BESE Election on October 22 – Be Sure to Vote!

On October 22^nd Louisiana voters will go to the polls to select new members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). BESE is the policy making body for Louisiana education issues including school funding, teacher certification and evaluation, and student assessment for all public K-12 schools across the state. BESE is an eleven member board, where three members are appointed by the governor and eight are elected.  All of the positions – appointed and elected – have four-year terms that begin and end on the same date, in this case January 1, 2012. For more information on BESE visit the board’s website by clicking here.

Press coverage of this important election has focused on the debate over the future of education reform in Louisiana. BESE will play a key role in how Louisiana schools are governed, run, taught, improved, and funded over the next four years.  For instance, one of the new board’s first tasks will be to appoint a new state superintendent of education.

We encourage everyone to vote on the 22^nd!

BESE Districts:

Click here for a map of the BESE districts. BESE recently underwent a redistricting process. The state is required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act to evaluate voting districts every ten years to ensure equitable representation. The state legislature adopted new boundaries for the BESE districts throughout the state during the 2011 regular legislative session. Click here to see how the BESE districts changed in 2011.

Voting Guides:

The League of Women Voters (LWV) Louisiana Chapter and the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) collect information on the candidates including: campaign websites, candidate bios, party affiliation, survey responses, and more.

Click here for the LWV BESE voter guide and here for the CABL voter guide.

Voter Information:

To find out if you are registered, where you should vote, what will be on your ballot, and more visit the Louisiana Secretary of States’ Voter Portal by clicking here.