Lafayette’s Holly Boffy, Louisiana’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, crushed longtime Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Dale Bayard of Lake Charles, sweeping the nine parishes in District 7 — and winning every single precinct in Lafayette Parish.
Boffy received 81,544 votes or 66 percent of the votes cast in the district, denying Bayard a fourth consecutive term.
The district includes most of Lafayette Parish and all of Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jeff Davis, Vermilion and Vernon parishes.
Boffy is an education reform candidate backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal. The governor has been actively working to secure BESE’s support for his education reform measures, which he believes requires a reconstitution of the board before it selects a new superintendent of education.
Boffy, director of professional development for the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, also got the backing of Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby’s Alliance for Better Classrooms. ABC favors rewarding schools that grow academically, holding local school boards more accountable for the academic achievement of the students in their districts and believes school districts should be able to dismiss teachers who are persistently ineffective. The alliance favors school choice, supporting tax credits, tax deductions, home schooling, virtual school and “any approach that results in a quality public education for Louisiana student(s).”
Jindal and ABC lost one supporter Saturday as incumbent Glenny Lee Buquet of Houma was defeated by Lottie Polozola Beebe of Breaux Bridge.
Incumbent Jim Garvey of Metairie was re-elected, and incumbent Keith Guice of Monroe was defeated by Jay Guillot of Ruston. Jindal backed Garvey and Guillot, and another education reform supporter, Chas Roemer of Baton Rouge, is in a runoff with Donald Songy of Prairieville.
In all, those supportive of the governor's agenda won three seats in the primary and lead in two races going to runoffs. If Roemer and Kira Orange Jones of New Orleans win their respective races, the governor will have eight of 11 seats on BESE (he appoints 3).
Read more about how Saturday’s election and the general election will affect the makeup of BESE in The Advocate.
The Lake Charles American Press quoted Bayard saying prior to the election results he “felt like Davy Crockett at the Alamo with Sam Houston at the front door.”
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed