The Billionaires Bought BESE in 2015, But They Didn’t Buy Edwards
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) race has been bought again.
Here are the results:
District 1: James Garvey (71%); Lee Barrios (29%)
District 2: Kira Orange-Jones (69%); Kara Washington (31%)
District 3: Sandy Holloway (61%); Lottie Beebe (39%)
District 4: Runoff between Mary Harris (43%) and Tony Davis (37%)
District 5: Gary Jones (62%); Johnny Fatheree (38%)
District 6: Runoff between Kathy Edmonston (47%) and Jason Engen (19%)
District 7: Holly Boffy (53%); Mike Kreamer (47%)
District 8: Jada Lewis (52%); Carolyn Hill (48%).
Based upon the above results, the only decidedly-non-corporate-reform voice who might still be elected to BESE is Mary Harris.
According to Danielle Dreilinger of nola.com, at least $3.5 million has been spent on this 2015 BESE race:
Major education activist groups are again spending big on Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education races. More than $3.5 million has already come in to political action committees that support the Common Core standards and innovations such as charter schools and publicly funded vouchers.It’s an astounding amount of money for a relatively obscure board. And the sum has already exceeded the 2011 BESE race — itself unprecedentedly expensive — even though it doesn’t count contributions made directly to candidates, nor most October spending.
The obscene amount of money pouring in from out-of-state billionaires (which, by the way, counts as “in state” money once it is funneled through a Louisiana PAC) is designed to keep corporate reform alive and well in Louisiana.
But this is not 2011. It looks like Democrat John Bel Edwards will become Louisiana’s next governor. He is in a November 21, 2015, runoff with Republican Senator David Vitter, who only garnered 24 percent of the vote to Edwards’ 40 percent.
Let us consider a possible (probable?) Edwards win in November.
In 2011, Louisiana superintendent John White was Governor Bobby Jindal’s golden boy.
This is 2015, and White holds no favor with Edwards. In fact, Edwards has publicly expressed his intent to get rid of White– and his words about White’s time as The Billionaires Bought BESE in 2015, But They Didn’t Buy Edwards | deutsch29: