john white may be the silver-tongued boy wonder of the school reform movement, lauded for his political acumen and often mentioned as a future u.s. secretary of education. but last fall, louisiana<u+2019>s whip-smart and occasionally cantankerous education superintendent found himself on a lonely mission: driving his state-issued prius along the bayou state<u+2019>s two-lane highways, stopping at churches, schools and chamber of commerce meeting halls, promoting the embattled common core learning standards to a state whose governor no longer wants them.









as rain pounded down outside scott middle school in lafayette, white, in khakis and a navy blazer<u+2014>a uniform reminiscent of his prep school days<u+2014>looked like he was gaining ground. buoyant and self-assured, he told a gaggle of local reporters that the standards were going forward just fine and praised a math lesson he had just witnessed inside.









<u+201c>i<u+2019>m going to tell everyone i meet with that i just saw 25 sixth-graders knock it out of the park on the common core standards,<u+201d> he boomed.









meanwhile, back in baton rouge, louisiana gov. bobby jindal, who once praised the standards as a way to <u+201c>raise expectations for every child,<u+201d> was denouncing them and taking potshots at white. that<u+2019>s the same white who was appointed by the state board of education in 2012<u+2014>after much jindal lobbying<u+2014>to roll out a roster of education initiatives, among them, yes, the common core.









today, white, once called <u+201c>jindal<u+2019>s boy<u+201d> by political insiders, is the governor<u+2019>s most celebrated public enemy, and a statewide education reform initiative years in the making may end up falling by the wayside, adding chaos and confusion to louisiana<u+2019>s already beleaguered school system.









all this could easily be chalked up as an only-in-louisiana tussle to be expected in a state whose education system is near rock bottom and whose political brawls have a tradition of being both colorful and callous. but this battle is bigger than louisiana. across the country, the common core standards, a set of rigorous k-12 english and math benchmarks designed to improve the state of the nation<u+2019>s schools, have become increasingly divisive. sponsored by the national governors association and state education chiefs, they were voluntarily adopted by 45 states and the district of columbia starting in 2010. but the standards have since become red meat for everyone from tea party activists, who cry government overreach, to lefty soccer moms, who rail against their <u+201c>corporate<u+201d> approach. the pushback is pitting political allies who came together years ago to support the standards against each other. and it is seriously undermining the power and persuasion of the nation<u+2019>s education reformers, who have long seen the standards as the crown jewel of their national efforts to improve american public schools.









whether the 39-year-old white can squash the rebellion in his own state is no small matter. it may well indicate whether other progressive reformers<u+2014>less politically skilled than he<u+2014>have any shot at salvaging the standards in their own states, and whether louisiana and other low-performing states really have the stomach for widespread school reform after all.









the ailing state of louisiana<u+2019>s public school system was once an unfortunate but accepted reality. parents who could afford to send their kids to private and parochial schools did. those who could not suffered through the spotty and unreliable public system, often holding their noses.









that all changed in the 1980s, when the state got badly burned by the now infamous oil bust. oil and gas revenues counted for as much as 41 percent of the state<u+2019>s budget in 1981, and when the industry faltered the state nearly went bankrupt. to reignite the economy, government heavies knew they needed to diversify. but they soon discovered that the state<u+2019>s bottom-of-the barrel education ranking was a billboard sign telling corporate america that louisiana had a dearth of qualified workers. <u+201c>fixing the schools<u+201d><u+2014>and fast<u+2014>became everybody<u+2019>s goal.









in fits and starts, and with some backward movement, louisiana began overhauling its community college system, increased teacher pay, rolled out new k-12 testing regimes and eventually took over failing schools, closing some and turning others into charters.









the blow from katrina in 2005 reinforced the improve-schools urgency as dozens of flailing schools in new orleans were shuttered by the storm and media outlets flocked to the city, shining a discomfiting light on their subpar quality. that helped drive even more legislative support for charter school expansion and a more defined teacher evaluation system, which jindal helped push through in 2010.









