[StBernard] Advocate: Results mean change

[Westley Annis]

Baton Rouge Advocate
By Will Sentell
November 21, 2011

"Saturday's runoff election results mean that Louisiana's top school board
will likely back the sweeping changes in school operations sought by Gov.
Bobby Jindal and business leaders, education officials said.

'This is basically what I call a mandate for continued reform,' said Penny
Dastugue, who is president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary
Education and a Jindal appointee.

Dastugue referred to Saturday's three runoff races, with all three winners
backed officially or unofficially by Jindal as well as the self-styled
reformers who contend that public schools need wholesale changes to get
student achievement off the bottom of most lists...

The results also come at a time when Jindal has said public schools will be
one of the top priorities of his second term...

Brigitte Nieland, a vice-president of the Louisiana Association of Business
and Industry, a business lobby, said the BESE results mean that 'for the
first time you will have a majority of members ... who believe in education
reform and progress.

'We cannot stay at 47th in the nation,' Nieland said, a reference to studies
that put student achievement in Louisiana near the bottom of the nation.

Jindal said the results of the three BESE races on Saturday are 'a great win
for our reform efforts' and will add to a 'BESE board that works with us.'

Both sides agree that this year's primary and runoff results mean a Jindal
and BESE alliance are clear..."

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