Interestingly, the same day the interim state superintendent of schools said state schools needed change was the last day of qualifying for the fall Board of Elementary and Secondary Education elections.
All eight spots are up for the board, which hired the blunt-talking and on-target Paul Pastorek. He essentially said that major initiatives would have to take place to prevent the lack of progress of improvement in education from taking root.
Fortunately, in four districts candidates stepped up that would challenge the teacher-union-centric orthodoxy that has held Louisiana schools back for so long. These candidates, Republicans in Districts 4, 5, 7, and 8, appear ready to offer innovative ideas such as increased school choice to pull the state school out of their quagmire of underachievement.
Ideas such as these that stress competition to increase the performance level of school personnel, as well as that of students, and which stress trying to bring students up to a certain standard rather than settle for a mediocre achievement level for all are what is needed to create this positive change. Hopefully, voters will realize the same and put a majority with these ideas on BESE for the next term.
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