Roemer sworn in as BESE president

Chas Roemer was sworn in Wednesday as president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The 11-member panel sets policies for about 712,000 public school students statewide.

Roemer, who lives in Baton Rouge, and two other BESE members were given their oaths of office by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne.

Family members on hand for the ceremony included former Gov. Buddy Roemer, his father; Tena Roemer, his wife; sister Caroline Roemer; and brother Dakota Roemer.

“We will not be satisfied until every child, regardless of their wealth, has access to a quality education,” Chas Roemer said.

He said the key to improvements is the quality of public school teachers.

Roemer, like most members of BESE, is an ally of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

He is generally a supporter of charter schools, which are public schools run by nongovernmental boards; letter grades for public schools; and a wide range of other changes aimed at shaking up the traditional public school establishment.

“It is not a one-size-fits-all system,” Roemer said of quality education methods.

Roemer, who was elected to the job by colleagues in December, succeeds Penny Dastugue, who held the job for two years.

BESE members and state Superintendent of Education John White praised Dastugue’s leadership amid major changes in public schools, including the state’s expanded voucher system, new methods for evaluating public school teachers and more rigorous classrooms.

Jim Garvey, a lawyer in Metairie, was sworn in as vice president of BESE.

Holly Boffy, a former teacher who lives in Youngsville, took the oath as secretary-treasurer for BESE.

Comments

1) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 18/01/2013

It might be easier to say what Chas Roemer does NOT SUPPORT. Here are some things he does NOT SUPPORT: the vast majority of teachers, public schools, and democracy. While you should be able to understand the first two, it might be a little more difficult to understand the "democracy" part. So let me explain. He does not support YOUR locally elected school Board Members in any way, in fact, he does not believe we should have ANY elected representatives over schools. Private schools, charter schools; they don't generally have any elected members. He votes regularly to remove local authority over schools, and to give it to an unelected body of reformers with the misnomer of The Recovery School District. Why mis-nomer? They are failing, utterly. Look at the schools in Baton Rouge, after years of running them, and running off the teachers, principals and most of the students, they are still rated "F" using his own metrics. I can't really think of a single thing he has done that has increased the likelihood of success for students in public schools. ANd his most recent action with the other "leaders" in the reform movement? Take down all the data that could be used to expose their lies. Shame on them all. Why are you so afraid of people seeing the data?

2) Comment by JohnBoy.White - 17/01/2013

Chas, you need to get this new app for your Iphone... I just plug in what I want to say, like I am doing here, and it automatically sends it to your private email account (This is how we keep things away from prying eyes, if you know what I mean <weg>) and so if you have it too, we can make sure how the voting is going to go before we get to the meetings! By the way, thanks for getting Caroline to pay for the consultants for Lycee Francais. There are some people trying to prevent that school from becoming an elite, private school for the whites in uptown, and we can't have that happening. These people know how to vote. They don't really care about French, of course, but that idea of having an expensive Pre-K and then automatically letting them into Kindergarten- Dude, that was brilliant! Cannot think of a better way to keep out the riff-raff. Anyway, congrats on being elected President of BESE. I was reminded recently by Eli and others just how much money was thrown into that race, so don't let them down! How long do you think before we can close down the rest of the schools eligible for the "parent trigger?" Is Caroline working with Leslie down in New Orleans on that? We also need to focus more effort on taking over schools in North Baton Rouge, so I'd appreciate your help on that one. Get your minister and the BAEO folks to get moving on this, especially after we have sent so much money their way. Remind them that the Blacks have not been keen on going to the charter schools we took over, so if they have options other than the charters we won't have enough money to pay off all those who have helped us. Remind them of that. Take care, Chas, payday is coming! Almost forgot, we need to make sure that we don't have any leaks from our data here in the department, so I privatized it and now we just need to make sure that it is kept away from prying eyes. You know what would happen if the truth got out, so be careful. At the end of the day, it wouldn't do any of our bosses good to have the truth slip out.

3) Comment by teacherguy - 17/01/2013

May I add that of the 16% of teachers that do belong to unions appreciate what the unions are doing to help the teaching profession...but the MAIN motivation for union membership of the 16% is legal assistance and liability insurance in the event of a lawsuit.

4) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 17/01/2013

jwarren, I've pointed it out to them numerous times, even citing an anti-teachers union site but ideology blinds them . It's easier to blame "union thugs" instead of looking at the real issues facing students. By the way, only about 16% of teachers are in ANY of the unions.--- http://teacherunionexposed.com/state.cfm?state=LA

5) Comment by jwarren - 17/01/2013

So Roemer just declared war on teachers, too. Thanks, bubba. We know where you stand. And for those idiots who equate teachers with teacher unions, you might be surprised at how many teachers are not teacher union members and how few teachers are actually represented in their districts by unions. Most of you have no clue.

6) Comment by Concerned_Parent - 17/01/2013

Sad day for our children. Still pointing their fingers at the teachers..."He said the key to improvements is the quality of public school teachers." I hope they all quit.

7) Comment by morellok2 - 17/01/2013

No conflict of interest there! Even has his sister who heads the charter school movement at the swearing in. Rather than putting the effort into improving public education we are moving in direction of destroying public education in favor of privatizing it like everything else Jindal touches.

8) Comment by 8point6 - 17/01/2013

This article will not sit very well with my "progressive" educators.