KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |LA Superintendent's proposal versus BESE task force

LA Superintendent's proposal versus BESE task force

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The state's top education board refused Wednesday to weigh in on a contentious package of proposals by state Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek to term limit local school boards, take away their pay and limit their authority.

Instead, a committee of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education suggested the Louisiana Legislature should form a task force to study the ideas.

The full board will vote Thursday on the task force idea, but it will only be procedural because all members were at the committee meeting. Nine of the 11 board members voted for the task force.

Even as BESE requests the study, a group of organizations said they intend to pursue the changes to local school board governance in the upcoming legislative session.

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday said he supported the Pastorek proposals, particularly a change that would limit school boards' ability to influence the decisions of school superintendents.

Pastorek said he would sit down with local school board leaders next week to work on the proposals and suggested BESE delay making recommendations on the proposals until after that meeting.

But BESE members proceeded with their task force recommendation instead.

Board members said it wasn't BESE's role to recommend legislation, but rather it should comment when measures are introduced.

Supporters of the school board changes, however, said BESE removed itself from a debate that will happen anyway, when lawmakers meeting in a regular session that begins April 27 consider the bills.

Among Pastorek's proposals are: limiting how long school board members can serve, doing away with their salaries and capping their pay to expense reimbursement, restricting family of school board members working in the same districts and reducing authority of members in hiring and firing decisions.

Pastorek said the changes would modernize education and remove boards from micromanaging school systems.

Local school board leaders describe the ideas as a Pastorek power grab, to take away authority from local officials and dismantle public education.

(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.)