ACTA's Must-Reads
« Can basketball help stop grade inflation? | Main | The public interest in Connecticut »
Pretty lousy in Louisiana
Oil, not higher education, is what has the nation's eyes focused on Louisiana right now. But the news today that the state's commissioner of higher education is resigning merits attention. Why? Just peruse last month's reporting by the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans. It's amazing:
When Sally Clausen made the abrupt decision to retire as commissioner of higher education last August, she kept it quiet from the 16-member governing board that hired her a year earlier for the $425,000 a year position.And when Clausen was rehired to the same job after spending one weekday as an official state retiree -- getting a substantial lump-sum payment in the process -- the move again was made without consultation with members of the board appointed by the governor to coordinate policy for the state's 19 public colleges, universities and professional schools.
Instead, the maneuver was revealed only to a small circle of Clausen's subordinates, according to e-mail messages and other documents obtained by The Times-Picayune through a public records request.
The records also show that while Clausen plans to sharply reduce her salary in the upcoming fiscal year in response to the state's budget woes, her compensation in the current fiscal year has actually increased as a result of the retirement.
Ouch.
When ACTA testified before the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission last December, we urged the commissioners to review administrative spending closely. But even we didn't see this one coming.
How do you say "wake-up call" in French?
Posted by Charles Mitchell on June 08, 2010 at June 8, 2010 03:52 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.goactablog.org/blog/mt-tb.cgi/764