3 BESE runoffs will loom large in Louisiana school reform debate
Published: Monday, October 24, 2011, 9:38 PM
With no clear winner in the drive to claim eight seats on the state school board -- the supermajority required to select the next state superintendent -- attention has shifted to three runoffs that will play out during the next month.
With the future of state-led efforts to improve schools in the balance, critical second-round elections will follow in the New Orleans area as well as districts that cover portions of Baton Rouge and nearby parishes. Advocates for charging ahead with the reform approach championed by former Superintendent Paul Pastorek are hunting for one more seat on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, which would likely give them eight votes and their choice of Pastorek's replacement.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has already endorsed Recovery School District Superintendent John White for the job and put up some of his own campaign cash in BESE races around the state, will remain deeply involved.
"It is critical we get more reformers elected to BESE," Jindal said Sunday. "We need not accept