Over $3M in Out-of-State Cash Poured into La. BESE Election; Waltons Pay $1.3M
Seven seats for Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) are among the contests to be decided by Louisiana voters on Saturday, October 12, 2019.
(Usually eight of the eleven seats are on the ballot, but this election one BESE member, Tony Davis of District 4, is unopposed. Davis is an ed-reform favorite. The remaining three BESE seats will be filled by the governor, a contest also on the October 12, 2019, ballot.)
For the 2011 and 2015 BESE elections, the out-of-state billionaire-enabled, corporate-ed-reform cash flowed freely.
Such is the case in 2019, as well.
First of all, here is who the out-of-state, corporate-ed-reformer financiers want as Louisiana’s 2019 BESE board:
- James Garvey (Dist 1)
- Kira Orange-Jones (Dist 2)
- Sandy Holloway (Dist 3)
- Tony Davis (Dist 4– unopposed)
- Ashley Ellis (Dist 5)
- Ronnie Morris (Dist 6)
- Holly Boffy (Dist 7)
- Preston Castille (Dist 8)
According to its 09/10/19 filing, Oregon-based Stand for Children’s Louisiana-financed PAC, Stand for Children Louisiana (SFC LA) IEC, spent $168K in August on six BESE candidates (all of the above except Orange-Jones). However, according to SFC LA IEC’s October 10, 2019, filing, not only has Orange-Jones been added to the list; its Oregon main office has spent an additional $383K in September 2019 on the Louisiana’s BESE candidates it prefers, including $231K on CONTINUE READING: Over $3M in Out-of-State Cash Poured into La. BESE Election; Waltons Pay $1.3M | deutsch29
