St. Rep/Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson will held a press conference TODAY, May 12, 4 p.m. on steps of State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge to respond to $17,000 worth of radio ads running on urban stations in Orleans Parish by All Children Matter, a group which simultaneously touts her as one of their reform "stars" in Louisiana. Last weekend, Jindal Chief of Staff TimmyTeepel was telling political friends he was having the ads put up.Some ad reps said the placement was originally made by the Administration's advocacy group BelieveinLouisiana.com and then switched to ACM.

The ads were supposedly ordered by Teepel to "punish" the Speaker Pro Tem for vigorously opposing the Administration's voucher bill, which is apparently in trouble on the house floor. The bill may be heard later this week, having passed by one vote out of the House Education committee.

Karen Carter is ironically considered the chief architect of Louisiana's successful charter school movement, which now enrolls more than half of Orleans Parish public students since the 2005 hurricanes. She has also received national awards for her educational reform efforts, as outline on her website http://www.karencarter.us

Ironically, Congressman Bill Jefferson viciously attacked Karen Carter for her stance for public education "choice" when she challenged his re-election in 2006. Now the Jindal Administration is attacking her for a position she has never hid, i.e. that she opposed vouchers for public education. Rep. Austin Badon, who authored the voucher legislation, has called for the ads to be removed.

Fight over vouchers goes on the air

Associated Press - May 12, 2008 8:14 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A radio ad running in New Orleans harshly criticizes state Representative Karen Carter Peterson for her fight against a Jindal administration bill that would let some of the city's school children attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

A transcript provided by All Children Matter, the national organization that takes credit for the ad, states:

"Almost every New Orleans leader is working for our recovery. But one politician is trying to block a plan to give our kids a better opportunity for a quality education. It's Karen Carter Peterson."

The ad gives a phone number, for those who support the bill, to call Peterson.

ACM spokeswoman Polly Broussard, a former state education board member, says, "We are pointing out just the issue that her rhetoric is very dangerous to our cause, and that's offering children more choices."

In Baton Rouge today, Peterson blasted the ad as a personal attack. She says she believes the Jindal administration supports the ad. Jindal's spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, said chief of staff Timmy Teepell and other administration officials were not aware of the ad.

Peterson also took specific aim at Believe in Louisiana, a private group headed by publisher Rolfe McCollister that supports the Jindal agenda.

Representative Austin Badon, the House sponsor of the Jindal bill, also criticized the ads, rejecting both of them.

Jindal has proposed spending $10 million from the state's general fund this year to send up to 1,500 children from low- to moderate-income families to private schools that meet certain requirements. The House and Senate education committees have each approved versions of the proposal. The full House is scheduled to take a vote on Badon's version on Wednesday.

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Link :   http://www.allchildrenmatter.org/fulltext.php?id=2027&twodigitstate=NA