‘We will not sell out’: 6 candidates for Baton Rouge school board vow independence

Six candidates in the Nov. 8 elections for East Baton Rouge Parish School Board have banded together to pledge that if elected they will fight to make school operations more transparent, foster quality neighborhood schools, and won’t be swayed by the well-financed outside groups who oppose their candidacies.

“We are funded by the people, not special-interest groups,” said Tebbe Jackson, a teacher who is in a three-person race in District 4. “We will not sell out.”

Jackson spoke at a press conference held Wednesday on the banks of the Mississippi River. She was joined by Vereta Lee, District 2; Jamie Robinson, District 3; Evelyn Ware-Jackson, District 5; Cathy Carmichael, District 7; and Pamela Taylor Johnson, District 9.

After they spoke, they walked across the street to early vote. Early voting continues through Nov. 1. All six are supporters of traditional education approaches and all have expressed varying levels of skepticism about school choice, including charter schools.

Ware-Jackson is the only incumbent among the six. Lee served on the School Board for 12 years and is seeking to regain the seat she lost in 2018. Johnson is a retired juvenile court judge. Robinson ran unsuccessfully for Metro Council in 2020. Jackson and Carmichael are running for office for the first time.

No candidates from Districts 1, 6 and 8 were present.

“We will work together. We will show up,” said Lee. “We will listen to what our parents, students, stakeholders have to say, and we will vote on what we feel is best for our students.”

All nine seats on the School Board are on the Nov. 8 ballot. Districts 3, 4 and 8 are open seats, meaning no incumbents are running in those districts. In District 8, Connie Bernard is on the ballot still, but last month she pulled the plug on her re-election campaign.

More than $1.2 million so far has poured into the Nov. 8 School Board elections, with close to two-thirds of that from big out-of-state donors who support charter schools. Stand For Children Louisiana and the Baton Rouge Alliance For Students, which formed in 2021, are the groups reporting the most outside money. Another group spending money is Democrats For Education Reform, but the group has not filed a report yet for the Nov. 8 elections; in 2018, it spent more than $200,000 in local School Board elections.