John White Is Officially Out; Deputy Beth Scioneaux Becomes La.’s Acting Superintendent
March 11, 2020, marked John White’s last day as Louisiana superintendent.
On his Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) bio, White began sometime between March 2019 and July 2019 to identify himself as “the longest serving state education chief in the nation.”
He does not mention the political maneuvering and insulation that brought him there and kept him there for eight years and two months.
Well, White’s political favor ran out during the 2019 BESE elections, and with the reelection of Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards to a second term, apparent behind-closed-door negotiations likely involving some of the same political forces that maneuvered to keep White in place for eight years made a deal which led to White’s resignation announcement on January 08, 2020, only days prior to Edwards’ second inauguration, on January 13, 2020.
Given that White tendered his resignation with “‘no plans’ for his immediate future,” his exit was not likely to be of his own doing. In 2017, Education Week found White to be the third highest paid education superintendent in the nation.
Education reform pays.
White’s annual salary was $283,384 in 2012 and has been $275,000 from 2013 to 2018, as per White’s annual financial disclosure reports (which can be found here). If White’s annual salary was also $275,000 in 2019 and $22,917 per month for his final two months, then that means Louisiana, with its average teacher pay falling in the national rankings, has paid its poltically-positioned, Teach for CONTINUE READING: John White Is Officially Out; Deputy Beth Scioneaux Becomes La.’s Acting Superintendent | deutsch29