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Superintendent Likely New Governor's First Battle

Sue Lincoln

It’s no secret that Governor-elect John Bel Edwards is not John White’s biggest fan.

“Obviously, it is not my desire that he stay as Superintendent, and I will make that known to the Board members,” Edwards told reporters last week.

But Edwards also realizes getting rid of White won’t be easy.

“It isn’t like on January the 11th, we walk into office, we flip that light switch and everything is different,” the governor-elect said.

The selection of Louisiana’s Superintendent of Education is not under the governor’s control. That power resides with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education – a lesson Governor Bobby Jindal learned when he pushed former Superintendent Paul Pastorek out the door in 2011.

A tearful Pastorek held a press conference just days after White had arrived in Louisiana to be installed as the Recovery School District chief

“I want to…I want to say it’s been a great four years,” Pastorek sobbed openly. “But it’s time for me to go.”

Jindal wanted John White for state superintendent then, but BESE members weren’t buying it, voting against giving White the job. That fall, Jindal used about half of his surplus campaign money – more than $3-million – to support BESE candidates that would appoint White. They won, and gave White the job the day after they took office in January 2012.

BESE has eleven members, eight elected and three appointed by the governor. Six of the eight elected members taking office in January are committed to keeping White, and it takes a 2/3 majority of the board to hire or fire the superintendent. So how could Governor-elect Edwards engineer a change?

Here’s how: John White’s contract is only good till the new education board takes office. A new contract would require approval by eight of the eleven total BESE members. Two of the elected members oppose White, and the new governor gets to appoint three members. So it’s unlikely he’ll get a new contract. 

But also unlikely is getting the six members supporting White to go along with someone suggested by Edwards.

Or, as the governor-elect told a teachers’ convention last week, “Our job is just starting.”