BESE races draw lots of campaign money
File photo (Kia Callia)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Big money is being spent on some campaigns for this Saturday's races for the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education - unsalaried posts that usually draw far less attention at election time.
Candidates backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal or business interests or both are getting the bulk of the contributions. Some are featured in the kind of slickly produced commercials that usually appear in races for Congress or statewide office. The contest is pitting moneyed interests - who like what they've been seeing as charter schools take hold in New Orleans, teacher union influence diminishes and a decade-old school accountability program is refined - against the long-formidable political muscle of teacher unions, local school administrators and other education groups who say the changes have been unfair and too quickly embraced.
An example of the campaigns' financial disparity: Going into the last campaign finance reporting period, District 1 challenger Lee Barrios reported raising $1,625, including $1,000 of her own money. She had about $750 on hand after expenditures. Another challenger for the post, Sharon Hewitt, was better off with total campaign receipts of more than $26,000 and
The G Bitch Spot
October 19, 2011
VOTE
The League of Women Voters has candidate guides for state senator, state representative, and parish office races for civil, criminal and traffic court. Candidate data for statewide offices, including BESE seats, are here, including PDFs of candidate responses to questions posed by the League. Unfortunately for BESE district 2, Louella Givens gave no response to the questions. That’s really too bad. Kira Orange Jones touts her story of success ["from remedial classes to a degree from Harvard!"] and a “concern” for “children,” but otherwise hides behind these platitudes and buzz words ["student achievement outcomes for students," "capacity to orient others towards a vision for state wide student achievement" and "stakeholders"] so that, similar to Jindal’s gubernatorial campaign, many words and phrases are used but no specifics are revealed. Her individual success does not mean that she can offer success to other students, regardless of her position in the state. What does her life story have to do with what BESE has control over, what direction it and education in the state will take? What—I did it and so can you? Not only logically suspect but intentionally distracting. What is it that she and her allies want done, and she does have allies? Will any of them admit it in public? And why is “reform” a top-down mandate with no concern for “collateral damage” or community voices/concerns or the shortcomings and flaws of the ideology driving “school” [NOT "education"] “reform”?
That said, your vote is your choice. Take the time to investigate and do not fall for the easy buzz phrases and self-serving attacks against others. What is more important to you, that a candidate is less than a perfect person or what that person, or the one slandering that less-than-perfect person, believes in and intends to do or stop once in office? Hidden agendas don’t mean that no agendas exist. And anyone who pretends that school financing and stubborn social problems have nothing to do with student “achievement” is blowing smoke so far up your ass it’s leaking out your eye sockets.