BESE Member: "I Don't Know What The Little Boy Governor Is Trying To Do..."
by Barbara Leader - News Star (excerpt)

McDaniel's Supporters: Don't Resign From BESE

Despite a suggestion from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office that Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Tammie McDaniel resign her position, forcing her to follow through may be beyond the governor's control. Area legislators, education officials and other BESE members are expressing support for McDaniel, who said she was asked by Jindal's office on Wednesday to resign her at-large position after questioning budget expenditures.

In a brief news conference following Jindal's signing of the career diploma bill at West Ouachita High School, the governor refused to discuss the nature of the reason for his request. Following the news conference, members of the northeastern Louisiana legislative delegation spent nearly an hour behind closed doors in a "private meeting" with Jindal. A representative for The News-Star was not allowed inside. Legislators refused comment on the nature or topic of the meeting, although BESE members at the event said McDaniel was the topic.

BESE member Linda Johnson, who came from Plaquemines Parish for the bill signing, said she plans to write a letter to Jindal about McDaniel and will ask for a meeting where she and other members of BESE can discuss his request for McDaniel's resignation. "If they want her to go, they need to take her down publicly and let us know why," said Johnson, a former BESE president. "I don't know what the little boy governor is trying to do, but I think it is a mistake." Johnson and BESE members Keith Guice and Walter Lee, who were also at West Ouachita High School, said they have all asked McDaniel not to resign.

Although Jindal has not stated why McDaniel was asked to resign, McDaniel believes it may have been her questioning of the state and Superintendent Paul Pastorek's spending on the Recovery School District in New Orleans. "McDaniel is not the problem," said Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe. "Pastorek is the problem." On Thursday, area superintendents also expressed support for McDaniel, whom Rayville High School principal Georgia Ineichen called the most visible and involved BESE member that she has ever known.