In BESE election, 'almost everything is at stake'
by Andrew Vanacore - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

The future of public schools in Louisiana -- and particularly in New Orleans -- will hinge in no small part on elections next month for an 11-member state board that many outside Louisiana's education battles have probably never heard of, at least not until recently. The races this year for seats on BESE, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, are likely to be the most bitterly contested and closely watched in a generation. Once relatively obscure, BESE has drawn close attention as the debate over education reform has shifted into a higher gear and grown ever more polarized on issues such as charter schools, tenure for teachers and the role of local school boards.