a lot of these measures were spurred on by george w. bush<u+2019>s 2002 no child left behind act, which strong-armed states into passing reform bills. but they were also the result of careful bond building between democratic and republican lawmakers as well as disparate lobbying groups<u+2014>from big business to civil rights activists. traditionally on opposite sides of the aisle and sometimes openly hostile toward each other, they were now in alliance, long-time foes suddenly together in their efforts to better educate louisiana<u+2019>s neediest students, many of them african-americans.









lane grigsby, a republican and the founder of a well-known construction firm here, says he stood behind these measures because <u+201c>you<u+2019>ve gotta have educated kids for the workforce.<u+201d> standing with him were social justice leaders like kenneth l. campbell, president of the black alliance for educational options, who calls education reform an <u+201c>equity<u+201d> issue.









but despite the across-the-aisle hand-holding and the sheer boldness of many of these measures, they fell short on many counts. from 1990 to 2010, the state<u+2019>s education ranking didn<u+2019>t budge much. and in 2010, the state<u+2019>s college readiness score was still trailing behind the national average.









the grand hope for the common core, adopted by the state board of education in 2010 and first introduced to schools in 2011, was that it wasn<u+2019>t punitive or piecemeal, like many of the state<u+2019>s earlier efforts. instead, it was an ambitious and unambiguous road map outlining the skills and knowledge every student ought to have at the end of each year. and because it asked every teacher in the state to present material that was more rigorous than what had been taught before, many thought it might have the curative effect these other measures had not.









but it was also just one part<u+2014>albeit a large one<u+2014>of the state<u+2019>s education reform agenda. and in the beginning, it was shrouded in limited controversy, seen as the best way to finally boost louisiana<u+2019>s sour education reputation.









john white arrived on the scene in the spring of 2011 just as the standards were first appearing in schools. recruited from new york to run louisiana<u+2019>s recovery school district, a reform-backed post-katrina effort, white was widely perceived as a shining star of the progressive reform movement, one of many young, ambitious intellectuals who had been dispatched to outposts around the country to battle what they saw as the movement<u+2019>s most pernicious enemy: <u+201c>low expectations.<u+201d>









but from the onset, white, who has degrees from the university of virginia and d.c.<u+2019>s tony prep school st. albans, seemed more politically astute than many of his allies. there was the brash michelle rhee, who had gotten famously booed out of washington; the beleaguered newark superintendent cami anderson, who by the summer of 2011 was struggling mightily to contain critics of her charter school expansion plans; and los angeles<u+2019> john deasy, who was ousted last fall.









yes, white<u+2019>s r<u+00e9>sum<u+00e9> read like a near carbon copy of these like-minded reformers, with stints in teach for america, eli broad<u+2019>s education leadership academy and joel klein<u+2019>s new york city department of education. but white had a roster of other line items to recommend him. while in new york, he had risen fast, helping to roll out some of the district<u+2019>s most innovative tech initiatives. he was often dispatched to the upper east side to appease parents enraged by overcrowding and the south bronx to sooth those distraught over the shuttering of their children<u+2019>s failing schools. he was quick-witted, good-looking, and, when he wanted to be, charming. further, the word on the street was klein, one of the movement<u+2019>s gurus, loved him. 









 this is not to say that white did not have his critics. in 2011, during his time in new orleans running the state<u+2019>s recovery school district, he was sued by three fired principals. at the same time, the state was involved in a protracted lawsuit in what eventually became a class-action lawsuit with 7,500 school employees laid-off after katrina. and he was frequently attacked by parents and educators who said he bulldozed through his education agenda items without consulting the people most impacted by them. it is a claim he fiercely denies.









but even then his enemies recognized his political might. the head of the state teachers union told me last fall that white excelled at <u+201c>behind-the-curtains work<u+201d> to the point of being <u+201c>autocratic,<u+201d> suggesting white<u+2019>s enemies hated him for the same reason his allies liked him so much: he was dogged about getting what he wanted.
louisiana<u+2019>s common core debacle
noauthor