Calling it “perhaps the most-watched race” for a spot on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, The Times-Picayune reports District 7 BESE candidate and former teacher Holly Boffy has so far raised roughly $49,000 in campaign contributions, more than 14 times the $3,450 raised so far by incumbent Dale Bayard of Sulphur.
Boffy, a 33-year-old Abbeville native and 2010 Teacher of the Year, has been actively spreading her platform across Southwest Louisiana since announcing her candidacy, quickly coming out strong against teacher tenure and other critical reform issues being touted by Gov. Bobby Jindal and his administration.
Jindal, who gave Boffy the official nod of approval when he included her in his lengthy list of endorsements for most statewide and legislative races, has also contributed $5,000 to Boffy’s campaign, according to The T-P:
While the Legislature charts the course of education with laws, BESE and the state Department of Education implement the policies with rules and regulations. BESE also approves the person who serves as superintendent of education. That post was vacated in May by Paul Pastorek, an attorney who returned to more lucrative work in the private sector. Pastorek, a former BESE member, was long a supporter of the changes questioned by the Coalition. Jindal wants to replace him with John White, now head of the state agency that oversees most New Orleans Schools. But approval requires a two-thirds BESE vote and, despite his three appointments to the body, Jindal so far doesn’t have the votes for approval.
Jindal’s campaign, with no strong opposition as the Oct. 22 election nears, already has put thousands into the race. A new political action committee formed to influence the eight BESE races — the Alliance for Better Classrooms — reported last week raising more than $210,000, including a $100,000 loan from Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby.
PACS for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry also are expected to get involved in the race.
On the other side is a coalition of teacher unions, local school board members, administrators and other education interests that make up the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education, which casts the move to turn over more schools to charter organizations as “privatization” and questions whether charters and other elements of the state accountability system are reaping real benefits.
Boffy, who was named Teacher of the Year for her work at Paul Breaux Middle School, was recognized Sept. 22 by The Independent’s sister publication, ABiz, as a 2011 Women who Mean Business honoree. Read more about her recognition here.
Read more on the BESE race here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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Our community should be concerned that Mrs. Boffy and her outside funding sources would rather destroy our neighborhood schools than protect them from state takeover.
I will not be supporting a candidate that will give our schools away or allow our local tax dollars to be diverted to fund tax giveaways to New Orleans schools. These are not the values, hopes and dreams that I hold true for our community!
I would hope that the voters of BESE District 7 will see through the Holly Boffy facade.
Don’t allow big money outsiders to speak for you, your children and the future of this state!