for six (6) years.
Richey is an active member of his community; he is a parishioner of Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in south Bossier City where he serves as a Lector.
Richey is married to Teri Smith Jackson; they have four children & seven grandchildren.
Steve Monaghan,
Louisiana Federation of Teachers PresidentNew Orleans native Steve Monaghan was first elected president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers in 2003. In November of 2008, he was elected to his third term in office.
At the beginning of his career, Monaghan taught English, Speech, Creative Writing, and Computer Science in Orleans and Jefferson Parish schools. An active union member in both districts, he served as building representative and area coordinator, and, during the extended Jefferson Federation of Teachers' strike, was a zone coordinator.
Monaghan joined the state staff of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers in 1988, and served as Executive Director of Organizing for the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers from 1992 to 1999.
He joined the staff of the American Federation of Teachers as a National Representative in June 1999, and directed AFT organizing projects in East Baton Rouge Parish, the City of Monroe, Calcasieu Parish and with the United Federation of College Teachers, and directed the AFT's Campaign 2000 in Louisiana.
Monaghan served as the Director of the Louisiana Professional Educators Group from 2000 until 2001, when he was reassigned to work with the Colorado Federation of Public Employees in Denver. From there he went to Wisconsin to assist the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers in addressing the problem of 11 contracts held hostage by the legislature.
Just prior to his return to Louisiana, Monaghan worked with the New Mexico Federation of Teachers in a successful effort to launch statewide collective bargaining campaigns.
Steve and his wife Becky live in Baton Rouge.
Alison Neustrom,
Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Family Support
Alison Neustrom is the Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Family Support. Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary, she served as the Director of Policy and Planning for the Department of Social Services.
Prior to working for the state of Louisiana, she was a Research Analyst at the California Administrative Office of the Courts, Center for Families, Children and the Courts. She also served as post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. Her professional experience includes public policy and administration, evaluation research and analysis.
Kristy Nichols,
Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary
Kristy Nichols was appointed Secretary of the Department of Social Services on December 10, 2008. Before being appointed, she had served as a policy advisor on health and social services initiatives to Governor Bobby Jindal since January 2008. As a policy advisor, Nichols worked on the successful passage of Governor Jindal's health care legislative package during the 2008 legislative session, including legislation on mental health care reform, health care transparency initiatives, increasing health care technology, and increasing access to private health insurance for uninsured Louisiana children.
From July 2002 to November 2007, Nichols served as the director of the Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health at the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) where she oversaw a $36 million grant budget, and administered grant funding from federal, national, and state philanthropic organizations. Nichols also oversaw recruitment and retention services, health systems development, health information services, led a pharmacy access initiative, and oversaw chronic disease programs.
As director of the Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health at DHH, Nichols increased funding for community health initiatives from $3 million to $36 million over four years. She also led community-based Hurricane Katrina recovery planning and coalition building, resulting in more than $21 million in federal funding for restoring access to primary health care services in disaster-recovery areas and $50 million in federal funding for health care workforce development in disaster-recovery areas. Because of her work in this position, she was a recipient of the 2006 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leadership Award, considered the nation's highest honor in community health leadership.
From July 1999 to June 2002, Nichols served as the Rural Community Health Network Development Director of the Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center's Louisiana Rural Health Access Program, where she worked to establish four formal rural health networks that were successful in securing more than $4 million in funding for community health improvement initiatives, including an integrated rural transportation system, local pharmacy access initiatives and a free volunteer clinic.
Nichols has a bachelor's of administration in business from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a master's in communication from the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.
Nichols is married and has one daughter.
Donna Nola-Ganey,
Assistant Superintendent, Louisiana Department of EducationDonna Nola-Ganey is the Assistant Superintendent at the Louisiana Department of Education, Office of School and Community Support. She is responsible for the administration of three divisions: (1) Division of Nutrition Assistance, (2) Division of Dropout Prevention/Adult & Family Services, and (3) Division of Student Learning and Support.
Some of the program areas in these divisions administered by this position are Dropout Prevention, Positive Behavior Support, nutrition, health, after school, migrant education and Title IV Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities. Several of these programs are Center for Disease Control (CDC) funded.
A new section was created in Ms. Ganey’s office entitled, "Coordinated School Health." This section brings together the many programs and initiatives in the department related to children’s health, and coordinates with agencies across the state involved with child and health issues.
Ms. Ganey has served in an administrative capacity in the Department of Education for over 30 years. She has also served as a teacher in the public school system. She has a BS and a M.Ed. from Louisiana State University.
Paul Pastorek,
Louisiana’s State Superintendent of EducationPaul Pastorek was appointed Louisiana's State Superintendent of Education in March 2007 by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). In January 2008, BESE re-appointed Mr. Pastorek to the position.
Mr. Pastorek served on the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1996-2004, including the last three years as President of the Board. On his departure from the Board, Louisiana was noted as having the best rated statewide Accountability program in the United States.
For the last 20 years, Mr. Pastorek has been working to improve public education in Louisiana. He started as a passionate volunteer in a New Orleans inner city junior high school. His experiences led him to study education issues and he began working through the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce to push for improvements. His work came to the attention of Governor Mike Foster who appointed him to BESE. After stepping down from the Board in 2004, Mr. Pastorek formed Next Horizon, a non-profit organization that serves as a statewide think tank to connect Louisiana's leadership – education, government, business and community – as a force supporting school improvement.
Mr. Pastorek is an attorney and was licensed by Louisiana to practice law in 1979. He joined the law firm of Adams and Reese, then a New Orleans based law firm. He has been associated with Adams and Reese for over 27 years, first as a litigator, and later a corporate and transactional attorney.
In February 2002, was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as General Counsel to NASA. He served as both the chief legal official for the agency and as a trusted advisor to then NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. In addition, he served on and led several senior management and leadership committees, including leading the team that developed NASA's 2004 "transformational" reorganization plan. For his service at NASA, he received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal and NASA's Distinguished Service Medal. After two and half years of service, Mr. Pastorek left NASA to return to Adams and Reese.
Mr. Pastorek is a volunteer in his community; he has served on several boards, participated in many business groups and is the recipient of numerous awards and medals from various organizations and groups. He is married to Kathy Pastorek. They have three grown children, Ryan, Jeffrey and Kaitlin.
Some questions and comments may be included in the program.
