Lobbying Killed Revamp of School Boards
Advocate (excerpt)

Four bills that would revamp local school boards died because of an intense lobbying campaign by the Louisiana School Boards Association, officials on both sides of the debate said.

Some or all of the bills were backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., influential business groups and a wide range of newspaper editorials. But they were no match for the 658-member Louisiana School Boards Association, which amounts to an entrenched, influential, statewide political network that squashed the bills.

Byron Stewart, a lobbyist for the LSBA, said he has not seen such action by the state’s school board members “in a very long time.
“They really took it personally,” Stewart said of opposition to the four-bill package, including a proposed pay cut.