BESE Campaign News as of 9/28/15
Big Education Ape: NPE Endorses Jason France, AKA Crazy Crawfish, for BESE – The Network For Public Education http://bit.ly/1TXoLG8
I want to apologize to my regular readers of the blog. I have been remiss with my postings of late and there are a lot of great stories to write about. However one of the biggest potential stories is the campaign I am working on now, my own, and it’s been keeping me very busy.
Some curious and wonderful events have transpired that most of you are not aware. For starters I made my candidacy to BESE official. I am on the October 24th ballot. That’s just 4 weeks away folks.
In addition the incumbent, Chas Roemer, announced at the last minute (during the qualifying period) that he would not be seeking re-election for a third term. This announcement was made a few hours after I registered my candidacy. I’m not sure if the two are related, but I like to think so. I have not been easy on Chas these last few years and I had plenty of material I was saving up to use on him in the primary had he chosen to run.
This last minute announcement of the incumbent not seeking re-election lured three new challengers to the race for district 6. One of these challengers is backed by business and industry and Roemer. All three are relative unknowns, just as myself and my original campaigning counterpart.
This race could be very interesting. District 6 is a very conservative district by the numbers, by the way it was gerrymandered, although not all parishes and people are aligned that way. Public sentiment is very anti-common core, especially among conservatives, and I was one of the very first people in our state to speak out against Common Core publicly, and certainly the first person in my race.
In addition, a new group called “FlipBESE” has formed with parent activists across the state which has honored me with their endorsement. FlipBESE has endorsed a candidate in every race in the state which is a stark contrast to the incumbent or challenger supported by the business and industry lobby “LABI”. This year there is a unified message and slate of challengers to the business and vendor sponsored status quo and most races are head-to-head match-ups and with only one party on the ballot (Republican or Democrat.)
My race is the exception and will be one of the few requiring a run-off. My race has 5 candidates. Four candidates are Republicans and one candidate is a Libertarian. The Libertarian candidate happens to be me.
My platform is to remove the destructive influence of the state and federal government and to restore our local education systems to our local governments. Our state and federal governments don’t have a clue what’s going on in our schools, and they don’t seem to care. Rather than working with children and parents they prefer to work with numbers and
LEE P.BARRIOS FOR BESE 1 Web Site
JASON FRANCE FOR BESE 6 Web Site
MIKE KREAMER FOR BESE 7 Web Site