Kopplin v. White

Just another public records lawsuit against the Louisiana State Secretary of Education.

Update: Some freshly tweeted details about the suit.

.@ZackKopplin's lawsuit is over the Dept of Ed's failure to provide public records on school vouchers, teacher evaluation methods... (1/2)
— Mark Moseley (@moseleylensnola) September 10, 2013

... Louisiana Science Education Act, lobbyist influence on policymaking, and policies related to retention & destruction of records. (2/2)
— Mark Moseley (@moseleylensnola) September 10, 2013

Last year, Zack Kopplin appeared on this Rising Tide discussion panel about education reform in Louisiana. It was a highlight of the day.

Rising Tide 7 - The Education Experiment - Petri Dish Reform in New Orleans and Louisiana from Jason Berry on Vimeo.

This year's, RT will once again  look at local schools this time from a government accountability perspective. 

Are charter schools in New Orleans more or less responsive to democratic principles than our old School Boards, and how can we address the access and accountability issues for the present and future of New Orleans?

As 80% of our public schools are now Charter Schools, the business of covering charter schools has moved from weekly Parish-wide school board meetings to a variable number of meetings by a much larger number of Boards, which leaves the coverage up to more flexible news organizations like The Lens and Uptown Messenger. Charter schools and these reporters often tussle over the exceptions to open meetings laws, public records requests and other access issues. Do parents have similar issues? What is the parent’s recourse if they are not happy with how their charter school is run?

Did I mention RT is this Saturday?

Saturday morning TV

Last night, Zack did a good job making the Bill Maher show less of a bore than it normally is. HBO doesn't make the whole show available to the great unwashed non-HBO subscribers. But there are snippets out there. Gambit has one.

May God, or perhaps Darwin, bless the "troublemakers"

I can't imagine a more honorable title that could be bestowed upon a person than "Troublemaker of the Year."

Zack Kopplin, the 19-year-old Rice University student and Louisiana native who's spent the last two years advocating for repeal of the Louisiana Science Education Act, was named the inaugural "Troublemaker of the Year" by a private foundation that seeks to honor people in their teens who stir up, well, trouble.

Congratulations to Zack. You can read more about Zack's exploits by consulting most of the internet since he's been speaking out against creationism in science curricula just about everywhere in recent years. Unfortunately the nutty anti-science climate has necessitated his ubiquity.  But if you don't feel like reading the whole internet right now, Mark Moseley has compiled most of it in one column for you right here.

Believe it or not, though, despite Moseley's Herculean effort of Kopplin-ology, there is still one link we can add to the compendium.  In 2012, Zack appeared at the prestigious Rising Tide Conference in New Orleans where he participated in a panel discussion about education reform in Louisiana. You can watch the video here. It lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.